Spark plug disaster! Need advise to save my motor

[darrens07gt]

My car has 59K miles and I needed to install HT0's for my N20.

I bought some seafoam deep creek and followed the instructions from both online and youtube videos. I blew out all debree from the chambers and filled each with a little deep creep. Then I waited an hour and gave each one a quarter turn. All turned easy and quietly except for one so I was very optimistic. I waited 4 hours to let the deep creep do its thing and went to remove the spark plugs.

7 of the 8 loosened easily and with no creaking yet 3 still broke in the head and the one that creaked also broke in the head. So I have four broken plugs to deal with. Fortunately I already have the lisle tool cause I needed it a year ago for a 2007 expedition.

But there's more. Two of the four that didn't break came out missing most of the very tip. I'm not sure what it's called but the end of the plugs that are usually enclosed like a "U" are now looking more like an old school plug that looks like an "L". I can't image removing the plugs without them breaking could have caused this.

Can these plugs break down like this on their own? I'm very worried now that there could me small metal pieces of those plugs in my motor. I'm also worried that when I use the lisle tool that some of the white porcelain will fall into the heads during the extraction procedure.

I have not installed the new plugs or attempted to start the car. What do I have to do in order to be safe that my motor won't seize?

Thanks,

 

[stkjock]

Have you already sprayed the car?

 

[darrens07gt]

Have you already sprayed the car?

No. I'm still installing everything for the N20 including the HT0 plugs. I havn't even filled my first bottle yet.

 

[stkjock]

I see, that would have been the likely cause of th straps melting, which is more likely what happened, rather than them breaking

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

I have not installed the new plugs or attempted to start the car. What do I have to do in order to be safe that my motor won't seize?

You could use a shop vac or a vacuum pump with a length of hose attached and pass the hose down each plug hole, sweeping it inside the cylinder (easier if the piston is near TDC). Hopefully if there are any bits in there they'll be sucked out.

 

[JUSTA3V]

Get all the plugs out. Then hit each cylinder with a good shot of compressed air. Assuming you have an air compressor.

If there is anything loose in there it will vacate thru the plug hole.

 

[Mach2burnout]

I cut the end out of a "Cajun injector" turkey injection syringe, removed the plunger and shoved that down in the spark plug/cops hole. Stuck my shop vac cone hose end in that and sucked all the parts out of the cylinders. The syringe tube is clear so you can see what comes out as it passes through.


Sent from iPhone

 

[darrens07gt]

I do have an air compressor. I just went out today and bought a long skinny wand/gun for the air compressor as well as an attachment kit with a skinny end piece for a shop vac. I'm going to use both and hope for the best.

Thanks,

 

[darrens07gt]

I cut the end out of a "Cajun injector" turkey injection syringe, removed the plunger and shoved that down in the spark plug/cops hole. Stuck my shop vac cone hose end in that and sucked all the parts out of the cylinders. The syringe tube is clear so you can see what comes out as it passes through.


Sent from iPhone

That's pretty creative thinking right there. I like it!

 

[CammedS197]

Had something like this happen after I got a bad batch of fuel. #6 and #7 both had the ground straps and electrodes completely missing. Plugs were only a few months old. When we tested the fuel it was very contaminated and we cleaned the whole fuel system and tank. All in all I blew out the cylinders and put new plugs in and not a single issue. My guess is it must have either passed all of it or burned it because nothing came out when I blew them.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

I cut the end out of a "Cajun injector" turkey injection syringe, removed the plunger and shoved that down in the spark plug/cops hole. Stuck my shop vac cone hose end in that and sucked all the parts out of the cylinders. The syringe tube is clear so you can see what comes out as it passes through.

Similar to my idea and it worked.

 

[05gtowner]

What did you use to initially remove the plugs? A socket set or impact?

 

[darrens07gt]

What did you use to initially remove the plugs? A socket set or impact?

A regular socket. I tried an impact on the 07 Expedition and 6 out of 8 broke. So this time I tried deep creep and a regular socket and 4 out of 8 broke.

Excuse my French but FORD FUCKING SUCKS!!!!!

The local ford dealership wanted to charge my girlfriend $1200.00 to do a tune up because they knew they would break plugs and it'll be a lot of labor hours. They just don't care that they fucked up and then expect you to have to pay them a premium to fix their fuck up.

And don't even get me started on the paint bubbling/peeling on the back of every explorer or expedition I have ever seen or owned.

 

[05gtowner]

I have a method if you will that has been 100% in 2 4.6 3v's and three 5.4's. First I run two bottles of techron through the tank. Then the night before I pull the plugs I get the motor warm but not hot. I crack them loose a 1/4 turn then spray them up to the porcelain with deep creep. Then I let them sit overnight. Then in the morning I hit them with a electric impact. I have had 100% success with this method. I attribute it to the techron and letting the decarbonizer work over night. I have even changed them on motors with 130k On them.

I would just finish pulling the shells out and blow it out with compressed air and the wand. You should be fine.

I think the phasers/timing issues in these motors is a bigger issue then the plugs. At least you can get to the plugs really easy in the mustang. A F-150 is practically under the cowl and a real pain to get to.

 

[Gabe]

A regular socket. I tried an impact on the 07 Expedition and 6 out of 8 broke. So this time I tried deep creep and a regular socket and 4 out of 8 broke.

Excuse my French but FORD FUCKING SUCKS!!!!!

The local ford dealership wanted to charge my girlfriend $1200.00 to do a tune up because they knew they would break plugs and it'll be a lot of labor hours. They just don't care that they fucked up and then expect you to have to pay them a premium to fix their fuck up.

And don't even get me started on the paint bubbling/peeling on the back of every explorer or expedition I have ever seen or owned.

The dealership didn't design the plugs, they're kinda stuck working on Ford's flawed design, so they want to get paid for it accordingly.
They have a lot of overhead, so they charge more $$/hour to make up for that.
It's the nature of the beast.

When I was a writer I'd be quoting plug change jobs anywhere from $450-$1500 and the customer was getting hit with the range right up front, so they'd know what they were getting into.
I kept a set of 8 broken plugs at the desk for show-and-tell.

And no, we wouldn't automatically break every plug just to charge them $1500.

.

 

[mitchell20501]

I've used the compressed air method after I broke the stock set. It worked fine for me. When they melt like that I think it's because it ran a little lean in that cylinder


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[Wes06]

man im so glad all 8 of mine came out fine...

I used 50/50 of ATF/acetone but i was only at 47k ish miles

Upgrading to the newer style heads though so yay

 

[05gtowner]

You can get a laptop borescope for cheap off of amazon and get in the plug holes to see what is going on down there if you are that apprehensive about it.

 

[darrens07gt]

Well I got out the lisle tool today and started pulling out all the broken plugs. Then I used the air compressor and blew out each hole and then followed that up with the shop vac in hopes of getting out all the excess deep creep. Then I installed my HT0's using a little nickel anti-seize on them first.

I held my breath as I fired up the car. It started right away and everything sounded normal. There was a lot of smoke though and it smelled pretty bad. I'm assuming this was all the excess deep creek burning off since I had used about 40% of the can. I let the car run until the smoke show subsided.

So looks like I'm good to go. Thanks to all who responded in this thread. Now I get to do this again for a 2008 Expedition which is unfortunately from early in that year. Her truck has 103,000 miles and they still have the original plugs.

Time to have more fun!!!!

 

[pics06gtstang]

that's a great ending to your almost real nightmare !
GOOD JOB BUD !