So i had to change my spark plugs today and before i changed them my truck was have a little bit of trouble starting and the typical worn sparkplug sound, the odd clicking sound. And now that i chganged the spark plugs the truck is acting horriable. aweful ideling, the clicking sound is much worse and louder and it is making a horriable sound. i took out all the sparkplugs and re gapped them, replaced the boots and all my coil packs are new. also when i first removed the spark plug from cylinder number three it had oil or coolant on it, which either means the head gasket is F***ed or my valve guides or piston rings are worn out; but why is my truck ideling worse and making a messed up smell.

 

Intake gasket or head gasket possible, Any cream in the engine oil ? If I were in your position I would not run the engine much until I did a cooling system leakdown test.

 

What brand of plug did you replace yours with. Please say Motorcraft. Bosch, Champion and Autolites sometimes give misfires in the 4.6-5.4 motors. Motorcraft is by far the best spark plug for this truck. NO E3's for sure. We've tried a couple rigs up here with those, and the guys who had them went right back to the Motorcraft plugs. JMO

 

oh god please help me! she had autolites in her before. idk but do you think the oil on the old sparkplug has something to do with it? it was the only sparkplug that had oil on it and when i removed the new spark plugs to insure i didnt crossthread them and to recheck the gapping the same cylinder had oil on its sparkplug. this sucks

 

You have the V6 or one of the V8's? If it's a 6, sounds like one of a few things. A) bad gaskets on the lower intake manifold are dumping coolant into the cylinders. B) Cracked lower manifold is dumping coolant into the cylinders. C) Bad head gasket or blown/worn rings. I've seen the coolant problem bend rods, blow out the rings and just do massive amounts of damage that require an over haul. Hopefully this is not the case. How many miles on the truck otherwise?

 

how do i check the if the gaskets are bad and how do i do a leakdown test? the oil isnt creamy i checked i thought maybe the valve guide is bad. what do i do?

 

ok its a V6 4.0l in a 2000 Ford Explorer. My F-150 4.6l supercrew, it's my wife's aunts truck and if i dont get this thing fixed im screwed. there is 96,000 miles on the truck and she takes very good care of it but i have no idea what is the problem is. it was acting kinda like this but i replaced and put better parts in and the truck takes a dive. WTF?

 

You still haven't said which engine you have in this truck. It really makes a difference when you are asking for info. The 4.2's have different characteristics than the 4.6/5.4's. The year would help a ton too, as 97-8 and early 99 are different than late 99 to 04 H.

I'm guessing 4.6 because of your description of the plugs and boots and it's a 99 or later. What kind of plugs did you put back in it? Autolitte like what came out? If it running as bad as you say, Codes will be setting and can be read to find what your problem is. Have you run the codes? Right now anything we say to you is a guess. Still I think it's in the ignition firing. Most likely plugs.
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Def not the 4.2. Tell me about them behaving differently. My lower intake manifold on mine cracked at 94K miles. Good truck, but the engine in mine has just been plagued by the most expensive repairable problems.

 

ok its a V6 4.0l in a 2000 Ford Explorer. My F-150 4.6l supercrew, it's my wife's aunts truck and if i dont get this thing fixed im screwed. there is 96,000 miles on the truck and she takes very good care of it but i have no idea what is the problem is. i put autolites back in the truck and i just took the sparkplugs out again and checked all of them by keeping the cables hooked up and starting the truck to see if the spark. i dont think it's tyhe new equipment because it was acting like this before i changed the plug the only differance was the truck now acts worse with the new cables and plugs. what do i do what do i check? the engine isnt throwing any codes. no engine light no nothing just idling like S***. i took the choke off and cleaned it last week i know it's working properly and i'm too afraid to run the truck for too long to get up to temp to eliminate a few things.