Ticking time bomb TICK TICK TICK: Spark plugs Alert Alert Alert!

[Jczajka]

When rechecking torque, do not loosen. Loosening and Re-torquing the crush washer will not seal as well IMHO.

Gotcha. Thats what I thought. Too late for the #1 plug I already pulled, but glad I did since I was getting blow by. New TT plugs going in tomorrow after I clean out all the tubes.

Advance Auto said my Optima Red Top was fine and charged it up. Time to start looking for a better replacement, this battery has been frustrating.

 

[flintknapper]

Advance Auto said my Optima Red Top was fine and charged it up. Time to start looking for a better replacement, this battery has been frustrating.

^^^^^

Stopped using the Red Top 15 yrs. ago. NOT the battery they used to be by a long shot. Don't know what changed but I wouldn't waste my money on them.

Many Years ago they were a great battery. Had a pair on my Early Model Bronco (driven daily, winch used fairly often) that lasted NINE (yes NINE) years. Second pair after that got about 7 years (still good). Third set (and all replacements after that) barely got 3 yrs.

 

[Jczajka]

Replaced all the sparkplugs and cleaned everything up.

#1, #7, #8 plugs and coils were all super oily. All plugs were crusty, and little damp with oil, and crusty build up around the crush washers. Checked torque with the plugs that were in there and they were all less than or right around 10 lb/ft as that was a low as my wrench went.

Vacuumed out the tubes and cleaned with a rag on a wire as best I could. New Denso TT plugs all torqued to 17 lb/ft and engine, reconnected the battery, & buttoned back up. Car started a little slow, not sure if its my sluggish Optima or if the starter is starting to struggle. Going to get a better battery before I dive into the starter.

Drove around to relearn and the car drives great with new (tight) plugs and new DT headers. The exhaust was smelling a little gassy before replacing the plugs and now I don't notice it anymore. I'll recheck the plugs in a couple thousand miles.

 

[banjo1981]

Star date 198,300 miles on 1/24/2021:

I decided to investigate the new to me 2005 LX470 spark plugs and coil boots. Turned out all 8 weren’t close to torque spec.
All plugs looked new, coils/boots were all in good shape (no cracks), plug sockets all bone dry , valve cover gaskets dry as well.

So I torqued to spec and put it all back together with peace of mind that it’s done and won’t leave me stranded. Thanks for the heads up, this forum is the that keeps on giving.

 

[94SRUNNER]

I went through and replaced my plugs in early October as I found all but 2 barely snug and all the electrodes rounded off. I am thinking I may have gotten a set up of fake Denso plugs. I replaced them with a known set and torqued to about 16ft-lbs. Well 4 months later, I replaced the coil packs and check the torque. They were all still within spec.

 

[Red Merle]

I just learned about this problem this morning. I was changing my oil anyway so I decided to check the status of my plugs as long as I was already wrenching. Very glad I did! All of mine were loose with the exception of the front most plug on the passenger side. I was very surprised at how loose they were. I decided to order new NGK plugs and will install those when they arrive but for now I just went with "pretty tight" with a standard 3/8" ratchet.

I normally use a little anti seize but I am not sure I will when I go back in with new plugs.

The last record I have of new plugs was at Lexus at around 123K and the truck now has 169K for reference.

 

[2001LC]

Do not use anti-seize. As plugs walkout, hot gasses escaping, cook the stuff. Than plugs are near impossible to get out once anti -seize bakes in.

 

[thebeedeegee]

This thread made me check mine again today. I think I last checked about 10k miles ago. All are still tight thankfully.

 

[zhloea]

I think all of my spark plugs could be consider as "Normal" or "Normal life"? and the one with a lot of oil was caused by a leaking sparkplug grommet? Am I right?

 

[ShenValley100LC]

Ok, this thread is incredibly long, I tried to read as much as I could before asking this but: how do you know if oil in the tube is from the tube seal being old or the spark plug being loose?

 

[Gnarwgn]

Confirming my understanding here -

Just hit 200k, and I'm about waist deep in the spark plug/boot coil project. I've pulled 4 of 8 coils so far, and 3 of 4 are cracked. Almost identical cracking from tip to tail of the coil on all three. Boots are in surprisingly good shape. Do I understand correctly that cracked coil = replace the coil? Just want to double check that given the cost to replace coils...can someone explain what I'm risking if I put the cracked coils back in with new plugs? I'm 99% sure I wouldn't do that anyway, I just want to understand. Thanks!

 

[dace voit]

Confirming my understanding here -

Just hit 200k, and I'm about waist deep in the spark plug/boot coil project. I've pulled 4 of 8 coils so far, and 3 of 4 are cracked. Almost identical cracking from tip to tail of the coil on all three. Boots are in surprisingly good shape. Do I understand correctly that cracked coil = replace the coil? Just want to double check that given the cost to replace coils...can someone explain what I'm risking if I put the cracked boots back in with new plugs? I'm 99% sure I wouldn't do that anyway, I just want to understand. Thanks!

Replace the boots. If the coil bodies are cracked, then replace the coils. I would not put cracked boots back in unless I had to drive the truck while waiting for new ones.

EDIT: I just read closer to what you wrote. Disregard the boot comment. I would replace the coils if cracked.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

It was running with the cracked coil plastic before, no reason it won't keep running if you put them back in. Also, no one here's done any post-mortem on bad coils to see if they were cracked and if that points to coils failing. Think it's just a case of plastic in a hot environment. That said, I had one cracked last plug change and opted to replace it.

 

[SlowBuild]

I blew out my #4 plug yesterday looks like it worked itself loose, knocked a ton, finally threw miss fire codes, then blew. I towed it to the shop, they’re going to try a helicoil.

P0606 blinking CEL

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[SlowBuild]

I blew out my #4 plug yesterday looks like it worked itself loose, knocked a ton, finally threw miss fire codes, then blew. I towed it to the shop, they’re going to try a helicoil.

P0606 blinking CEL

forum.ih8mud.com

View attachment 2738695View attachment 2738696

FWIW: About 75k miles on Denso iridium plugs.

 

[2001LC]

75K miles is very very early for a blow out, if torqued even to factory spec of 13ft-lbf. Most walkouts, blowouts are closer to about 150K that i've seen. But miles doesn't tell the whole story. It's really about how many warm up and cool down cycles.

Good luck!

 

[apdxyk]

Never had this on the 4.7, but had more than enough on Ford 4.6 V8. Enough to recommend a proper fix instead of a helicoil, which is a shortcut. Shortcuts are to be paid dearly for later. In fact, if I see a helicoil during a prepurchaise inspection I walk away. Beware of the shops advertising a fix for a suspiciously low price either. Sadly, a lot of those also use a helicoil instead of a proper solution.

 

[2001LC]

Yeah I agee @apdxyk. I just did compression test on a Helicoil fix, and it was low. Metal shavings in cylinder no doubt. Now it would take a rebuild and possible oversize rings and piston.

 

[SlowBuild]

It’ll be a Time-Sert installed with head on the block (unless everyone here shouts otherwise). Mechanic says the cylinder looks clean so far with boroscope. Should only take a little time, if it’s unsatisfactory we can always pull the head and readdress it. Checking all plugs for signs of back out, all coils for overheating. Checking for vacuum leaks. PCV & lines are new 20k mikes ago. Replacing all coils/plugs/gaskets. I didn’t personally install the current plugs I’m hoping to understand why they (at least #4) came so loose.

What else would you recommend?

I have been hearing a manifold tick last year or so getting increasingly worse. Likely it was the plugs, we’ll see. A slight loss of power last couple of weeks, not noticeable to anyone but me, and a little less smooth. The rough idle and knocking came on pretty quickly. I noticed it driving my wife to work. Two miles later she noticed it. I continued 4 miles on to her work by then it was making my nervous but was less above 2k rpm. I drove an easy 20 miles cruising along at 50mph to my kids swim meet, knocking was pretty consistent but didn’t sound deadly. (t + 25 miles) Then I posted here, it didn’t go away but got worse. I foolishly drove 25 miles home in slow 2-lane traffic with lots of lights. Up a steep 1/2 mile driveway, then I’m pretty sure it blew just after shifting into reverse to park at my house. 50 miles from relatively normal to blown plug and disintegrated coil. I know I could have made some better decisions but that’s in the past. I’m looking for the best path forward now.

Could this be related to my previous occasional P0156 code? Either cause or symptom? What else to look for? Just rebuild & monitor?

 

[flipckyLC]

It’ll be a Time-Sert installed with head on the block (unless everyone here shouts otherwise). Mechanic says the cylinder looks clean so far with boroscope. Should only take a little time, if it’s unsatisfactory we can always pull the head and readdress it. Checking all plugs for signs of back out, all coils for overheating. Checking for vacuum leaks. PCV & lines are new 20k mikes ago. Replacing all coils/plugs/gaskets. I didn’t personally install the current plugs I’m hoping to understand why they (at least #4) came so loose.

What else would you recommend?

I have been hearing a manifold tick last year or so getting increasingly worse. Likely it was the plugs, we’ll see. A slight loss of power last couple of weeks, not noticeable to anyone but me, and a little less smooth. The rough idle and knocking came on pretty quickly. I noticed it driving my wife to work. Two miles later she noticed it. I continued 4 miles on to her work by then it was making my nervous but was less above 2k rpm. I drove an easy 20 miles cruising along at 50mph to my kids swim meet, knocking was pretty consistent but didn’t sound deadly. (t + 25 miles) Then I posted here, it didn’t go away but got worse. I foolishly drove 25 miles home in slow 2-lane traffic with lots of lights. Up a steep 1/2 mile driveway, then I’m pretty sure it blew just after shifting into reverse to park at my house. 50 miles from relatively normal to blown plug and disintegrated coil. I know I could have made some better decisions but that’s in the past. I’m looking for the best path forward now.

Could this be related to my previous occasional P0156 code? Either cause or symptom? What else to look for? Just rebuild & monitor?

I came across this video a while back. This guy ran his own test of all the different types of thread inserts with Time-Sert failing at lower pullout force vs helicoil.