You're fine man. 3V was 04-08 5.4. You should have no problem changing your plugs.

 

thanks dude

 

This plug thing is clearly a manufacturing defect. Spark plugs have been a service item in automobiles and trucks for over a hundred years. It is unconscionable that Ford would leave us hanging like this. The soaking thing is simply a cover their *** move. Think about it people. When your plugs are seated, there is no way that penetrating oil can reach the threads. If fluid could pass the seal, then couldn't a compressed fuel air mixture ??? Hopefully a Ford technician will step up to the plate and let us know what the real root cause of this issue is. The Ford TSB clearly comes from the Ford legal department from people that don't get it. They say to break the plug loose 1/8 to 1/4 turn prior to using the oil. If you could do that, you would be home free. I suspect that the plugs would break as soon as you applied too much torque. This is simply pure unmitigated bull****, nothing less.

 

The problem is well documented and your are correct Ford managed to fast talk their way out of a huge recall. There is actually two problems. The one you are talking about has to to with the two piece plugs used in the Triton engines. What happens is the smooth lower shaft gets filled with combustion deposits and gets stuck, the threaded portion is separate part of the plug it will break free plug leaving the center section in the cylinder head. The other problem is the plug actually blowing it's self out of the head. which does all kind of damage. See the two photo's below. Ford did fix the problem later on and redesigned to plug into a one piece design.

 

My local Ford dealer does an "injector cleaning" before changing the plugs. The offer the service at cost but, by cleaning the combustion chambers immediately before changing the plugs all but eliminates the issue. Since they started doing that, they almost never break any plugs. Quite logical really. You can do this at home too. By some Seafoam, pour it into the brake booster vacuum line while it's running, shut it off for 20 minutes, start it up, watch the "smoke show" coming out of your tail pipe, clean as a whistle. Plugs would probably come right out.

 

I ran sea-foam through my motor and I still broke 2 plugs with 50k on my truck. I am a mechanic took my time, followed the TSB to the T. This is a design flaw. How many other vehicles do you have to do all this to just to change the plugs?? None... It won't ever get re-called because its not a safety issue like a stuck gas pedal on a Toyota. A backyard Mechanic can not sue Ford because their spark plugs broke when they removed them, there is no financial liability so they will never fix it for you... The only reason there is a TSB is to help the dealer ships save time and money when they do the job... Not to help the consumer fix it there self. Just by the Lisle tool and cross your fingers, and put in a better plug when you do them.

 

Im sorry about your trouble Skates. I too am a hoome mechanic of long standing, and a USAF trained mechanic. From all that I have seen I think that seafoam alone will not do the trick, as the deposits are not petroleum based. The problem, IMHO is not carbon deposits , it is rust. Probably from electrolysis between the plug shield and the head.

With this in mind, getting some sort of solution that attacks rust from within the cylinders would seem to me to be the answer, as stated by others on this subject. You may not believe this, but one of the best things known to attack rust is tannic acid. Tannic acid is found in tea. Beleive it or not, I am going to brew up a batch of strong tea, put it in a squirt bottle, and mist it into my throttle body for about a week, then I am going to add Marvel Mystery oil to my gas tank, to lube the sleeves from within. Water injection has been used on piston engines since WWII, and I would think that tea would not mess up my MAF sensor too much. Hell, Ill just clean it with electronic cleaner when Im done, or replace it.

Hell, if I knew this truck was British, I would have never bought the damn thing. Everybody knows that the last good mecahnical thing built by the British was the Rolls Royce Merlin engine

All kidding aside, I still cannot beleive that Ford is throwing away their Integrity on this thing. Writing a Technical Service Bulletin does not, in my opinion get them off the hook for a pathetic design. The really sad part, in my opinion is that if they had just put anti seize compound on the sleeves, the rust would not have occured.

In a former life,while I was working in a petro-chemical plant we put copper based anti seize compound on anything that was threaded, and it worked great. We would actually heat the threads up, then apply the compound. It would actually bake on. That is what I am going to do with my new plugs. Bake it on, then put more on just before putting them in.

From what you are saying I better buy that Lisle extraction tool before I even start this project. If a competent mechanic can break them at 60K I guess I can at 66K too.

 

Long post, I'm gonna crop. I do some hot tests (1100°F) once in awhile at work, we use Nickel Never Seez on the bolts. Its kinda like the copper stuff but has a much higher maximum temperature (2600°F or so). The test only lasts a couple days, but I can always get my bolts apart. Only bad part is the stink about 400° as it burns out the oil and how damn messy that stuff is. You even look at a can the wrong way and before you know it there's gray smudges everywhere. In fact, I think the TSB says something about using a never seize on the threads putting the new ones in.

 

Negative, the anti-seize is to be applied to the lower "shaft" to prevent carbon build up, it's not meant as anti-seize for the threads.

 

They don't want you to use anti-seize because it is supposed to change the heat range of the plug. Given a choice between a separated plug and a chance it might change it's heat range to me is a no brainer. I just thank the lord I don't have one of these engines in my truck. The rust idea has merit because of the dissimilar metals. There was a related problem with old air cooled VW boxer engines. If you used a plug that did not have nickle plated threads the aluminum would react with the steel in the sparkplugs threads and when you tried to unscrew the thing it would strip out the threads. As long as you used Bosch, or NGK plugs at that time you where fine.