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After 18 hours of shop time and about 50-60 beers, lots of swearing, crying, and knocking my head against the wall, I managed to successfully change the plugs in my 2006 FX4 SCAB. The plugs (which I believe were original) had almost 87,000 miles on them. I got all four out on the passenger side, broke three on the drivers side. The last plug tip all the way back on number 8 took me almost 6 HOURS TO REMOVE! The plug tip was spinning in the head, and the puller tool couldn't grab, so we had to pound it down into the head to get it to seat, then we finally got the puller to grab and BOOM! Last plug out, truck was running in 20 minutes. RUNS AMAZING NOW!!! It was definitely a struggle but I'm glad I did it myself. All new plugs and COP's for less than what a dealer would charge to change PLUGS ONLY!!! Just thought I would share the story, couldn't have done it without researching through this forum. Hopefully the next time around they will come out a little easier!
(Note: The one in the middle with the broken top came off in one piece, we just put it in the vice and smacked it with a hammer to see how it would break. So I did go 5/8 with three broken plugs)
After 18 hours of shop time and about 50-60 beers, lots of swearing, crying, and knocking my head against the wall, I managed to successfully change the plugs in my 2006 FX4 SCAB. The plugs (which I believe were original) had almost 87,000 miles on them. I got all four out on the passenger side, broke three on the drivers side. The last plug tip all the way back on number 8 took me almost 6 HOURS TO REMOVE! The plug tip was spinning in the head, and the puller tool couldn't grab, so we had to pound it down into the head to get it to seat, then we finally got the puller to grab and BOOM! Last plug out, truck was running in 20 minutes. RUNS AMAZING NOW!!! It was definitely a struggle but I'm glad I did it myself. All new plugs and COP's for less than what a dealer would charge to change PLUGS ONLY!!! Just thought I would share the story, couldn't have done it without researching through this forum. Hopefully the next time around they will come out a little easier!
(Note: The one in the middle with the broken top came off in one piece, we just put it in the vice and smacked it with a hammer to see how it would break. So I did go 5/8 with three broken plugs)
Congrats & Goood Job!
They do look like originals to me, judging by the design of the plug tips (EDIT: and the '1F' on the one plug I can see, lol)
BTW - if you used any sort of solvent/penetrant in the plug wells it would be prudent to perform an oil change asap.
Time fer a well-earned celebration!
Last edited by MGD; 03-30-2015 at 08:28 AM.
Reason: adde plug ID info...
Yes sir it is time to celebrate. Oil change coming tonight! Also cleaned my MAF and Throttle body while I was soaking the plugs....made a HUGE difference.
I'm surprised you got all of them out on the pass side w/o breaking the one against the firewall. I've heard lots of horror stories about that particular plug. Congrats!
I'm surprised you got all of them out on the pass side w/o breaking the one against the firewall. I've heard lots of horror stories about that particular plug. Congrats!
The farthest one back on the driver's side was worse, so many lines in the way we had to use a 1.4" socket wrench because it was the only thing that would fit back there
Just wondering if motorcraft made a design change to their sp-515 design to make them more robust against breaking on removal. I replaced mine about 35,000 miles ago and am wondering if I have to worry about breaking them the second time. Seems like I remember hearing they improved the design. Can anyone confirm that?
Hey, there is nothing wrong with buying a "dirty-30".
Originally Posted by Rick's 06
Just wondering if motorcraft made a design change to their sp-515 design to make them more robust against breaking on removal. I replaced mine about 35,000 miles ago and am wondering if I have to worry about breaking them the second time. Seems like I remember hearing they improved the design. Can anyone confirm that?
I do not want to dig up the sources, but supposedly this is the reason they redesigned the plug.
03-30-2015, 08:01 AM
18 Hours on my first plug change!!!
