Solved How to change SPARK PLUGS on a 4.6L V-8

[rbbaker]

Like easyrhino said, one of the most important things to to make sure the engine is cold. I did not do this and wound up blowing a plug out the head. Two actually. The first one went when i was on a farm about an hours north of Winnipeg. When the plug blew out it destroyed the coil pack also. Thankfully it is the same as the f-150 which most farmers seem to own so I was able to get a new coil pack from a local farm implement dealer.

 

[Antho]

Has anbody else found heaps of dirt and crap in the spark plug holes?

Especially the 2 rear ones

Any recommendations on how to keep them clean?

 

[rbbaker]

What I have done on mine to keep the crude out is to pull the coil packs, blow out the crud with compressed air then put a bead of dielectric grease along the lip of the boot. This way it creates a nice seal between the head and the boot.

 

[Antho]

Good idea will be doing that for sure

 

[LMHmedchem]

Has anbody else found heaps of dirt and crap in the spark plug holes?

Especially the 2 rear ones

Any recommendations on how to keep them clean?

I sprayed a little carb cleaner in my spark plug holes after blowing them out with the compressor. This helped to clean off some of the baked on crud. Don't over do it. I read one post where someone put allot of carb cleaner in the holes, but then removed the excess with twisted up paper towels. That might work if you have allot of black coating that won't come off. If too much carb cleaner gets down into the engine, it may not start.

Also, before blowing out the hole, I put a rubber stopper in the hole to seal it off and then used engine cleaner to really clean the area around the top of the hole. There was so much junk there that I was afraid that I would blow more into the hole than out of it. I put a screw eye in the rubber stopper to make it easier to get in an out. I you do that, just make sure you use a stopper that is plenty big enough. Losing it down the hole would be a pain to deal with.

LMHmedchem

 

[J5hort]

Not sure if there is any other motivation for post re; spark plug replacement, but I have read some horror stories about plugs snapping in heads. I think this was a known problem where buildup would form on tips of plug threads and get stuck inside the spark plug holes of the aluminium head. The result was the need to have to extract plug threads, bore a new opening and set a tapped insert.

I have been hesitating on changing my plugs with this in mind, but will probably need to attempt using procedure in a TSB that was meant to minimize this issue.