chopperzen

My friend has a 2001 GT. She just called and asked me to do some research to see why this happened. She blew off her coil pack and it shot the spark plug out? How would this have happened and would she be under warranty evading purchase of a new motor?

Darkcrime

I doubt it's under warranty if she has an 01. If you mean the spark plug shot out of the head, it's a common issue with Bosch spark plugs, especially if they are not installed properly.

Durr727

I personally cannot help you on this one.
I would call up the Ford dealer and see what they say, usually engines are covered under warranties assuming her's is still under the time frame of the plan. Also call up a few reputable shops and get their opinions on the situation.

chopperzen

Whatever shop she is in right now, can't figure it out.. So any explanation on why this happened? Just dumb mechanic and boschit if it is bosch?

chopperzen

Got more info and there are metal shavings left in the base.. Over torqued??!

cliffyk

Many Fords (including ours) use recessed thread, tapered seat plugs, which require that they be torqued properly (11 to 13 ft.lbs.) or they will loosen and blow out--or the taped threads in the head may have been weaked when new plugs were installed. If you have access to the service history and the plugs have never been changed, or were changed at a Ford dealership, you may be able to exert some leverage. If they were last changed by someone other than a Ford dealer you may be S.O.O.L...[/align]

InTheWind

I'm the one chopperzen is talking about. I have spent the last 4 hours on the computer looking up every possible lead under the sun on this, but still could use some help.

Basically there appears to be two sides to this story. Ford's stance is that if mechanics followed the guidelines to the letter this issue would not occur. The truth of the matter is that the aluminum heads were only given 4 (sometimes 3) threads for the spark plug to grip on to on Triton engines from mostly 1999-2004. So, in essence, if the spark plug is over or under torqued even 1 foot pound there's a good chance of this happening (and proving it is near impossible unless you have a very honest mechanic).

I've found one article from consumeraffairs.com referencing a Ford mechanic that said that there IS a service bulletin about this, but its buried so deep that its near impossible to find, much less get a Ford rep to admit to. There are HUNDREDS of posts about this on various forums, but "unofficial reports" won't help me or anyone else that this can happen to.

If anyone can help me find anything official on either Ford or a mechanic's failure to torque correctly as being the problem PLEASE let me know. The scariest part about this situation is that in half the cases the spark plug ejection hits the fuel rail, causing fire/explosion. That possibility, in conjunction with the fact that not 5 minutes before this happened my youngest son was in my car, has scared me completely...

Edit: These were Motorcraft plugs, not Bosch. I was so hoping that was the start to something...

96GT226410

It's a coil, not a coil pack. And just like said above it's not too uncommon to hear about plugs blowing out of heads.

racer02GTstang

did it break the intake manifold also where the coil is screwed in? its common in mustangs... alot of people actually do something called helicoiling which will fix the problem but putting a sleeve with new threads inside of the head. you can do this with the head still in the car... what cylinder did this?

i do not follow torque specs with my heads and have not had a problem and i have probably put around 6 sets of plugs in my motor. it mostly happens from under torquing the spark plugs. i think i put my plugs around 20 foot lbs... at my work we put them at 30nm which is around the same as 20... the only way to really strip the heads is to get a breaker bar or impact putting in the spark plugs... and then the plug wont even stay in place for the car to run.. with them being aluminum though, they are easier to tear up.

contentsunderpressur

Ford is shooting you a line of crap if they say the bulletin is "buried so deep it's impossible to find". All bulletins are on the ford website. You have to be a tech to access them though. All we do is type in your vin # and it pulls up all bulletins on that vehicle. There is no paper work for it to get "buried" in. Go to a different ford dealership and simply ask them to check for bulletins on your car.