Author Topic: 4.6L Spark Plugs  (Read 2371 times)

Online 67gta289

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4.6L Spark Plugs
« on: July 29, 2015, 09:50:36 PM »
This is probably old news to most, and is discussed on many forums, but just in case, I figured I would tell the story here.

My 2008 Mustang GT, never babied, turned 100,000 miles recently.  Time for plugs.  As these things go, I ended up getting 2 of the 8 out cleanly.  6 broke.  Of the 6, 4 pulled out with the electrode rod, which is ok.  On one of the two with the rods I was able to pull out with needle nose, leaving one little bugger.

I bought and used the Lisle tool that pushes the broken ceramic down, and with an easy out extracts the broken off piece.  While a bit stressful driving the ceramic the wrong direction, with lots of crunching going on, they all came out with no issue.  All 6 in about 40 minutes.

With the new plugs in I started the engine, and it sounded like a little machine shop in there.  It really sounded like a rod knock.  I was bummed out for sure.  I called my friend the next day, and he was just talking to a Ford tech that has done "over 1000" of them, and says that this is normal.  I needed to go out and drive it.  So I did.  After 2 miles, keeping RPMs below 3500 RPM, it sounded almost normal.  Then some 5000 RPM operation and it was running like normal.

Job all done, back on the road, but not without a little work and stress.

So why tell the story?  If you have one of these puppies pull the plugs and apply nickel plated anti-seize compound.  There are lots of you-tube videos and forum posts if you want to do the research.
John
67 289 GTA Dec 20 1966 San Jose
7R02C156xxx
MCA 74660

Offline SamG

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Re: 4.6L Spark Plugs
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2015, 12:01:59 AM »
Don't forget to go back in a week or two and re-torque your plugs.  They sometimes loosen themselves.  I started getting a gas smell a week or so after putting plugs in my F150...turned out to be slightly loose plugs.  I know they didn't start out that way. 

SamG