[6speedSD]

My little brother has a 2001 F150 with the 4.6. On his way home from work today it shot the rear passengers side spark plug out of the head. He had just pulled away from a traffc light and said he heard a loud pop and the truck immediately started missing. I went to meet him and as soon as we popped the hood we saw the coil pack laying up on the intake, and quickly found the plug beside it. He did a bit of searching tonight and found that this seems to be a common problem with early 2000's modular motors. He is sick! That truck is his baby. He keeps that thing immaculate. He has close to $5000 in accessories on it.

My question is what options does he have for a fix? What we have found is either replacing the head, or having a new plug put in that particular plug hole. I know the dealership will charge him a small fortune, and a local mechanic won't be alot better. I've rebuilt a few engines back in the day, but never really worked on a modular motor much, and I know they are alot more complex. Is this something we could repair ourselves relatively easy? At least pull the head and have a repair shop do the rest? Or would it be better to leave it to the pros? He's actually considering trying to buy a new truck then sell this one for what he can. Doesn't make alot of sense to put $3000-5000 in a truck that blue books for only $3500. But, it's still cheaper than a new truck. What are the odds of repairing this, only to have another ne do the same thing in the near future? I'd hate to see him get rid of it, because it's paid for, and he'd never get what it's really worth.

 

[Fordfreak4life]

put some heavy grease on a drill bit and be very careful, drill the hole out, make sure your going in at the right angle and take ur time, my 4.6 did the same thing on a cold morning, just drill it out and put in a helicoil, my buddies did it and he basically just cross threaded the plug in slowly with some lube on it, and is still runnin the same head to this day, my helicoiled head held fine, just done get in a hurry

 

[ford_trck]

The Ford fix is to pretty much do exactly what was said above. Call around he doesn't need to pull the head to do this.

 

[Fordfreak4life]

it shouldnt be in that bad of shape, theres actually a few more threads in the bottom of the hole that the plug doesn't touch i believe, im thinkin thats what my buddy has his threaded into but idk for sure, never had the head off of a mod' motor, try it and see what happens, your not out anything if it doesnt work, make sure while ur drilling u drill just a lil ways and clean the grease off and put fresh on so it doesn't allow any shavings into the chamber, that would be hell on a set of rings

 

[ADubDiesel]

This happened to my sister's 4.6 Explorer about a month ago. They helicoiled it back together.

 

[slowleak]

This happened to my sister's 4.6 Exploder about a month ago. They helicoiled it back together.

fixed it for ya

 

[bbbxcursion]

Threadsert and be done with it. The whole process will take 5-10 minutes. I have done WAY too many of them.

 

[ADubDiesel]

fixed it for ya

I knew it wouldn't be long...

 

[6speedSD]

It's the rear plug though. It sits back under the firewall, so there's no way to even get to it.

 

[bbbxcursion]

Yeah there is, it just requires more work.

 

[ironworker25]

This happened to my sister's 4.6 Explorer about a month ago. They helicoiled it back together.

It happened to my mom's sable about 2 years ago. We helicoiled it, 2 years ago and its still running strong

 

[Arisley]

It's the rear plug though. It sits back under the firewall, so there's no way to even get to it.

3 to 4 hours, motor on a stand. Helicoil all of the holes and never worry about it again.

 

[honda68]

You would think Ford would have had a recall on such a common problem.

 

[06powerstroke]

You would think Ford would have had a recall on such a common problem.

Auto makers usually don't issue a recall unless the problem is going to be a safety issue.

 

[6speedSD]

Do they have aluminum heads?

 

[Fordfreak4life]

Do they have aluminum heads?

thats a big 10-4

 

[cowboy_dan]

Auto makers usually don't issue a recall unless the problem is going to be a safety issue.

:whs:
Recall is for safety issues.
Service Bulletins is for all the oddball stuff the service manual doesn't cover.

 

[Arisley]

Auto makers usually don't issue a recall unless the problem is going to be a safety issue.

A spark plug exiting a block at high speeds sounds like a safety issue to me. I remember when I rode motorcycles, I always kept a spare spark plug in my jacket. Greatly deters tailgators.

 

[6speedSD]

Well we are checking into a local mechanic that my dad is good friends with. Lil bro is just worried that it'll end up happening again after this one is fixed.

 

[JohnT]

That what my brother had done to his 5.4, a shop helicoiled it and it ran without problems until he sold it a year later.