bhunt3450

I have a 2007 F250 with a 5.4L in it and it came time to change the plugs in it due to a miss under load on cylinder 6. I thought I would give it a whirl myself since the truck has 242k miles. I assumed that the plugs had been changed at least once. I hoped it had been recently. Well...I was wrong. I got # 5, 6, and 1 out and got them changed. #7, 8, and 2 all broke the nut and threads away from the rest of the plug. I was done at that point. I called around to a few shops and finally decided to take it to the local Ford dealership. I dropped it off last Monday afternoon and hadn't heard a word by Thursday morning, so I went out there to check on it and they hadn't even put it in the shop yet. My appearance got them moving and my truck went in yesterday afternoon. As of this afternoon, they had gotten 3 of the 5 changed and were fighting #3. Apparently, all the porcelain, nut, and threads came apart but the center electrode(cap and all) are still stuck in the head. #4 hasn't been touched yet. I know it's a horrible job to do especially on the Super Duty with half the engine being tucked under the cowl, but it aggravates me that the tech is working on my truck in between other jobs. Hopefully, they'll get it done Monday. In the meantime, I wait.

techrep

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bhunt3450

They weren't the originals, they just hadn't been changed recently, guess I could've elaborated on that better. It had autolite plugs in it.

bhunt3450

Also, I think I should add that I just bought this truck 2 months ago and have been going through the maintenance items most people tend to overlook. I.e. Axle grease, transfer case fluid, transmission fluid and filter change...

techrep

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Eric Kleven

P.E.A. fuel injector cleaner is your friend before you start this. Worst case scenario, it'll show you which fuel injectors are still good. 3-piece Lisle kit is a godsend.

Hope you get it back soon.

bhunt3450

Update: I did get my truck back this morning. The mechanic was nice enough to come in Saturday on his day off and finish it up. He had 2 to go when I left Friday, 1 broke everything but the center electrode and the cap on the electrode and the hat still stuck in the well. He was having trouble getting something down in there to grab ahold of it to get it out. The last one came out without breaking. The Service Advisor had called in sick today and the guy who fixed my truck was out of town, so I didn't get a chance to personally thank him yet. Nobody knew where my service ticket was so I couldn't get a final bill on it. They're supposed to call me when they find it so I can go pay them for it. I guess I learned 2 lessons from this:
1.) I'm glad I didn't attempt it myself. It would have been too much stress on me since I have a full time job working 55-60 hours a week.
2.) Sometimes you just have to call around to get quotes, they just might surprise you as to how affordable letting someone else do it can be. They quoted me $350 to do the whole job, so in the end, I feel the price was worth my sanity. I'll let you know the final bill when I hear word.

bhunt3450

I had prepared as best as I could for this job because I had originally intended to do it myself. I ran 2 cans of seafoam through the truck in the preceeding weeks, had all my new parts laid out with a can of PB Blaster, but in the end, I had to make the decision to pay $100 for the tool or send it elsewhere to someone who had done it before. In the end, I decided to take it to Ford. I think it was worth it.

Eric Kleven

SeaFoam isn't as great as a lot of people want to think it is. Two cans of Techron and a full tank of gas through the engine before you start can really soften up that carbon junk that's holding the plugs to the head, SeaFoam won't touch it.

I had the same issue, only #1 and #7 came out easily, broke all the rest of the plugs. As crummy as it ran afterwards, until I replaced the injectors, I'm pretty sure those two cylinders had the best fuel flow on each bank. Remember, the O2 sensors only adjust the average on each side, not each cylinder. So, those two were the strongest, got the most Techron, and the plugs spun right out and the goopy black crap just wiped off of them.

I mean, I still had to express-order the Lisel 3-piece tool off the internet and my truck was down from Thursday night until Monday evening, but...

bhunt3450

Yeah, the local Napa store actually had the tool on the shelf and I thought hard about it all day, but after changing 3 of the plugs, my hands looked like I got into a fight with a food processor(left pinky is still healing), I decided I didn't want to play anymore. I did get a call from Ford today. Final bill was $450. I guess #3 gave him quite a fight. I think I'll be changing the plugs again at 50k-60k miles. I think $70 every 50k is better than $520 every 100k.