Well im new to the forum but I have been lurking for sometime now. Anyway at almost 150k miles I blew a spark plug out of the head. I was on vacation and had it towed back home. Went and bought the helicoil kit and got about 2 miles out of it and boom. Now my truck is setting at the garage getting a new motor. oh well the truck is almost new again.

 

yep, gotta make sure those suckers are torque'd good

Are you rebuilding it or dropping in a new motor?

 

new motor.

 

Given some of the options out there, it is just not worth rebuilding my 4.2 when I can drop in a mechanically controlled Cummins B3.9 for the same price and then coax another 50 horse out of it for $200 just with a slightly bigger turbo compressor housing and a 3200 rpm gov spring and just moving the fuel plate forward slightly.

 

I'm glad that my truck hasn't blown a spark plug yet at least and it has a157,000 miles on it

 

I read where that problem is always caused by improper plug installation or torque at some point since the plug only has 4 threads ( I think the other engines had 8 threads) and is easily damaged. That's Ford's excuse anyway. I tend to believe it is improper installation encouraged by poor design. Seriously, who puts only 4 threads on a spark plug? Good choice with the new engine. I know people who fixed a plug and had a different one blow, and then another one. It gets costly to fix each plug as it blows. Roughly how much is the replacement going to set you back?

 

I bet you change your own plugs. Take it to some goofball and he can change that for you by cross-threading the plugs and not using the proper install procedure and torque. I have always changed my plugs in all my vehicles because cross-threading is murder on the plug threads, especially in an alloy head.

 

ya I changed them myself and found out that they were the origanal ford plugs

 

I got the motor from Jasper for $2,950 plus $200 or so for the installation kit. My mechanic is doing the install for $600 plus fluids. So roughly about $4,000. But the good part is the truck is almost paid for and I have a new tranny in it with about 4000 miles. I just replaced about everything in the front end. I will have a new truck again lol.

 

Where are you planning on getting a 4bt for the same price as a rebuild kit for a 4.2. Not to mention, you might need a different tranny (unless you get lucky and your bolts up to it, which if they do I might look into myself) plus a lot of other little things that will need to be changed to accommodate the 4bt. After everything adds up, id be willing to bet that it would be cheaper just to rebuild your 4.2. That being said, I think that a 4bt would be sick in one of our trucks, although if I were to do it, I think id have to try and squeeze and 12v cummins in there. I think that would be very cool