StickShifty

I took out two of my plugs to see the changes. I was going to put anti-seeze on them if my car had the 2005, 2006 and 2007 design. Looks like i should be fine, i change my plugs around 20,000 miles.

Found a couple of things. 1. You can clearly see the changes in the plugs. 2. I noticed that the plugs were just tight enough to hold them inplace, basically just snugg. I guess the factory does not make them overly tight. 3. You can see the valve cover changes too. The 14 bolt to the 10 bolt that was changed late in the 2007 run.

I know i havent seen any pictures of the new valve covers online. And very few pics of the new plug design. Here are some, there are tags on the pics so everyone knows what they are looking at.


[IMG]local://upfiles/17316/5281AAA5FA90446791C16D4301901D2D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/17316/696274A0608C41AA9089A6136AF584B1.jpg[/IMG]

StickShifty

and the covers

[IMG]local://upfiles/17316/72A7F758DCA54AACB55FBA1C062F0DD9.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/17316/1EF6A54D3DC14BA9A72E7F7B6BAC1E59.jpg[/IMG]

sooo. one can assume an easy way of seeing what plug design you have, just look at these sections of the valve covers, where you can see the thread for the old design.

frd06GT

What I would like to know is:

1) are the heads different

2) will these plugs work in 05-07s.

I realize you (op) may not know,

StickShifty

no, not at all. There are some pics going around of the two plugs side by side. They are the same size overall, but the threads are in different places.



you can see in the above picture the threads end, then there is about a inch long "extension", the the tip. That is the big problem. if you put a new plug in a head designed for the older plugs the tip of the new plug would sit way high up in the plug shaft.

A end all solution would be to swap heads. But by following directions on the TSB, catching your plugs at a normal time at 30,000 miles(not 100,000), and putting anti-seeze on, you should be fine.

A perfect situation would be to take out the plugs on a 2005, 2006 and 2007 when its new. And put anti-seeze on the shaft. Then follow the directions on the TSB for every change, and change them every 20,000 miles(just to be safe), i dont see anyone having a problem.

FlaPony

Spending $100 every 20K miles on spark plugs is BS.This is my annual milage and I should not have to replace my plugs 5 times over the course of what should be a once in a 100K replacement interval.Ford has a design problem with these plugs and the consumer is going to have to pay for it one way or another.[>:]

StickShifty

$100, are you buying 40 plugs at once.[]

8178A

Interesting my 4/07 build date has the same heads and valve covers too. I was wondering why some owners of the older builds were painting their valve covers, the later valve covers have a perfect finish to match the overall image of the engine. Can’t image covering that up with paint. Apparently good things happen when you wait for later builds with improved goodies.

8178A

I thought you might have been on to some way to know the head type by the valve coverso this morning at our weekly Atlanta car meet I checked the valve covers on a friend’s 4/07 build. He has the plugs with the short threads but has the valve covers shown in your picture. His car was built in the last few days of April.

JRT1

Hmm my car's date is 3/07 andI have the new valve covers.
Does this mean I have the new plugs or has 8178A busted that for me?

Does anyone know how I can find out what day the car was built?

07RedfireGT

I have the newer 10 bolt valve covers on my GT born on 2/07 and i have the older heads. I just changed my plugs out last Friday. Why the change in valve covers but still the older head design?