e 350 spark plug

my future brother-in-laws van blew out a spark plug (02 e-350)

What are the chances that the threads are still ok?

I have heard they make a kit for thread repair is this true?

Looks like it is the cylinder at the back of the engine so it should be relatively "easy" to get at from inside the van.

How many miles on it? Maybe he can nag at the Ford dealership for a warranty fix on a known issue. Thousands of spark plugs nationwide have been blowing out of Ford modular engines, and the Ford position has been to deny/deny/deny.

LOL, yeah, 9 year old E-van.... sure Ford will fix that (NOT!)

This is common, and yes there is a kit.

Best place for Ford truck info is www.flatratetech.com sign up for a free account!

oilhammer said:

LOL, yeah, 9 year old E-van.... sure Ford will fix that (NOT!)

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I was skim-reading and missed the year.

Shouldn't someone be starting a class-action lawsuit over this issue? Not that I'm a fan of class-action lawsuits but sometimes that's what it takes to get some action on an issue this bad.

Ford is NOT going to replace cylinder heads in all the V8 and V10 gas F-trucks and E-vans built since 1997. And since these generally all make it out of warranty....

Yes, Timesert (among others) have a repair kit which is considered a permanent fix, and they must've sold a hojillion of them by now: http://www.timesert.com/html/ford_sparkplug_faq.html

thanks guys I will attempt the repair this weekend!

scurvy said:

Yes, Timesert (among others) have a repair kit which is considered a permanent fix, and they must've sold a hojillion of them by now: http://www.timesert.com/html/ford_sparkplug_faq.html

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Looked around and there a NO threads in the hole.

Its up to my B-I-L but if it was my van and I was planning on keeping it I would spend the $350 on the Timesert kit, repair the bad hole and check the others. That way I would have the kit on hand for when the next one blows. If it was a truck instead of a van, I would do all 8 and be done with it. But access is limited on the van.

BTW it as 130k miles on it and he is the second owner.

oilhammer said:

Ford is NOT going to replace cylinder heads in all the V8 and V10 gas F-trucks and E-vans built since 1997.

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They don't have to replace all of them - just agree to replace the heads that break.

MrMopar said:

They don't have to replace all of them - just agree to replace the heads that break.

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LOL, so you still have a pile of heads that could fill Lake Huron. And all the ones that have not yet broken, the hoosiers that own them will then see to it that they DO break, so they can get something on Ford's dime (something tells me YOU would do this very thing if you owned one).

This is just one of the MANY automotive blunders that if they were all repaired/remedied on the manufacturers dime, ALL the manufacturers would be out of business, bar none.

It is a machine. It broke. Ya fix it. Move on.

oilhammer said:

LOL, so you still have a pile of heads that could fill Lake Huron. And all the ones that have not yet broken, the hoosiers that own them will then see to it that they DO break, so they can get something on Ford's dime (something tells me YOU would do this very thing if you owned one).

This is just one of the MANY automotive blunders that if they were all repaired/remedied on the manufacturers dime, ALL the manufacturers would be out of business, bar none.

It is a machine. It broke. Ya fix it. Move on.

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at least until the taxpayers bail them out

sorry I had to

So I got everything out of the way.

I redid the hole and am on the step to cut the new threads.

The tap doesn't seem to want to bite in and start cutting.

The problem I see is making sure it is going straight into the hole.

Any tips for getting it aligned properly? Remember this is on a van with little access and impossible to turn the tap and look with a mirror at the hole at the same time.

I am using the Time-sert FORD kit.

Thanks.

turns out I didn't countersink enough.

was hesitant to take too much material but you need to take almost 1/2" out of the head to make room for the insert.

The time-sert kit is a quality tool set. Everything you need to do the job correctly and permanently.

Now that I have done it once, I can do a hole in under 10 min (after I get all the crap out of the way)