Broken spark plug in head procedure.

[07gts197]

You can check the build date in the door jamb and pull a coil and check to see if it has a brown boot.


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[Lannyl81]

Has black boots.

 

[DieHarder]

It's the early design. Replace them with Brisk one-piece plugs or there are a couple of other brands you can use.

 

[Lannyl81]

Early heads....thought they stopped these in 2007....apparently not.
Broken plug is in #5 cylinder...at least it is easy to get to.
Extraction tool not here until mid next week.

 

[07gts197]

I believe Ford swapped over to the new heads in October of 07, so early 08 model year.


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[06 T-RED S/C GT]

Actually, the revised heads were swapped in November of "07" during mid 08 model year.. The early 08 models built before November of 2007 still had the old style heads!

 

[Lannyl81]

Door jamb had a date of 11/07...must be one of the last few with the earlier heads.
So where do I go to learn about the early heads vrs the later heads?

 

[msvela448]

Door jamb had a date of 11/07...must be one of the last few with the earlier heads.
So where do I go to learn about the early heads vrs the later heads?

The only difference is the spark plug design. They are the same otherwise.

I have a set of late-style heads (2010) if you (or anybody else) really want to buy a pair. They will need the broken exhaust studs removed (like normal)... Otherwise they are in great shape.

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[06 T-RED S/C GT]

Door jamb had a date of 11/07...must be one of the last few with the earlier heads.
So where do I go to learn about the early heads vrs the later heads?

If your coil boots are brown? you have the revised heads and plugs.. If your coil boots are black? you have the old style heads and plugs..

 

[Lannyl81]

Yep, old style heads with the black boots.

The seller I purchased the plug extractor, Lisle 65600, has yet to ship it out; was hoping it would have been shipped yesterday. So I thought I would try to use the engine to blow it out. Pulled fuel pump relay, cranked engine over.....nope, still there. Did blow out the spray lube and carb cleaner out of the cylinders though along with some porcelain pieces...so that is good.

I wanted to see if I could thread something else into the broken plug. I took another plug, clamped the section below the threads into my bench vise, turned it with a wrench to break the porcelain, then used vise grips on the upper section and hammered the vise grips to separate the two sections.

Tried this about 12-15 times and it would never separate. Makes me wonder how in the world the one plug did break and separate. And worse yet...how it is going to come out of the head, without taking the head off!!
I finally used a cutting wheel in a Dremel to cut the swedged area, then I was able to separate the two sections. Was not successful in getting anything to thread into the porcelain and hold well enough.

I sure hope the 65600 tool is going to work. I really do not want to take the head off.

 

[07gts197]

I’ve used the Lisle tool before, it works pretty well. I had one plug snap off leaving the barrel of the plug in the well. The Lisle tool went in and pulled it out in literally 2 minutes.

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[Mach2burnout]

Maybe it’s over kill, but after using the Lisle tool, I always vacuum out the cylinder with my shop vac. I use a clear cylinder that I made from a Cajun injector syringe. I always wash and keep them for use in the shop. I cut the needle end off and slip that into the smallest hose attachment on my vac, then slip it in the spark plug hole. It fits tight. I leave enough of the clear cylinder above that I can see in it once the vac is running. You wouldn’t believe how much debris is left behind from these broken plugs!!


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[Marty333]

A friend of mine has an auto repair shop and I go visit him a lot...I've been there over the years many times to visit and it seems every couple of weeks he's extracting broken plugs out of Ford trucks...some that he broke and some the customer broke...IMO Ford really screwed up their plugs/heads for awhile. Be careful!

 

[DieHarder]

Yep, old style heads with the black boots.

The seller I purchased the plug extractor, Lisle 65600, has yet to ship it out; was hoping it would have been shipped yesterday. So I thought I would try to use the engine to blow it out. Pulled fuel pump relay, cranked engine over.....nope, still there. Did blow out the spray lube and carb cleaner out of the cylinders though along with some porcelain pieces...so that is good.

I wanted to see if I could thread something else into the broken plug. I took another plug, clamped the section below the threads into my bench vise, turned it with a wrench to break the porcelain, then used vise grips on the upper section and hammered the vise grips to separate the two sections.

Tried this about 12-15 times and it would never separate. Makes me wonder how in the world the one plug did break and separate. And worse yet...how it is going to come out of the head, without taking the head off!!
I finally used a cutting wheel in a Dremel to cut the swedged area, then I was able to separate the two sections. Was not successful in getting anything to thread into the porcelain and hold well enough.

I sure hope the 65600 tool is going to work. I really do not want to take the head off.

The Lisle tool works, you just have to be careful and deliberate. There are quite a few YouTube videos on removing these plugs. If you purchased a used unit be aware that the threads can round off on the extraction tool which will make it harder for it to get a grip on the lower shell which is usually what gets stuck in the head. After removing the remnants of the plug you may also want to scope the cylinder to be sure you get all of the porcelain out or if the strap happens to get broken and doesn't come out with the plug.

 

[Lannyl81]

I have already used a shop vac on all plug holes. No tool yet...but good idea to scope the cylinder after I get the broken plug out.

 

[Lannyl81]

The Lisle 65600 tool arrived this afternoon; read through the instructions, seemed straightforward, although there were two parts not referenced in the instructions.
After using the pusher, then went to the puller. After 4-5 tries...just was not working...puller pulled out.
Kept looking into the #5 spark plug hole and thought the porcelain was not pushed in enough.
Went back to the instructions, looked at the two parts that were not referenced....these were the tips...which I figured-out are needed to push the porcelain. I assumed one for 4.6L, one for 5.4L...does not say which is which...but I used the shorter of the two.
Put the tip into the pusher and then used the pusher body and pusher screw to actually push the porcelain down.....
Then used the puller.....wow so much harder to turn and does not strip out.....tightened down the hex nut and out came the broken spark plug tip!.....son of a gun....it worked!...I do not have to pull the head off....yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Made a nozzle out of a really small diameter length of vinyl tubing, duct tape to shop-vac hose....then shop-vac'ed the spark plug hole and down into the cylinder.

Time for a beer!!!!

 

[07gts197]

Good job. And for what it’s worth, the 4.6 and 5.4 use the same heads.


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[Lannyl81]

I had just assumed that the 4.6L and 5.4L heads were different....no idea how many 3V engines there are that this tool can be used on.
Using the shorter tip of the two was correct as the porcelain was pushed to the end..and I made sure I did not bottom-out the pusher when I did this. The porcelain can only move 3-5mm.

I am just happy not to have to pull that head off......cause that could lead to all kinds of $$$.

 

[DieHarder]

Still a good idea to scope out the holes with broken plug/s. Porcelain can scratch the cylinder walls if left inside. You can rent one or buy them online for cheap.

 

[Oso de Peso]

Just my opinion. Sparkplugs diagnose problems better than computers. They can predict an upcoming issue.
I recommend pulling and checking gap and residue on them as often as you change your oil.
I call this an, "ask the car how it feels" checkup. It will speak volumes to you about spark duration, air / fuel mixture, and so much more.
Enjoy the cars.