4.6l 3v Spark Plug Removal Instructions | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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4.6l 3v Spark Plug Removal Instructions

makuloco2000

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April 23, 2013
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Year, Model & Trim Level
2012 Explorer XLT
Well I finally had one come in the shop recently after not seeing them for a long time. So I decided to shoot a video on the current favorite removal method that is working for us shops out there. This works about 90% of the time. It seems you will usually break one out of 8 though and for that I have a new video coming out showing in detail the extraction process made simple. I hope this helps as this can be very costly. Most shops charge a half and hour more in additional labor each plug that breaks this can really add up!

 



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Oh, That Will NEVER Work!

Here are quotes from comments on my YouTube videos of the same procedure:

John McIlnay
8 months ago

An air wrench to remove spark plugs?? OK for taking off wheels but NOT for plugs and especially NOT for plugs in 4.6 3V engines! The plug can easily break.


John McIlnay
8 months ago

I don't know where your friend got his info but the procedure is not correct, as I noted. Check out the Autolite video. That one is. As for what I know, my degree is in Automotive Engineering, I was an OEM Regional Service Manager covering 5 states for 9 years and I taught an automotive repair course at the local community college 16 times over a number of years. As an RSM, one of the biggest challenges was retraining older techs on how to work on newer vehicles. This is a example as to why.


John McIlnay
8 months ago

Do NOT follow this procedure! Plugs can break. An air wrench is not a spark plug tool!

Andrew Holland
4 weeks ago
in reply to 0rnery

Nope, John is right. The only time you should use a rattle gun on a engine is when your undoing bolts that are 10mm or larger, and thats only to undo them. If you use it for anything else you shouldnt own one. Why take the risk of damaging a plug then having to strip down to be able to extract the plug when you can simply use a racket, take a few seconds longer and play it safe. I have had countless weekend warriors attempted to do there own work only to bring it in Monday for me to fix!

Only trouble I had, was with the first plug I tried, and didn't have the impact set high enough. The rest of the plugs came out without a hitch. Video 2, Video 3. Please post your thoughts on this procedure in the comments section!
 






yeah these people who post on your youtube are uninformed and must not know about the 3v engine. This is the way to do it on this engine only, otherwise I won't use impacts to change out spark plugs. Also the 4.6 3v is allot less common to break than the 5.4l.
 






It's annoying as hell! For Christ's sake, they're sitting there watching a damn video where it works, and still spouting off about doing it "The Ford Way". Pretty sure I'll be done with this truck before I have to do the plugs again, but if anybody asks, I'll say this is certainly the way to go. I have no idea why it works, and I'd always have the Lisle extraction kit available, but this method is tried & true. Ford's method is still a nail biter, and takes forever!

Here's 8 out of 8 removed intact, in under five minutes... one handed!

 












Holy cow, those are some REALLY cool vids, thanks for sharing!

Where were these when I was looking for help last year?

Seriously, I have suffered through some pretty bad tech videos on all sorts of topics, the 2 vids I watched here were hands down the best ever. Good info and also just done professionally without any rambling or garbage.

Thanks again! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 






Holy cow, those are some REALLY cool vids, thanks for sharing!

Where were these when I was looking for help last year?

Seriously, I have suffered through some pretty bad tech videos on all sorts of topics, the 2 vids I watched here were hands down the best ever. Good info and also just done professionally without any rambling or garbage.

Thanks again! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thank you so much for the kind words! I have really strived to be different in those areas after reviewing other tech videos and allot of people comment on them, so I must be doing something right.
 






Few notes here-
-It is best to do this while the engine is warm, so after soaking the plugs overnight blow out the rest of the solvent and reinstall coils without bolts and run engine till warm.
-Also if your ignition coil boots are brown in color and not black you have the new plug design that does not have this issue.
 






This is what I did at 96k. I used my Dewalt impact, but same idea. No broken plugs.
 






This is what I did at 96k. I used my Dewalt impact, but same idea. No broken plugs.

sweet, so glad to see more people that have had that work. im at 116K miles and im so worried. my truck was built in Late 2008 so maybe better plugs..
 






Few notes here-
-It is best to do this while the engine is warm, so after soaking the plugs overnight blow out the rest of the solvent and reinstall coils without bolts and run engine till warm.
-Also if your ignition coil boots are brown in color and not black you have the new plug design that does not have this issue.

Hey... so question for you. i did a bunch of research today and this is the first i noticed that there are two plugs for the 3v 4.6
looks like ford changed the heads in mid 2008?

when i went on http://www.fordparts.com/ and put in my vin i have the brown boots and also i noticed when i looked up the plugs i see the plugs now have threads like all the way down.

so if im correct 2006-2008 1/2 have : ford 12405 (SP-462)
and 2008 1/2 - 2010 have: ford 12405 (SP-509)

So the two plugs look like this correct?
1339248768839-16865879.jpg
 












SP547 is just the plug part number. You might want to get a few individual coil boots as water contamination is common in #3 and #7. You don't have have to replace the whole coil, most of the time the issue is just in the boot.
 












From what I can tell that is just for the plug
 












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