I see where Champion has introduced a new one piece design plug for the 3V engine (#7989). It is double platinum and being a one piece design should drastically reduce or eliminate breakage problems. The ad I saw had a price of $16.23 ea, but I'll bet they will come down. The dealer charged me $19.13 ea. for OE (POS) two piece crimped Motorcrafts.

 

If they intend on selling any they BETTER come down in price.
wow... Kind of obscene considering you can get them from vendors for $9 or less a piece.

 

If $16.23 plugs would keep me from going through what I just went through (6 of 8 plugs breaking off), I'd say - "Here's your money"!

 

I agree with you on that!! Now that another company has released a plug that should (?) cure the problem, maybe Ford will spec out a better plug for Motorcraft. But before I put the carriage before the horse, we'll need to find out how well the Champion plugs will perform in our cars.

 

I agree. I bet that in a year, all the plugs for our cars will be the one piece design, including Motorcraft. The switch away from the two piece design has started.

 

any 0 degree version of these?

 

How did you get them out, did you have to pull the heads?

 

No, I broke off 1 plug, then I had it trucked to the dealer and they broke off 5 more taking them out. They removed the broken pieces, and installed a new set(with nickel anti-seize). They did not pull the heads. By the way, I followed the TSB to the letter.

It ended up costing me $611.13 plus the tow bill. I figure in about a year I'll pull these plugs and install a set of the Champions. My car had 38,000 miles on the clock.

 

D'oh! Talk about an expensive 2k miles!

 

Hey guys, guess I'm missing something here... what's the deal with the plugs? I still have the OEM ones in my '05. Hope that's not a bad thing.

 

Found it:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showth...tsb+spark+plug

Thanks Ford

 

Heres a link for tech videos. watch episode 26 on plug removal on the 5.4L. The info on this also covers the 4.6L plug removal.



Dave

http://www.flatratetech.com/index.php?categoryid=4

 

Subscribing

 

Thanks for the link to that video Dave....great info for a novice like me.
BTW, does anyone know what hydro lock is?

 

Hydrolock would happen if you get too much liquid in the cylinder, on top of the piston. When the piston comes to TDC on the compression stroke, since liquid can't be compressed, it will stop the piston and "lock" the engine from turning any farther. Not good, you could bend a rod or worse.

 

champion 7989,motorcraft has new plug also sp462.cheapest i've found on both is$7.08 a piece.thru the years i've found champions don't do anything for fords.i'm going to try the motorcrafts shortly.i'll post how the are.

 

Thanks goldenpony

 

i was thinking about buying some new plugs, but not sure if i want to change them now. how many people have successfully gotten them out?

 

Those motorcraft plugs are 2 degrees colder than the stock plugs, can't be used on a N/A mustang engine. they are designed for the 5.4L F150.

I know a Ford tech that does side jobs. I'm going to have him do mine since I know I'll be breaking at least 1. I'll get it done as soon as the 1 piece champion plugs come out

 

I change mine the first time at about 20,000 miles and they creaked a lot , mainly because ford doesn't put anti-seize on them at the factory , but none broke. Since I've had my S/C I've change them twice , but there was less than 10,000 miles between the changes and I had put anti-seize on them and they came out easily. The longer you wait , the more the lower portion corrodes and the better the chance they'll break ...