Stuck Plugs

[creekhead]

HELLO! i am glad to see I found yall! It is tough being a Windstar Owner...glad to see I now have a place to turn

Anyone got any good ideas on getting Stuck plugs out? I tried to turn them out and used a LOT of muscle....but they won't budge...I am scared of Breaking on in the head and can't afford a shop at the moment...any help would Rule

Also...How in the Hell do you get to those back plugs...Man oh man...I tried from underneath and could do it...Should I remove some stuff on the top front of the motor to get to them?

THANK YOU!

Just did wheel bearings, brakes, sway bar, oil change, tie-rods, lubed the chasis....on and on...in the last 2 days...

All I have left to do is the Spark Plugs....Uhhggg!

[DRW1000]

I changed my plugs on my 99 recently and I was fearing the job for about a onth for exacltey the reson you mentioned. Stuck plugs.

You should take the cowling off for access to the rear plugs.

Back to the stuck plugs. You are wise to be careful. You may wish to spray some liquid wrench or something and let it soak for a while. I was told to ensure the moter was stone cold. This was in contrary to what I would expected as I thought an aluminum head would expand more than the spark plug and loosen but the advice came from 12Ounce and he pretty much always knows what he is talking about.

How many miles on the current plugs?

[creekhead]

I thin kthe plugs in it have a TON of milage on them...prolly 90.000 or so.
Thank you for the advise. Should I apply heat to them? Or do you think that I should try and remove them when the car is hot.....
I am just too scared to bust one. The engine needs plugs bad and at the gas prices....I feel I would be doing myself a large favor by replacing them.
THANK YOU FOR THE RESPONSE!

I just keep spraying them with PB blaster to loosen them....I am going to keep spraying them for another day and them tomarrow I am going to try and get them to come out.
Keep you fingers crossed....THANK YOU....I will check back again later

[road_rascal]

Depending on what year of Windstar you have I found that it was much easier removing the rear plugs from underneath the van. This is on my 2001. Even with the windshield cowling removed, the upper intake plenum was still way too close to the firewall to give me any useable working room. I have access to a very large 6 ton floor jack at my work which can lift my van about 20 inches off of the ground. The rear plugs are very visable and very easy to change with the van lifted in the air.

[DRW1000]

I think the engine should be stone cold. That was the advice I was given and that is how I did it. I had a couple that were tight but they all came out.

I mentioned that I thought it would be easier to warm the head and not the plug and therefore the head would expand and the plug would be theoretically looser. I WAS ADVISED NOT TO DO THIS AND SO I DID NOT. I removed them after the van sat all night.

[wiswind]

Getting to the plugs from under the car was very easy on my '96 3.8L. You want to position yourself so that you are looking up the front face of the firewall......and you will see them.
Change with engine cold as you will be hugging a catalytic converter during the plug change from under the car.
I removed and replaced 1 plug at a time.....to avoid any possibility of crossing any wires.

The factory plugs are rated for 100K miles....and will easily do that unless there is some other problem.

For replacement plugs.....use ONLY Motorcraft brand Double Platinum plugs. They will be good for another 100K miles.
Other plugs will very likely not perform as well...and could cause problems that will have you chasing your tail.