06 F150 5.4L Spark Plugs

54k and after reading about all the nightmares that people have had with their spark plugs on these year trucks, I decided to go ahead and do em before it becomes a problem. I only did half today, I'll do the other half in the next few days. I broke em loose and filled the hole up with seafoam up to the end of the porcelain and let it sit for 3 hours. The first one came out no sweat, not even hard to turn. This led me to believe the other 3 would come out just as easy. The second one came out a little harder than the first....but it was broken off with the electrode coming out, crap. The other 2 fought tooth and nail but came out whole. Thankfully the Matco guy was in the shop today. Bought the kit to take out the broken plug for 112$. It worked like a charm. One piece to push the porcelain into the ground shroud and another to pull it out. After using it once, I could get any of em (except the passenger rear 2) out that broke off the same way in 10 minutes or less. Got it all back together and it runs like a champ. Now to see how the other 4 treat me :)

Oh and one other thing, the plugs were worn out. There was barely any platinum tip as compared to a new plug. Without measuring, I'd guess them to have about .030-.035 gap over the new plugs.

Crack loose when heads are hot, but don't take out until cold.
Whats the torque for spark plugs? 28ft lbs.

I have heard of technicians cross threading a plug into a hot head, causing thread damage.

What kind of plugs did you use? Autolites or Motorcraft are the best for these engines. I'm not sure if they changed, but last I checked the 4.6 and 5.4 require .054" gap for NA.

I used the stocker Motorcraft plugs. I couldn't afford 20$ a pop for the single piece units. I hated paying 7$ a pop but it had to be done. I popped em loose after the truck had been sitting for a few hours and let it sit for 3ish hours before I even tried to budge em. I got the other 4 today and had 2 of em break. Thankfully after practicing with the tool on the other bank, I was able to get those 2 out in about 15 mins without a hitch. Popped em in and ran the truck and it is a big improvement. It feels a LOT better part-3/4 throttle and top end is only slightly better. Idle in drive is so silky its not even funny lol. I'm not sure what the gap is on the old ones and not sure what it is supposed to be on the new ones but it is quite a big difference. I have a good picture that I'll post when I get a chance.

I've never heard of spark plugs being so hard to get out of these engines. I wonder if they were over-torqued in the past. If that's the case, I'd be a little worried about the integrity of the threads in the head. Only torque these plugs down to 16 ft-lbs with NO anti-seize or oil on the threads and on a completely cold engine.

The 5.4L 3 valve engine is known for plugs breaking off in the head. It has nothing to do with over torqueing. The lower portion will sieze to the head and break off when the plug is turned is turned. The plug will break loose from the inside and the bottom stays in the head. Real PITA.

From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to matter how long the soak time is. The ones that broke, broke when I broke em loose the first time so they could soak. And I didn't use the word broke that many times on purpose lol.