Ford Expedition 1, Me 0

[Supracentral]

Holy shit. Changing the sparkplugs on a 5.4 liter Triton in one of these things is a joke. It's almost as bad as my old 2000 Trans Am.

I was going to change them tonight, but I'm going to let it sit until Saturday morning... This is not a quick after dinner job like it is on the MKIV.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

The Pathfinder's are another one. That last spark plug in the back is tough.

 

[89nasupra]

a snap-on 8mm swivel socket, and a 8-10 inch extention 1/4" drive is your best friend here. I worked for ford and got it down to about an hour job start to finish.

 

[Supracentral]

I've got the tools, just not the will to deal with it today. I've got to get to the office early tomorrow, I don't want to stay up all night dealing with this. I'll take the MR-S to work tomorrow and I'll deal with it on the weekend.

 

[IJ.]

We really need a pic of you in the Mr

 

[89nasupra]

Just drive down this weekend to Louisiana, my wife is making Gumbo. I'll do it for you while we drink a few cold ones!!

 

[Dirgle]

I've got the same job lined up this weekend on my 5.4 f150. From what I've seen I'm not looking forward to it. Not to mention the 99-03 5.4 had a bad habit of spitting spark plugs, so you have to be very careful with the torque specs, and even then, the Ford tech told me thats no guarantee.

 

[89nasupra]

I've got the same job lined up this weekend on my 5.4 f150. From what I've seen I'm not looking forward to it. Not to mention the 99-03 5.4 had a bad habit of spitting spark plugs, so you have to be very careful with the torque specs, and even then, the Ford tech told me thats no guarantee.

i heard of this problem with the V10's but not the V8's. it's really not as bad as it seams. changing the air bags over to springs on the back of my expedition saturday.

 

[Supracentral]

We really need a pic of you in the Mr

It's comical. The proverbial 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag.

I've got the same job lined up this weekend on my 5.4 f150. From what I've seen I'm not looking forward to it. Not to mention the 99-03 5.4 had a bad habit of spitting spark plugs, so you have to be very careful with the torque specs, and even then, the Ford tech told me thats no guarantee.

13 ft/lbs and no more on the plugs is what I've been told. Also do it on a cold motor and use anti-seize on the plug threads. It's a PITA.

 

[IJ.]

It's comical. The proverbial 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag.


.

The Hello Kitty Hair Ribbons are optional

 

[89nasupra]

I would assume it's easier to get in the MR with the top down?

 

[Dirgle]

i heard of this problem with the V10's but not the V8's. it's really not as bad as it seams. changing the air bags over to springs on the back of my expedition saturday.

It seems it concerns the 5.4 2V as well. The 5.4 3V has it's own set of issues.

Here's a TSB concerning the thread repair, it was the 5.4 2V and 6.8 2V.

http://www.locknstitch.com/FT pdf files/Ford Technical Service Bulletin.pdf

And here's an artical about it on consumer affairs. It's seems it's the #3 cyl that's weak.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/01/ford_truck_engines.html

There was a petition going around for a recall, but NTSA took Ford's side since it's not a safety concern.

Mike, what spark plugs are you going with? I've been told OEM's the best but I'm not sure if there are any better preforming one's for that engine.

 

[Supracentral]

Mike, what spark plugs are you going with? I've been told OEM's the best but I'm not sure if there are any better preforming one's for that engine.

OEM for me. You've gotta tread really lightly with these motors. They're damned durable (Mine has over 275,000 miles on it at this point) but picky about things like oil, change intervals and plugs.

 

[89nasupra]

Wow, 275 i thought i was pushing mine with 170,000. oil changes are key for sure!!

 

[Dirgle]

I just turned over 90,000 so I'm glad to hear it's got a lot of life left. Though I did just replace the water pump. Now I have a studded under light load. I'm hoping it's just the spark plugs. Since it's time to change them I figured I'd start there. Still not looking forward to this job.

 

[Supracentral]

Wow, 275 i thought i was pushing mine with 170,000. oil changes are key for sure!!

I run Royal Purple 5w30 with a 5,000 mile interval at this point. I send it out for testing to Blackstone Laboratories every other change.

I've been showing trace coolant in my UOA since 262,000 miles, around 8 months ago (see here) but it hasn't gotten any worse and the wear levels look correct for the mileage. It's either a weeping headgasket or intake manifold gasket. In either case I think it will be time for a rebuild at some point in the future, no sense in 1/2 assing it at this point. Truck is rock solid, I don't see why I couldn't drive it for another 300K with a rebuild.

I just turned over 90,000 so I'm glad to hear it's got a lot of life left. Though I did just replace the water pump. Now I have a studded under light load. I'm hoping it's just the spark plugs. Since it's time to change them I figured I'd start there. Still not looking forward to this job.

Plugs are one candidate, there's a 90 deg rubber elbow at the back of the intake that has a habit of cracking that I've replaced - makes the truck run like complete shit if it's leaking.

 

[Dirgle]

Plugs are one candidate, there's a 90 deg rubber elbow at the back of the intake that has a habit of cracking that I've replaced - makes the truck run like complete shit if it's leaking.

Is this the elbow your talking about?

 

[Supracentral]

Is this the elbow your talking about?

[thumb]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/dirgle/Fordintake.png[/thumb]

Yea, that's it. It's is called the PCV End Assembly.

The Dorman HELP! brand has the part. I got mine for under $2.

The Dorman part number is 46017.

 

[Dirgle]

Hmm after doing a little research I think you may have solved an intermittent problem I've been dealing with. It's hasn't done it recently, but on occasion the engine would randomly rev up to 1600~2000 rpm if I was sitting at idle. I would get some weird looks from people at stop lights. It would only do it for a few second and then return to normal. But it hasn't done it recently so I wasn't sure where to start looking. The local Oriley's auto parts has one in stock, so I'll give it a look tomorrow.

 

[GrimJack]

Ford seems to have a thing about making your life difficult if you want to switch spark plugs. Did my friend's V10 last summer, the back 2 plugs on both sides were a bitch. Furthermore, they weren't torqued down at all, I suspect because the last guy to do it didn't give a shit. It wouldn't be quite so bad except that my buddy's superduty is lifted on big wheels and tires, so you're balancing precariously on a stepladder for the front 6, and kneeling on the radiator support for the back 4.

Another thing that went wrong ... air box / intake had a crack on the bottom, whenever the engine torqued over under load it would spread out the crack, leak air, and stumble. Crack wasn't visible without pulling the whole damn thing out and bending it by hand.