Helicoiled Plug

yzfr6i · Oct 25, 2014

I recently purchased an '02 GT and the previous owner told me the number 3 plug had blown out and they had a helicoil installed. I'm wanting to swap out the plugs when I change the injectors. Should I avoid number 3 all together, or just treat it with the same caution as the others?

This is my first 4.6, and am learning that it needs to be treated a little different than my 5.0s.

Thanks for any input.

Jgehret · Oct 25, 2014

I'd the previous owner repaired the cylinder in question with the proper repair kit you can change it all day long. I repair one or two a week with the Matco repair kit. Plugs get changed frequently in my shop due to extensive miles put on our sales fleet vehicles.

yzfr6i · Oct 25, 2014

The repair was done by a shop. I just keep hearing a bunch of horror stories about changing the plugs on these cars. Everything else I've done so far has actually been easier than my 5.0, and the gains you can get out of simple bolt-ons with these engines is far better than the old 5 liter. Plus I have to admit that the 4.6 does sound good.

96blak54 · Oct 25, 2014

The true fix is to get the 04-up 2v heads that have the 9thread plug holes.

D3VST8R96GT · Oct 25, 2014

You should be fine just swapping it out. It can come out regardless if your ****ing with it or not.... Might as well change it ......

Incentive to go trick flow lol.....

96blak54 · Oct 25, 2014

Oh yea! 38cc chambers and nasty cams!

yzfr6i · Oct 25, 2014

HiTech stage 2's in the spring. But this is supposed to be my DD.

And before any of that happens I have to resolve the smoking issue that started when I removed the cats.

96blak54 · Oct 26, 2014

Why would you pick up such a nasty habit like smoking when you kicked the cats out? lol just kidding

How bad does it smoke? Any oil consumption? When do you notice the smoke?

yzfr6i · Oct 26, 2014

It doesn't smoke until the engine is almost fully warmed up. Then it only smokes if you idle for a bit and puffs out a cloud when you pull away. It's really bad when you put it under a load to back into a parking space. I've only put 600 miles on the car in the 4 months I've owned it, and had the oil changed a month ago, so it's hard to tell if there is any oil consumption.

I did put some Lucas fuel system cleaner in it the other day figuring if it made any changes good or worse it would put me on track as to where to look; oil or fuel. It did seem to make the smoking get worse. I let it idle in the driveway yesterday for an hour with the tuner hooked up and when I got in the car the pressure drop across injectors was at 67, when normally it's at 39 at idle. This was with the factory tune in the car.

When I got the car it was all stock, aside from a K&N FIPK intake. Drove it like that for 3 months with no problems, then decided to put on a cat back and o/r H because it was too quiet. As soon as the cats came off and I drove far enough for the engine to warm up the smoke appeared.

D3VST8R96GT · Oct 26, 2014

Have you unhooked the battery? In hook the battery for 15mins and reset the computer.

Any codes. Lean/rich

Does it smell like its running rich?

DropTopPony · Oct 26, 2014

The repaired plug should be the one you worry about the least if it was done right. I have seen a few guys running high boost install time certs in perfectly good heads for piece of mind.

yzfr6i · Oct 26, 2014

No codes. Changed back to my stock tune yesterday morning, and went through the re-learn process. I actually thought everything was good. It idled in the drive for 10 minutes with just your typical cold start smoke from condensation. Turn the air on high/max for 2 minutes, then drove about 10 miles. Everything was good till I had to sit at a light for a few minutes. Blipped the gas to pull away and there was the ball of smoke.

I work at a Chevy dealer, and had a few mechanics smell the exhaust and look at the smoke. They say it's either fuel or they can't tell for sure. I'm really bad at detecting smells, but it will burn your eyes and your sinuses if you stand behind it for too long. Get down and sniff and you'll nearly pass out.

One other thing. My work did the oil change about a week before I did the exhaust. My paperwork shows they used 6qts of 0W20. My manual says my car takes 5qts of 5W20. I argued with them that it says 5 quarts, but they said they called our Ford store and they said use 6 quarts, and the 0W20 would be fine. The car has 170,000 miles.

My short term fuel trims were at 0.98 and 1.00 when my drop across injectors was showing 66.75

yzfr6i · Oct 26, 2014

Just drained a little under a quart of oil, and went for a drive. Went to my work, backed into my spot, and no smoke that I could see. And we have very bright lights on our lot. Sat for a minute at idle pulled out and drove home. Pulled into my garage, saw no smoke in the flood lights, and it didn't smell. I hope this was the fix to the smoking problem.