ybnormal

Good luck hope everything comes out fine, would a dab of anti-seize help for future application.? Nice pic's I might try takeing mine out before I get to many miles on mine because of this.

richmod

How many miles did you have when the broke?

aclass

I wish you boat loads of luck hicompression!!

Goldenpony

+1 ON THIS STATEMENT. I hope the guys that have stated this is all "a myth" will begin to see it is very real. I have read many posts where guys were able to get the plugs out without breaking and I am glad for them. There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to this, it seems I have read where plugs have broken with less than 20K miles, and plugs have come out clean with near 50K miles.I do not think that the gas you burn or anything else either helps or adds to this problem. In my own case, I have ALWAYS used premium, 93 octanefuel from like Shell, BP or Chevron, a bottle of Techron every 5K miles and I have always used Mobil 1 synthetic oil.Go figure. I would like to think somebody at Ford is burning the midnight oil to come up with a solution.
Personally, I think the solution is for Ford to "lean" on Autolite, or whoever makes their Motorcraft plugs to come up with a one piece plug- problem solved.

Hicompression

Update...after my last post yesterday, I fired up the engine with the coil and injector disconnected on the cylinder with the plug in it. The sheath and ceramic center are still stuck. Man the car idles like it has a cam though without that one cylinder firing!

So, I let the car sit overnight with PB Blaster soaking. I had noticed that with the carb cleaner when it soaked it turned black because it was eating the carbon. However, with the PB Blaster, it still looked "clean". I'm not sure it did anything. So, I soaked up all the Blaster and re-applied carb cleaner this morning. After an hour the carb cleaner is turning black and already working. I'll fire up the car later today and see if it pops out.

I checked on the Rotunda tool to see how much it was to get the sleeve out. The cheapest one in stock I could find was on Ebay for $289! To hell with that! I'll use an easy out like one of you guys mentioned if the ceramic core ever pops out. If not I'll keep using the soak and start (engine) method.

This whole thing is extremely irritating.[:@] But I know I'll get it out. When I do, I'll let you guys know how I did it.

richmod

I'm tackling the spark plug removal right now, and am trying to break the plugsloose 1/8-1/4 turn per the TSB. I have my torque wrench set to 30, and it's not enough because not one has broken loose.I am a bit hesitant to go up in torque. For those who have done this successfully,how much torque was needed for the initial break free. (I know the removal torque is about 33 lb/ft once their broken free, but the TSB doesn't specify the break-loose torque)

Kryten

On my 11,000 mile plug change, I used my Craftman electronic torque meter to monitor the torque applied during removal. I saw around38 lb/ft for each of my plugs as I recall. I don't recall 33 lb/ft being enough to budge any of them.

richmod

Warm or cold engine?

Kryten

Although I hated spending big bucks on the Championsandchanging plugs with only 11,000 miles, that is exactly the reason.These plugshields endure an initial1/4 turn without a drop of carb cleaner.The carb cleaner is a big help IF your plug shieldif still attached, even ifjust barely after the 1/4 turn.Maybeapplying the anti-sieze would make all the difference (did that with Champions too), but I just didn'tcare to risk it.

Hicompression: Sorry this happened,aplug change just should notproducethisresult and stress.

Kryten

Did the plug change with a cold engine.

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Warm or cold engine?
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