Agreed: That’s essentially what I said.
Aye, I have such a length of hose in my tool box.
Thread by hand first. Inn most cases, I do. And absolutely on any brass fittings…
I’ve two torque wrenches. 1/2:DRIVE. No little ones. A beam and a clicker. The only limit to the beam is the line of sight. Must be straight to the scale.
And, my clicker is always unloaded when not in use.
Surprise, what is inside the clicker? A beam!!!
Carl
1 Like
It seems we have 100 percent agreement , stripping spark plugs threads is not a good thing.
My Ford 5.4 blew em out constantly. Knocked out the coil pack also when it the hood
I do this. Always…
The (3-valve?) 5.4L had this problem in particular, while the DOHC 4.6 (Mark VIII and Cobra) did not.
It was a 5.4 it blew plugs out so often that it became just another one. First one cost $900 to fix. Eventually got the repair cost down to $200
The dealer wanted $5000. To pull the cab off and replace the head. Poor engineering bad idea
Boy howdy, I guess so!!!
are these the Ford engines that have a reputation for blowing out there spark plugs out of the head?
That dealer wanted n o part of the job, hence the five grand…
I read that the prescribed fix includes R & R the cab.
Why? Plugs with too few threads. There is a fix, but I forgot what it was…
Definitely not one of of Ford’s better ideas !!!
Carl
I know nothing of the Fords in question, but it would seem there’d only be a few possible causes of such failures:
-
Some nimnul – perhaps a machine – on the assembly line was overtorquing the plugs so they were damaged to begin with.
-
Ford used the wrong alloy for that head.
-
The plug threads are shorter than the plug threads on virtually every other car.
-
The compression in that engine is significantly higher than on virtually every other car.
Anybody know what the story really is there?
Hah! Well, besides blowing out, there’s evidently a problem with the spark plugs coming apart and leaving a chunk in the engine. No surprise, as it’s a stupidly designed spark plug:
Here’s the tool for getting the broken pieces out:
And here’s the insert for fixing the damaged threads:
IMHO, really dumb design. The long end of that spark plug is liable to get all caked up with carbon, and then when you try to unscrew it it’ll get jammed and booger up the threads. It would have been a far better idea to put the threads nearer the tip.
…that’s just insane, and…
…SOP, for dealers and manufacturers.
“No one else seems to have this issue.”
ggggrrrrrraaaaAAAAAARRRRR!
At least Ford did not use this spark plug design on all of the “modular” engines…the 32 valve DOHC head being a totally different animal with much greater thread engagement…almost as much thread as the XK.
1 Like
“Gee, we’ve never experienced this problem before…”
“We checked the Ford data base and there is no record of this type of problem…”
1 Like
… one can make book on these responses.
It’s part of why people would take me to dealerships, when looking into issues on new cars: looooong sgo, I learned to be a pit bull, wrt service writers who pulled that merde on me.
I used to view taking on those idiots as sport.
Too late. Ford has a large compendium with a specific part # that is mandatory equipment for each dealer ship.
A long time Jaguar mechanic told me years ago…finger tight plus 1/2 turn and you can’t go wrong.
Yikes! This thread continues to oblivion.
After my dad and I acquired our 1967 OTS in 1971 (I was 18), a mechanic at the Jaguar dealer in Stamford, CT, told me, “If you don’t have a torque wrench, tighten the spark plugs finger tight and then 1/4 turn with the factory box wrench.” (“Spanner” to all you pommies.)
That worked until I got a torque wrench years later. Then, the factory spec in the workshop manual has worked fine, through 2020. What is it, 28 ft/lbs? Whatever. Next time I change my spark plugs, I’ll look at the book again. Ho Hum.
Why is this such an issue?
1 Like
Suddenly reminded of certain 1970s two stroke motorcycles which had an appetite for spark plug central electrodes. I recall some Kwaks had three spare plugs in threaded holes in the frame.
The problem came when one plug failed, frequently the damage was so bad that the plug would not come out using the plug spanner in the tool kit. A torque wrench (with its looooooong handle) was needed to get the plug out!