Dreaded 5.4 spark plug change tips
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2021
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Fla
Dreaded 5.4 spark plug change tips
After every mechanic in my area either ghosted me flat out refused or quoted the price of a head job for the spark plug change I decided to tackle it myself
I used the otc socket and had to buy the lisle extractor tool because one out of the 8 plugs broke fortunately for me it was a easy one to get to some things of note removing the computer and bracket behind it was key for me and my giant hands to get that back plug a swivel adapter was also very useful
every plug came out hard just go slow and use even pressure try not to put too much brut force behind and finesse them out I hit each plug with some penetrating oil but honestly it didn’t seem to make a difference from the ones I used none on I also used a cheater bar on the back ones
once again be gentle a 3 ft cheater bar made it pretty easy I also used a breaker bar to get them started then switched to a stubby with cheater bar for the back 2 and no cheater bar on the any of the others I also found a magnetic telescope rod to grab those coil bolts out and place them back in
in the event of breaking a plug I found the lisle extraction tool very user friendly and there is a great video on YouTube that shows the process
just be sure to run the porcelain pusher all the way down until it bottoms out then when screwing in the extraction rod count to make sure you get at least 3 threads deep into it it will get hard but it will extract on the first try I used 2 nylon spacers this is the type of project that can highly frustrating and honestly a little stressful when a plug breaks but totally doable even with giant ham fists give yourself plenty of time take a weekend on it if you can if you start getting stressed walk away for a while don’t forget to double check any injector plugs you take off and those coil plugs and pushed all the way In Place until you hear the click don’t forget to use a little dielectric grease on the tips and where the boots connect to the coil i opted to swap all my coils out with accel super coils
half of mine were aftermarket 3 new 5 original and had a skip that moved with the coils 215$ for the accel kit beat 74$ x8 or even the 5 I needed it made sense hopefully this will be helpful to anybody looking to tackle this job
I used the otc socket and had to buy the lisle extractor tool because one out of the 8 plugs broke fortunately for me it was a easy one to get to some things of note removing the computer and bracket behind it was key for me and my giant hands to get that back plug a swivel adapter was also very useful
every plug came out hard just go slow and use even pressure try not to put too much brut force behind and finesse them out I hit each plug with some penetrating oil but honestly it didn’t seem to make a difference from the ones I used none on I also used a cheater bar on the back ones
once again be gentle a 3 ft cheater bar made it pretty easy I also used a breaker bar to get them started then switched to a stubby with cheater bar for the back 2 and no cheater bar on the any of the others I also found a magnetic telescope rod to grab those coil bolts out and place them back in
in the event of breaking a plug I found the lisle extraction tool very user friendly and there is a great video on YouTube that shows the process
just be sure to run the porcelain pusher all the way down until it bottoms out then when screwing in the extraction rod count to make sure you get at least 3 threads deep into it it will get hard but it will extract on the first try I used 2 nylon spacers this is the type of project that can highly frustrating and honestly a little stressful when a plug breaks but totally doable even with giant ham fists give yourself plenty of time take a weekend on it if you can if you start getting stressed walk away for a while don’t forget to double check any injector plugs you take off and those coil plugs and pushed all the way In Place until you hear the click don’t forget to use a little dielectric grease on the tips and where the boots connect to the coil i opted to swap all my coils out with accel super coils
half of mine were aftermarket 3 new 5 original and had a skip that moved with the coils 215$ for the accel kit beat 74$ x8 or even the 5 I needed it made sense hopefully this will be helpful to anybody looking to tackle this job
