2002 F-150 6.4 150k. Tired of these blown out plugs. Is there a engine swap that would stop this. Ford has done the work but it doesn't seem to be working-all on the passenger side rear.

 

What are the plugs being torqued to? I believe 28 ft/lbs was Ford’s revised figure. You can go a few ft/lbs beyond that for good measure.

The 8-thread plug holes theoretically started late ‘03. In reality, some searching I did a while back showed that really wasn’t the case. An occasional engine even had three and eight thread heads on it. So, that’s why I bring up the revised figure above. I reckon you can find a 4.6 from an ‘09-10 F150 and swap all the accessories and intake over and be good to go.

Oddly enough, our company ‘04 Heritage 4.6 blew a plug some months after we sold it to a department manager’s hubby. He told me about that and how he got a thread kit for it. That truck doesn’t have 100K on it, either.

 

head swap would be less involved than a complete engine swap

 

Torque plugs 28 ftlb.and check them occassionally. Even using the low original 11 ftlb torque value, the plugs didnt blow unless disregarded for a long time, and ignoring telltale sound of leak.

Owner neglect .

Never had one blow.....plugs always torqued to 25-27

 

I wouldn’t do that work on an engine with that mileage. For that trouble, just get a fresher engine.

 

Its easier to swap engine

 

All work has been done by Ford

 

What I have been told by Ford and the yard with an engine. Ford wants $8000 minimum to replace both heads wit the new designed ones {said it would be a mistake to replace just the one, as compression would be different??).
Junk yard has engine for around $1000; advised to use my own intake. Also stated that still have a 20+yera old engine.
Two repair shops that I was told to try quit doing as they didn't last.
Here is my question if I decide to try myself with the insert. This cylinder has already been done (Ford did it 5 years ago). How many times can these inserts be done in one cylinder???

 

Well there's two different brands of good inserts...i think.. or there was at one time, Cal-van and time sert. I do believe at least one of them has three sizes, so yeah you can screw up and do it again.

Yep, remanufactured heads would have been flattened with a slight milling that could have taken off a couple of thousands which would change the compression very slightly. So you really would not want to change only one of them. Then we can bring up the stories that old wives and sometimes old mechanics tell about blowing out the rings due to higher compression if you just install new rebuilt heads.

It's not really a big deal just get it repaired with the oversized insert and start tightening them right I think there's even shops that specialize in these kind of repairs having done a lot of them if you Google it.... Might even be worth taking a drive to get to somebody you trust to do it right. Shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars for a fairly long tow. And a couple hundred dollars to repair. You do not need another engine