timmbo

Well since my GT has 17k miles and after doing all the research here I thought I'd better get those Motorcraft plugs out. I ordered the Aerokroil that Ford recommends and followed the TSB to the letter by filling the sparkplug hole up to the hexnut of the plug. I had about 3 plugs scare the hell outta me. These three barely busted loose at about 30 ft lbs of torque and were very hard to even get them to turn 1/8 of a initial turn. Took me about two hours of very tiny increments of back and forth on these to get them out safely. I think thats the key. I would turn them out about a 1/16 of a turn like every 15 minutes. If it started to creak or wanna stop I would wait again. The other plugs were tight but at least those I could get to turn 1/4 of a initial turn. And that Aerokroil is the stuff!!! My plugs had quite a bit of carbon build up for 17k miles which surprised me and that penetrant breaks it down like a piece of cake. Well worth the money. I bought the Champion 7989plugs as a replacement and lubricated the barrel with nickel antiseize just above the ground electrode.

As a side note I took a boxwrench and vice grips to all the old plugs to see if I could twist the barrell off the old plugs and I could not get the crimp to fail. Now maybe if i put the hex nut end in a vice and then took the vice grips to the barrell and used some heavy leverage I possibly could have. Anyway, just thought I'd post my experience because thanks to you guys I never would have known about this issue.

S281 E

Glad to hear you had no issues.

Goldenpony

Now, go buy a lottery ticket!

Doogie65

Nice to hear they removed without breakage!

Even when I removed mine at 3.5K for my supercharger install, a couple were a bit "snug". As with you, I coated the barrel with nickel anti-seize.

I am tempted to remove mine once a year just to keep them from getting to gummed up.

8178A

Ford fixed that problem part way through the 08 model year.