Broke 5 out of 8, but Lisle tool worked great. I let let soak over night and the first three came out, so I though I had it licked. Then the rest broke, but got everything out withe removal tool. Glad it's done.

 

Glad the lisle tool worked out for you and just know that after you apply nickel anti-seize on your new plugs, they won't break on you the next time around

 

I am NOT looking fwd to this procedure...I think I will be frustrated and mad--then I know I will get over it.

 

Just to confirm, broken plugs are characteristic to the 2005 to Dec 2008 4.6 V8's

Correct?

 

Yes ! Your 100% correct.. From 2005-early 2008 Ford used 16mm 2 piece designed plugs and the reason why they're so characteristic to breakage is due from carbon build up upon the electrode portion of the plug which would cause it to seize up inside the head..

All Mustangs and F-150 trucks with 4.6 3 valve V8's had the 2 piece 16mm design plugs.. It wasn't until the later job 2 2008MY models that got the new revised heads along with the re-designed 12mm one piece spark plugs..

 

I was pretty lucky that none of mine broke.. And although my stock plugs were 8 years old, they only had 12,500 original miles on them, so perhaps that was part of the reason why none of them broke, plus I also followed Ford's TSB recommendation procedure by using Motorcraft carb cleaner and letting the plugs soak for approx 6 hours and then backing them out by 1/4'' turn at a time until they felt loose enough to extract the rest of the way out by hand..

 

Awesome OP! I hated doing my plugs last year, broke 3 of them but the Lisle tool worked great! Stealership wanted $800 to do them. Hell with that! Did them myself, just took my time. 117k on the plugs too!

 

I hear ya...mine are still originals (9 yrs old) and I have 25K miles...i know I have to do this...just got to say it to myself 1000 times.

 

Even though your plugs are 9 years old Tony ! There shouldn't be very much carbon build up at just 25k miles..

As long as you follow the Ford extraction procedure in the TSB ? Hopefully none of your plugs will break.. Also once you apply nickel anti-seize to your new plugs, this should also prevent carbon from building up which cause the plugs to seize up inside the heads and break..

So hopefully you won't have to worry about your plugs breaking in the future, however I would still follow the Ford recommended extraction procedure just to be on the safe side

 

Same here,25k and 9 years old with the original plugs.


RedGT

 

I put a S/C on my car at about 18K miles and the plugs were changed then. I then changed them about every 15K miles after that and I had never had one of the two piece plugs break. Then I put the hood with the vents on a couple of years ago and got water in the plug wells. I didn't realize how much water had gotten in them until I went to remove my plugs, which were Brisk one piece, and the water had caused one of them to fuse to the head and it broke. Since the Brisk plugs are a one piece design, it broke at the nut part and left the threads in the hole, which the tool won't work on. I thought I was screwed, but I found a pipe thread extractor at Home Depot and after two days of hell I managed to get it out. I've since fixed it so no water gets into the plug wells, I don't ever want to go through that again.

 

The original plugs were replaced on my 05 GT when it only had about 10,000 miles on it to avoid the issue. The replacement plugs are Champion number 7989. Ford had a TSB about this (#08-7-6) dated 4/1/08. The Champion plugs per a mechanically inclined friend of mine are designed to avoid the problems of the plugs breaking when you remove them from a high mileage engine. Here is a video about that plug....

 

what plugs did you guys install?

 

look close at the champion plugs... the set I got 5 yrs ago are still in the box- one of the 8 wasnt threaded all the way- likely woulds f'd up the head, all of the platinum tips were off center- require 'diagonal' gapping, and several had metal shavings crimped under the rolled area against the ceramic- can only assume the inside part might have **** in it too...

MSD now has a iridium plug, and brisk silver- both those are high quality fro what Ive seen. I emailed pics to federal mogul, no response, summit of course offered to take them back- but I wouldnt for worries they would wind up in someone else motor- worst quality anything Ive ever seen. one piece, yes, but everything else about them screams harbor freight

 

Thanks partner....

 

I went right back with the original crappy Ford OEM plugs... I read all the horror stories about poor Champion quality control and other issues, and I didn't want to deal with it.


These were my plugs when I got them out!


Don't forget the nickel anti seize compound!

 

I used the champions, so far so good. Running like a "champ" ha ha. Only about 50 mile since change.

 

I throw this out there just in case anyone wants to review it... it was well received, and there are plenty of good tips in this thread too.

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...-plugs-522706/

It helped others, maybe it'll help y'all who've not done it. They can be scary.

 

Being that I'm running forced induction, I had to go with a 1 degree colder spark plug.. I wanted to upgrade to MSD iridium one piece plugs, but they're not available for colder degree/forced induction applications, so I had no other choice but to stay with Autolite HT0 plugs which are the 2 piece design

 

Rocky, Brisk makes a one piece plug and has them in 1 & 2 heat range colder.