and the 3v gods betray me,,,,

whitmanink

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so i pulled all the plugs today,, all seemed ok,, but ,,, cylinder 4 ,, the bar was bent like something hit it,,, the electrode wasnt broken but the bar was almost all but touching the electrode,,

so i gotta pull the head,, but first check the timing didnt jump,, is there any way to do that with just the valve covers off and not the front cover? i do have the crankshaft lock tool to get the crank at perfect position for the timing,, dont know if that will help at all?

also on the drivers side ,, i think cylinder 6 or 7 seemed to have oil on the plug?
 

MasterofDisaster

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Maybe fish in #4 with a magnetic pick up tool to ensure you don't have anything rattling around in there. Cheaper than a bore scope.
 

FredB66

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Check out FordTechMakuloco on YouTube. He has an excellent explanation of the 3v timing setup. Don't go by the colored links on the chains. They only align on initial setup and repeatedly after several (20ish as I recall) crank revs.
 

GlassTop09

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so i pulled all the plugs today,, all seemed ok,, but ,,, cylinder 4 ,, the bar was bent like something hit it,,, the electrode wasnt broken but the bar was almost all but touching the electrode,,

so i gotta pull the head,, but first check the timing didnt jump,, is there any way to do that with just the valve covers off and not the front cover? i do have the crankshaft lock tool to get the crank at perfect position for the timing,, dont know if that will help at all?

also on the drivers side ,, i think cylinder 6 or 7 seemed to have oil on the plug?
I personally wouldn't pull the head until I ran a borescope into cylinder to verify that needs to be done. By you verifying the upper valve train is still intact just pretty much ruled out any piston-to-valve contact (you've seen upper valvetrain damage if piston-to-valve contact had occurred) thus also pretty much ruled out any valve head contact w\ spark plug electrodes (valve heads would have to essentially detach from valve stems for that to happen) so for those electrodes to have gotten sheared off something else had to have gone thru engine to do that. Here is a picture of what detonation\pre-ignition will do to spark plugs below:
Spark Plug Changeout B1 Plugs 5-23-21.JPG
Now I won't definatively say that your plug damage wasn't caused by detonation, but from my standpoint your plug damage looks to be far more mechanical, not chemical.....but I also highly doubt it was caused by internal valve contact as that damage would've shown up in the upper valve train area too......your picture shows that you don't have any upper valve train damage (also why you should've pulled valve covers & physically barred engine over to verify upper valve train integrity). This is why I recommended to pull intake manifold & physically inspect all intake ports in cyl heads for trash & intake manifold for any internal damage (a piece of it's internal plastic can break off & go thru cyl\CMCV pieces if these are still installed & CAN shear off a spark plug's electrodes) then use borescope as Racer47 suggested in cyl to inspect internal cyl area (including valve heads for physical damage....if a piece of valve head did separate from the rest striking the spark plug) for any damage BEFORE pulling head off (may find that all is now clear thus head doesn't need to be pulled).

This why I also typed that from my experiences\knowledge of this engine design, you don't assume things even if you're "sure".......physically put eyes on as much as you feasibly can to verify this stuff......from you pulling another plug from another cyl & finding electrode damage you might want to reconsider........

Now as far as checking\verifying engine timing w\o pulling front cover, you "can" do it by using the notch in HB (or if UDP HB use the 0 degree mark) set at the 1 o'clock position then use the camshaft cam lobe orientation Ford gave in their Hot Rod camshaft install instructions to verify engine timing (uses both #1 cyl & #5 cyl cam lobe positions in relation to HB notch position). Google this in search & you should be able to get this (too large for me to attach it to this post or I'd have provided it for you).

Hope this helps. Really hope that your issue isn't as severe as it may seem, but IMHO you gotta do the inspection work to not take a risk & make it much worse than it may be.......

That my friend, is in the end up to you to decide as it is your car, your engine thus your money.
 

whitmanink

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my buddy gave me a borescope but it wouldnt fit,, but when i pulled #4 plug to check with the scope , thats when i noticed the new plug i just put in was bent like something touched it,, this weekend im pulling the intake , and heads to see whats going on,,

i feel like this is more than an easy fix,, with alot of money involved, i just hope when i pull the heads , that the cylinder walls arent scored to hell and the block is junk
 

whitmanink

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and its weird cuz both exhaust pipes are smoking pretty good when the engine is running ,, so that also leads me to believe something more is going on,, either the CMCV broke and went in the engine,, or a piston cracked ,, thats kinda where im at ,,,,
 
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my buddy gave me a borescope but it wouldnt fit,, but when i pulled #4 plug to check with the scope , thats when i noticed the new plug i just put in was bent like something touched it,, this weekend im pulling the intake , and heads to see whats going on,,

i feel like this is more than an easy fix,, with alot of money involved, i just hope when i pull the heads , that the cylinder walls arent scored to hell and the block is junk

Yeah bent plug aint good, im suspecting what i mentioned above, keep us updated tho! it sucks for the moment but we come back stronger!
 

Midlife Crises

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I want to see whats bouncing around in that jug!
Ya. Seams like the best answer is something inside the cylinder. Wouldn’t a borescope be handy! Can the stock piston even reach the spark plug without hitting the head first?
 

Laga

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23C53715-D106-43E0-B182-32BEF4DF652D.jpeg
Ya. Seams like the best answer is something inside the cylinder. Wouldn’t a borescope be handy! Can the stock piston even reach the spark plug without hitting the head first?
Probably not. Here is the head and the piston. The spark plug barely sticks out and the center of the piston is recessed.

B884121A-D702-454D-993E-C51E2A9C9D84.jpeg
 

whitmanink

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the valve sheared off clean,,, dropped into cylinder and this is the end result,,,
i had parts of the valve in the intake,,,,

soo what block can i use to rebuild? id rather an alum one ,, im only seeing 5.0 blocks new,, and alot of 2v truck blocks,,

this sucks but i gotta keep on keeping on,, so any hints on blocks or what i can use and whats interchangeable would be great,, as right now my head hurts from taking this all in,,

anywho on a better note ,, happy early fathers day to the dads out there ,,, this was a gift i could have done without
 

DieHarder

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Woe, yeah, that's bad. Sorry to see. Should be able to find a 4.6 out there somewhere. Just make sure the heads use the same COP's as yours. Good luck.
 

Badd GT

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the valve sheared off clean,,, dropped into cylinder and this is the end result,,,
i had parts of the valve in the intake,,,,

soo what block can i use to rebuild? id rather an alum one ,, im only seeing 5.0 blocks new,, and alot of 2v truck blocks,,

this sucks but i gotta keep on keeping on,, so any hints on blocks or what i can use and whats interchangeable would be great,, as right now my head hurts from taking this all in,,

anywho on a better note ,, happy early fathers day to the dads out there ,,, this was a gift i could have done without
im heading up to Fredrick Md. in the next two weeks and have complete factory shortblock (original to my mustang) and the heads. I could bring with me if you are interested. Approx. 85,000 miles on them, 2006 year
 

Dino Dino Bambino

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Holy guacamole I didn't expect that. With a borescope there's no way you could miss a holed piston. That totally sucks.
On the positive side there's a wide availability of used 4.6 3V engines since they were also installed in 06-10 Explorers, 06-10 Mercury Mountaineers, and 09-10 F-150s so it shouldn't take long to get up and running again.
 

Juice

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Broken intake valve, was most likely a cam timing issue. It can be hitting the piston for some time before it snaps off. Had it happen on a motorcycle engine, chain was off a tooth. Ran for a long time before self destructed.

".........truth be told i did just put new cams........" hmmmm.
 

whitmanink

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im heading up to Fredrick Md. in the next two weeks and have complete factory shortblock (original to my mustang) and the heads. I could bring with me if you are interested. Approx. 85,000 miles on them, 2006 year
depending on how my funds look and what ur asking for it ?

Broken intake valve, was most likely a cam timing issue. It can be hitting the piston for some time before it snaps off. Had it happen on a motorcycle engine, chain was off a tooth. Ran for a long time before self destructed.

".........truth be told i did just put new cams........" hmmmm.


yea i think that didnt happen,, it was a stock to stock cam change , , all new timing , vvt, head gaskets , roller folowers ,, the works,, run great for about 1,100 miles
 
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RED09GT

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Jeez, you could've seen that by just taking 15 minutes to pull the intake manifold in the first place.

That block can probably still be bored and if it is really bad, do a sleeve.
 

Zoso

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For those of us blessed (in a bad way) to have the older two piece spark plugs - Brisk USA makes racing spark plugs that are a one piece design. They are the 3VR17YS Silver Racing plugs. These plugs are very expensive but, no more broken plug worries.
 

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