My truck died last night

Went to go to dinner with my wife last night.
My Ford van made a horrible noise right after start up.
Turned around a block later got it to my driveway .That was lucky.

I think it blew a spark plug out of #2 cylinder but since
it is a van it is impossible to see or get to.

My OBD II says "Misfire cylinder #2" General code 302.
Yeah I think it misfired when it blew out the head and was not grounded?

Anyway the van has 197,000 miles and online there are numerous reports of
Ford trucks blowing out spark plugs. MANY reports by angry owners. A known issue and many people report it has happened more than once on the same engine.

I think it may be the end for this van.

I mention this because it slows down my MOTORCYCLE PROJECT!!!!!

 

Vans do suck to work on, good luck.

 

I repaired two spark blown out plug holes in my daughter's Ford Expedition (since sold, it was a raging POS) with Timeserts. Not a task for the fainthearted....I won't do it again.

 

Well I just went out to the van to see if the OBDII was correct. BINGO!!! #2 spark plug
loose.

I am really sick of this van. It has cost me more money than any vehicle I have ever owned.

 

Good luck on that work Don, like Toe said I would not want to have to work on anything in a van either.

 

Thanks for the support.
The van has 197,000 miles so I am at a crossroads.
Fix or replace the engine or buy a new vehicle.
When I read all of the stories on the internet of people stranded in the middle of nowhere it bothered me.

But this spark plug problem could still happen on a new engine.
That is the real drawback.

 

Yeah but your way past manufactures warranty time frame.

Do like Creaky says I swear by timeserts they are the correct long term fix. When my neighbor trained me to port and polish cylinder heads he turned me on to them. He did them on the majority of his head repairs and would swap to them regardless weather it was needed. On a set of Aluminum heads he always did it even if the head was brand new and the racers never complained.

Sorry to here about the Van.

I did the timesert on a Kawasaki of mine because I screwed up the install. Wife was rushing me for something and I think i forgot to torque it right The spark plug was loose in about 500 miles and the damage already done. But timesert fixed it up and never had a problem chaining the plug and the insert pulling out like a Helicol.

 

Bummer, Donald. Damn good thing the manufacturers have such stringent quality control programs in place!

 

Thanks for all the information and support .
I will report back what the outcome is.

 

Just as an aside;
Can you install a timesert without removing the head? Seems like you would get metal chips down into the cylinder, risking scoring the cylinder wall or damaging a ring.

 

If you saw where this spark plug is situated you would just shake your head and walk away.

 

Designed in Detroit with ease of maintenance in mind?

 

There is a way to get to this engine. Remove the body.

 

I now believe it is possible to stay up one whole night reading stories about spark plugs blowing out of ford engines. Not kidding.

Now ask me how I know that?

 

You need a Back-Tap! fancy little expandable tap that you insert inside the cylinder, and it meshes with the good threads on the combustion chamber side, and you back it out through the fudged up threads where the plug was. Slobber it with grease and it catches all the shavings and draws them up and out of the head.

Works great, no need to helicoil or remove the head, just be carefull not to tighten (expand) it too much at first, and do multiple passes, cleaning the thing each time. Had to do this when I cross threaded a compression tester in my Suzuki. Stupid aluminum heads.

Linky:
New Blue-Point 10mm Spark Plug Back Tap SPHR2 | eBay

PS: Probably obvious, but make sure you get the correct one for the thread size on your engine. The Codes on the plug generally will tell you the thread size, or the repair manual.

 

Nothing wrong with aluminum heads. The problem with the Ford engines was they used short reach spark plugs which only had 4-5 (.470 reach) threads like when they used to make cast iron cylinder heads.

Most all aluminum head engines use 3/4 inch reach spark plugs.
More threads -no problems.

Ford actually did try to help at one point.
They offered to sell the dealerships new cylinder heads for a reduced price. Big deal.

I do not want to buy a new engine from FORD if it has the same design defect.
A new engine installed is $7,500. But a new van costs $30,000. Problem is who wants to spend $7,500 then it can happen again!
Also on the newer engines they went to a black plastic intake manifold which cracked and leaked water.
They tried to fix that by adding an aluminum plate on the on the openings on the intake manifold to keep it from cracking. My 1999 Ford engine had the aluminum intake manifold. No problems.
Why do the engineers just keep trying to use plastic on hot engines?
DAMN THEM!
Kawasaki had a serious problem when they used a plastic oil pump gear on the 1500 V twin motorcycle engines and that failed, also resulting a ruined engine.
That really cost them. That was on the years 1996-2000 1500's EXCEPT the Drifter and Nomad.
A private party made new metal oil pump gears and a way to change them out without taking the engine out and dismantiling it.

My wife's 2006 Toyota has a plastic intake manifold bolted to the hot engine block also. We will see ho long that lasts. 50,000 miles so far.

Any way I want to get back to my motorcycle project.

 

Do you remember the infamous Ford V-6 cylinder head gasket problem? Right about 62K to 70K, Poof! There goes a head gasket. And then there was their "thick film" harness that ran through the steering column. It's mode of failure was the engine suddenly stopping. And then there was the cruise control switch, mounted on the master cylinder, that was responsible for the vehicle catching fire when the vehicle was parked; apparently the cruise control circuit was still active with the ignition off, and did not have proper circuit protection (i.e. fuse)...

Somebody came up with the ideas, somebody "checked" them and somebody approved them. Scary.

 

Yes my 1999 E350 Ford Van was recalled for that short piece of wiring that goes near the master cylinder. They installed it and just left it dangling. Did not secure it in any way. That cost me 1/2 day sitting in plastic chairs next to the vending machines.

 

The way I read all this is a fording problem that does not seem to exsist on a GMC. LOL But then I just changed out a steering column on my Sierra yesterday. GM is infamous for those going clunky on you last few years,

 

AMERICAN CARS ARE SLIGHTY LESS RELIABLE THAN THEIR JAPANESE/EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS. There, I said it. Now to hop in my '88 Lincon Town Car and speed away before the torches/pitchforks get here.