Ford Triton Spark Plug Ejection
The spark plug ejection defect affects a wide array of Ford engines, including the Triton 4.6L V8, 5.4L V8, 6.8L V10 & possibly others.
Ford insists the problem is due to improper torquing of new plugs or any number of other reasons. However many people have had the original factory spark plugs eject from the engine, which indicates there is a defect with the engine & cylinder head design.
The repair is relatively easy - do not be fooled by a dealer offering to repair the issue for $700 or more. An inexpensive HeliCoil kit will do the trick. Also, we do not recommend simply re-tapping the spark plug threads because the threads are probably too damaged already & the spark plug may just blow out again causing more damage.
Spark plug ejection is dangerous because fuel vapor starts coming out the spark plug hole, which is clearly a serious safety issue. The fuel vapor can be ignited by the loose spark plug - and in fact there have been a small number of cases reported of engine fires due to spark plug ejection/blowout.
So far the NHTSA has not forced Ford to issue a recall for spark plug ejection, so it's vitally important that anyone who experiences this issue make an NHTSA complaint at SaferCar.gov.
At the moment we're not aware of any class action lawsuits regarding this issue.
- 2003 Ford Expedition spark plug blowout
- 2000 Ford Expedition spark plug blowout
- COMPLAINT SEARCH: all spark plug complaints
- example Triton engine HeliCoil kit
Here is a good email from a concerned shop owner:
As a mechanic shop owner, I am very familiar with this particular Ford problem of spark plugs blowing out of cylinder heads. I own a 2002 F-250 and just yesterday on a perfectly maintained personal truck, I blew the #2 plug while cruising at 60 mph.
I also had never changed plugs due to lower mileage of this truck and therefore cannot be blamed for improper torquing of new plugs or any of the other unique ideas Ford is currently making up. I am somewhat of a Ford person and am not here to bash Ford, however I would like to clarify what happens in this situation. I began to notice what sounded like a fairly loud lifter noise about 5 days prior to blowing a plug and should have been suspicious because this is a overhead cam engine and therefore HAS NO LIFTERS!!!
It does have cam followers that can give trouble but the noise is different. Any way I changed oil at a 2500 mile interval just to be safe and noticed no difference. In hindsight I could have recognized the ticking noise for what it was and maybe saved the spark plug and coil and mostly the threads in the cylinder head. The ticking noise was high pressure air escaping around the threads of the LOOSENED sparkplug!!!
When a plug is loose and an engine is rotating at 2000 rpm, it generates a tremendous amount of pressure each time it fires a cylinder.
So the longer a sparkplug wobbles from being loose in the threads the more thread damage it does and finally the last few good threads can no longer take the pressure and out comes the plug!!, taking the last few threads with it.
So here we are and what do we do now? Most troubling to me is the huge diversity of dollar cost and repair procedures for a relatively simple thing to fix. A thirty dollar HeliCoil kit can do the trick if installed correctly with a good loctite compound installed on the threads of the repair insert. Sadly most mechanics just retap the hole and throw an insert in and a new plug. It usually lasts a while and then blows again creating a bigger problem! Don't panic! IT CAN BE FIXED!!!!
If this happens to you disconnect the coil harness at the plug in question as well as the fuel injector harness and you won't have an engine fire as a result of fuel vapor coming out of the plug hole and being ignited by the exposed coil!!!