Help identifying a part for engine repair - Blown Spark Plug

[Stynx]

Do you have a shop vac? Duct tape a small tube onto the smallest attachment and use that to suck out the water for a better view. Use compressed or canned air to blow out the rest, clean off the endo camera lens and try again. You should be able to get a decent view dry but never wet.

 

[X-LION]

I got an endo camera and took a few shots. It's not the greatest res but gives the general idea. The shots are moving down the cylinder, reading left to right (first being out of cylinder, last being at the hole at bottom of cylinder). As soon as I pass the camera through the hole everything gets black. Camera has quite powerful LEDs and is just under 8mm or about .3” diameter and fits through.

I tried to clear the water as best I can but those lower shots are submerged. I’m reluctant to turn the engine over unless I have too because of where it’s located - unless I’m safe to do so for just as a quick 1 minute burst to the clear water. The manual has things to say about battery connection and restart as attached though so not sure if I’m OK to do quick burst or not? Or maybe the shots show enough? Is the hole were the plug would normally thread in? If so, perhpas clearing the water might show the thread state?? Thanks again!

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Kiwifrog, if you can get paper towels to suck up all the water and moisture out of the plugs if you do not have compress air.

 

[Kiwifrog]

looks like no spark plug at home.....need to suck the water out of the spark plug well and cylinder then rotate engine over by hand....slowly

ok, bone dry and good shots.

New working theory - is part of the plug still in there, just the top white insulator has blown off? A local mechanic suggested this without having seen shots yet.

The piston looks pretty clean??

 

[Kiwifrog]

Kiwifrog, if you can get paper towels to suck up all the water and moisture out of the plugs if you do not have compress air.

No need to suck it out or turn it by hand. If the plugs are out roll it over with the starter. The water will purge almost immediately.

You could also blow it out with canned air.

Do you have a shop vac? Duct tape a small tube onto the smallest attachment and use that to suck out the water for a better view. Use compressed or canned air to blow out the rest, clean off the endo camera lens and try again. You should be able to get a decent view dry but never wet.

I ended up discussing it with a local mechanic who said just turn it over to blow the water out. They're well versed on many different Fords so decided to take the risk. The water blew straight out so I only ran it for less than a minute. It turned over immediately and seems to run fine overall except still loud of course because of that open cavity. And obviously that cylinder isn't firing. I detached the broken coil for now too.

 

[Kiwifrog]

Just thinking perhaps the only way I can know if the current plug is still partially in there or not is by removing one of the other coil and plugs, then do a comparative endo shot. Unless somebody else has a shot into a cavity with no plug in? I'm trying to assess what I may be able to do myself vs when I would need to hand off to a mechanic.

Any other suggestions? Thanks again for you valuable help.

 

[Kiwifrog]

Just thinking perhaps the only way I can know if the current plug is still partially in there or not is by removing one of the other coil and plugs, then do a comparative endo shot. Unless somebody else has a shot into a cavity with no plug in? I'm trying to assess what I may be able to do myself vs when I would need to hand off to a mechanic.

Any other suggestions? Thanks again for you valuable help.

Edit:

I found a video of sombody performing the CalVan 38900 installation that includes an endo inspection of the plug well area BEFORE the installation, as below.

from this video here;


It seems the blowouts can occur because there’s only a few threads for the plug to cling onto in the first place. Looking back at my endo’s I think what I’m seeing is the same well down to the few threads these plug wells seem to have and NOT an extra part in the well. So I’m starting to conclude the plug has definitely blown and unless there’s enough thread to hold another plug, I may need an insert. So full circle now and one for the mechanics at this point as I don’t have the tools and experience to do the inserts myself - or experience to determine if the existing thread is still usable or not.

 

[Stynx]

Image quality still makes it hard to see. Dealing with weird stuff like blown out spark plugs is what mechanics get paid for. Do the easy stuff yourself and leave this to

Edit:

I found a video of sombody performing the CalVan 38900 installation that includes an endo inspection of the plug well area BEFORE the installation, as below.
View attachment 438096

from this video here;


It seems the blowouts can occur because there’s only a few threads for the plug to cling onto in the first place. Looking back at my endo’s I think what I’m seeing is the same well down to the few threads these plug wells seem to have and NOT an extra part in the well. So I’m starting to conclude the plug has definitely blown and unless there’s enough thread to hold another plug, I may need an insert. So full circle now and one for the mechanics at this point as I don’t have the tools and experience to do the inserts myself - or experience to determine if the existing thread is still usable or not.

Yeah you pay mechanics to fix things when they are FUBAR, not when they are easy. One thing I'd want a mechanic to do is verify that there is no debris in the cylinder. Then let them try replacing the plug and getting it running.

Something is probably FUBAR because otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. Spark plugs don't just fall out when everything is normal.

 

[Kiwifrog]

Image quality still makes it hard to see. Dealing with weird stuff like blown out spark plugs is what mechanics get paid for. Do the easy stuff yourself and leave this to

Yeah you pay mechanics to fix things when they are FUBAR, not when they are easy. One thing I'd want a mechanic to do is verify that there is no debris in the cylinder. Then let them try replacing the plug and getting it running.

Something is probably FUBAR because otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. Spark plugs don't just fall out when everything is normal.

Yes agree whole heartedly. Over to the mechanic now. My initial goal was to understand exactly what happened (of which everybody has been very helpful thanks!) and repair myself if possible. But at this stage it seems wisest to lean on the expertise of the mechanic for the way forward.

A very big THANY YOU for all those who have contributed to the thread. I now feel much better armed with with more insight as to what I may need from the mechanic.

This following video was also very helpful, a mechanic who has done over 1000 CalVan inserts on these engines and shows why the plugs fail with examples. In some cases the plug just loosens over time, fingers crossed that may be my case!

 

[Kiwifrog]

I remembered I have a 45 degree mirror that came with the endoscope so was able to take shots of the heads pulg thread area. The only challenge being that the endo is optimized to be about 4cm (1.5 inch) away from what it's looking at otherwise it loses focus. So my lesson being to own and endo that has closer focus is more ideal. It was only about $15 though so can't complain. Anyway I'm seeing the normal 4 threads on most part of circumference, but hard to know for certain their condition or depth. Some hope anyway.

 

[Kiwifrog]

Just to follow up on this thread.

The thread was indeed confirmed as being stripped by an independent mechanic’s endo inspection which I could also see on one part of the thread in my endo shots - even though it was out of focus. It was cylinder 3 that the plug blew on the head (V8) incidentally , which after quite a bit of research into mechanics that have done into the thousands of these repairs on Fords - is the most common cylinder to fail in this way on these models. In some instances even at relatively low milage. There are only 4 threads in the head per cylinder to hold the plug so one has to wonder what Ford was thinking on an engine of this calibre.

Anyways an engine reconditioner installed an insert for me so the problem was resolved.

Thank you everybody for your kind support and help, very much appreciated!

 

[warnerwh]

Thanks for following up! My 05 4.6 blew the number 7 plug. Fortunately the threads were still there so it must have worked it's way out slowly. I still have a helicoil kit for the repair in case another blows. It may have been Fordtechmakuloco that said to torque them to 20 to 25ft.lbs or another 1/8th to 1/4 turn after they seat which is what I did and it's been 6 months and so far so good. The manual says only 13ft lbs.

 

[mountaineer2004]

It may have been Fordtechmakuloco that said to torque them to 20 to 25ft.lbs or another 1/8th to 1/4 turn after they seat which is what I did and it's been 6 months and so far so good. The manual says only 13ft lbs.

yep, I torque them to 20 foot pounds and have never had a problem.

 

[Kiwifrog]

This following video was one of the most informative too. Def worth a watch...



Edit: Oh I see I've double posted it. Apologies.