Spark Plug Shot Out

KillNThrill24

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So I was about to head home from work today to grab my chef coat I forgot, and I started my car and BOOM, pop pop pop pop pop pop. Naturally I'm thinkin wtf was that? So I pop the hood while it was running, and see my f'n coil just chillin on the valve cover, boot was gone. I figure great some how my damn coil snapped. I called my dude who has an 01 and ask if he can bring me up a coil from his car and a socket and ratchet so I can get home later? He says sure and brings it all up to me.

Fast forward a few hours, it's about 9:30 and I think it's a good time to go change the coil so I can mop the floors and go home. Well what happens? O I drop the f'n socket down in the spark plug chamber and hear a strange clinky clank that I know isn't good. I grab my flashlight and look down and say to myself "where the fukk is my spark plug?" I start looking around and see it sitting on the ground underneath the car..... It all started making sense. The coil didn't just mistakenly break itself, the damned plug shot out of the head!

I call my buddy Brian (dude who brought me his coil) and he comes to pick me up in a brand new 2013 Honda Accord (he works at Honda, and yet still drives a Mustang and has a fukk Honda sticker under the hood of his Mustang lmao) and has a magnet and flash light with him. Some how with that little magnet of his and many many attempts he snags the socket and pulls it out! Thank God because that's the one thing that worried me most. He then looked at the plug, all the threads looks fine. Then looks at the threads on the head, he counts 4 good threads. There's 4 threads being used on the spark plug..

My old man tells me that I would have heard a popping sound coming from the spark plug due to it backing out. I showed him the video I took a few months back that I posted on here thinking it was an exhaust leak, and he says "yeah that's the sound it would make, you may have gotten lucky." So what do you guys think? Anyone had this happen to them? I'm really hoping that the previous owner who did the plugs just didn't torque them properly and that it just backed out. I'm gonna go back to work tomorrow (on my day off haha) to hopefully get the plug back in and bring it home later. Any precautions I should take when I go out there?

Also there was a little water that fell in from it raining all day and me opening the hood. How would I go about getting that out of the combustion chamber? Or should I let it dry? Sorry for the long thread lol it's just been one of those days
 
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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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^Well that would be a relief, in a sense lol. Becuase if it stripped the threads... There went all my winter build plans

And that would possibly explain that common Ford "tick" you hear a lot in especially F150's?
 

BruhBrahBrad

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I've had that happen to me before, it took out the threads on the head, had to get it timeserted I believe, this was a while ago. I also had the tick problem on this mustang, just had to tighten the plugs.
 
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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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I'm really hoping that it didn't take the threads out of the head man. If you can remember.. Did the threads look all messed up on the plug itself? Or have any threads from the head on it? Mine look surprisingly clean.. With not burs or anything in them
 

Musturd

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Common for this I'm just glad you didn't have to do a time cert on the head
 
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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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I had to on my Grand Am's 3400. Had 2 broken studs. I had no clue this kinda thing happened to these cars. Anyone know what the proper torque should be for the plugs? I'm for sure gonna torque this one, provided the threads aren't gone..
 

CC'S95GT

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My Dad had a plug and threads blow out of his 50,000 mile Lightning while cruising down the hwy.
He had a heli-coil put in without pulling the head and is good now.
 

RichV

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Ug. Our Excursion with the 6.8 did the exact thing. The 1st time, I started it to leave somewhere and heard the pop-pop-pop. Opened the hood and the #9 cyl coil was where the noise was coming from. I was able to remove the coil and get the plug back in, but I coul feel that it only went in about 3 full threads. Careful not to strip it, I got the plug in, but I knew I would have to deal with #9 again. It hapened again a few months later only this time the whole plug shot out, the coil was ruined from heat damage. I'm sure it's been leaking up through the plug, and when I tried to tighten the plug I felt the thread let go. I got a plug insert kit fron NAPA, they make the Ford kit for the NPI motors but didn't have it in stock, so I got a universal. My advice is to get the Ford kit, it comes with a longer insertion tool which is good with the mod motor because it has such a deep plug hole. Anyway, followed the destructions and it worked just fine. Had to replace that coil too.

Ford fixed this issue with the PI heads, the 6.8L came out with PI heads in 04 IIRC. I did some research on this the 1st time the plug popped out. Thought about replacing both heads, they were actualy pretty reasonable from the dealer.

I can get you the NAPA part # if you'd like. As far as getting that tool out of your combustion chamber... patience and a magnet on a antenna tool. I fished out a broken half of a oil pump driveshaft out of the motor with one of those through the distributor hole. That was fun.
 

greenscobie86

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Very common problem on mod motors. I used to see Town Cars/Vic's with this issue all the time.

Problem is not enough threads in the heads and people over torquing the plugs.

Time sert is the answer for sure, I think they even make a Ford specific kit.
 

lutter94

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I wouldn't worry about the water, unless it sits in there for months....That first combustion stroke will take care of it......lol
 

Steve@CJPP

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welcome to the headache of the 4.6 2v. My Bullitt shot everyone out but 1 and two of those 7 times it destroyed the coil and stripped the threads in the head. hasn't (knock on wood) happen in over a year but man it sucked.
 

FrankenStang

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i hear alot about plug problems with these 4.6's and see alot for sale because of blown plugs...BUT a helicoil kit if thats what its called isnt a hard job..But for me when i tighten the plugs i do half turn past tight and i ALWAYS use anti seize and boot protector as the 4.6's love to get moister or water in the plug valley..
 

Rice_slayer

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Happened to my friends 99 GT too, his blew out and broke the coil pack too :/. Hopefully there isn't too much water in it, I had some brake fluid in mine (I forgot to put my coil cover back on after bleeding the master cylinder :/) and it just burnt it off ASAP, nice white smoke then normal lol. Haven't had an issue on my 4v mach or 3.0L escape *Knock on wood*.
 

Nightmare

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Happened to my friends 99 GT too, his blew out and broke the coil pack too :/. Hopefully there isn't too much water in it, I had some brake fluid in mine (I forgot to put my coil cover back on after bleeding the master cylinder :/) and it just burnt it off ASAP, nice white smoke then normal lol. Haven't had an issue on my 4v mach or 3.0L escape *Knock on wood*.

Well I have never heard of the issue with the escape, so I wouldnt worry about that. Hell that engine has been around for so long, I doubt that you will ever see any major issues with it as long as you keep up with the maint.

For the mod motors, I know this was especially common on the 5.4 engines and the early v-10's. Like Rich said, this should not be an issue with the P.I. heads and above (3v ect). I have never seen this issue on a 4v. The few times that I have seen the 2v motors blow a plug is if the plug is not propperly torqued, or if the threads were stripped apon the removal (this is commonly seen when the factory plugs have been in there for a long time). I am thinking that is your issue, as was the case of a lot of the people on here who have had this issue happen on their 2v.
 

2lowsn

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I went through this exact same thing the first year i owned my 5L. 1 plug would blow out every couple of weeks or so.
 
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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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It's stipped... Well now that I have no choice but to go fix my busted brake and fuel lines on my Grand Am... What should I do now? Attempt to pull the head off and re thread the head or just say fck it and buy new heads? My plan for the Tork Tech just got shot to shit..


EDIT: Thanks for all the input tho guys, knew I could look to you guys for help
 

CC'S95GT

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You shouldn't need to pull the head. Make sure you coat the threads of the tap with grease to keep most of the shavings from falling into the cylinder.
 
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KillNThrill24

KillNThrill24

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Where would I find a tap for that? Pretty sure the kit I have won't work. And that Napa thing... I think I'll pass $70 and you have to keep that adapter in the head and use the special plug they give you. I have serious doubts that that kit will hold up to squat

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2
 

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