My Mark VIII is (unofficially) out of business

When I had my '04 Mustang with the 4.6 2V, I had a plug blow out. Looked just like yours... I'll see if I can find the plug and post a pic of it.
 
Cripes. Do a compression check. If it's within 10-15 psi of the rest, the engine is fine. Fix the plug threads, change the gaskets, put in a new plug and coil and roll on....
 
Pantera1973 said:
Here's a photo of a Lincoln Navigator that had their plug loosen & blow out.

Look familiar?
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DieselDan said:
Before we go condemning engines and expensive stuff, lets try to figure out what is actually wrong with the engine. I love it when we start assuming and throwing parts around here...

First off, we need to figure out if the rotating assembly is okay. I would get a longish 10" maybe 1/4" drive extension and stick it in that cylinder's spark plug hole. Turn the engine by hand and see if the extension moves up and down. Make sure if the piston travels down that you don't lose your extension in the hole.
If the cylinder is moving, you are somewhat out of trouble.

Next, we need to figure out why your spark plug is no longer in the hole. You sound like you have thread damage... I would get a tap that matches the spark plug threads and cover the thing in grease. Then try to thread it into the hole. See what happens. Either the plug was loose and worked its way out, or the plug pulled the threads out of the head. Ford and some aftermarket companies make a guard-cert kit (basically a heli-coil) to replace the cylinder head spark plug threads.

Get back to us once you figure out if the piston is still attached to the connecting rod.
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I'm starting to feel a little better after seeing these pics. Didn't know this was common.

I was taught to never over-tighten the spark plugs and karma came back to bite me in the ass.

While I was driving back home, I would hear a knock or two, but maybe I was mistaking that for my custom exhaust hitting the floor board from the engine shaking, or perhaps worn out motor mounts.

We'll see what I find out tomorrow but am feeling a little more confident it's nothing serious.

96hotrodlincoln, I've been reading about that espensive time-sert kit doing the trick. If I need it, maybe I can show that I am trustworthy. I have 6k posts on svtperformance.com and I also sold my 98 Cobra on there without incident. And, I can show you my ebay feedback.
 
SATURN5 said:
Cripes. Do a compression check. If it's within 10-15 psi of the rest, the engine is fine. Fix the plug threads, change the gaskets, put in a new plug and coil and roll on....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought a generic NAPA coil just in case I would need it and turned out I do.
 
Holy smokes 6000 posts on SVT and you don't know about mod motors spitting out plugs? Common common
 
SaggyBagz said:
I'm starting to feel a little better after seeing these pics. Didn't know this was common.

I was taught to never over-tighten the spark plugs and karma came back to bite me in the ass.

While I was driving back home, I would hear a knock or two, but maybe I was mistaking that for my custom exhaust hitting the floor board from the engine shaking, or perhaps worn out motor mounts.

We'll see what I find out tomorrow but am feeling a little more confident it's nothing serious.

96hotrodlincoln, I've been reading about that espensive time-sert kit doing the trick. If I need it, maybe I can show that I am trustworthy. I have 6k posts on svtperformance.com and I also sold my 98 Cobra on there without incident. And, I can show you my ebay feedback.
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He might be more familiar with your old name.
 
Right on the Mark said:
Holy smokes 6000 posts on SVT and you don't know about mod motors spitting out plugs? Common common
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lol! To be fair, most of my posts were in the "hot girlfriends" thread or "hottest women" thread. Probably the two most popular threads that even different car forums flock to just to see them.:cool:
 
SaggyBagz said:
lol! To be fair, most of my posts were in the "hot girlfriends" thread or "hottest women" thread. Probably the two most popular threads that even different car forums flock to just to see them.:cool:
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So you're sayin' you are familiar with the hot girls popping out ......

Nevermind!
 
Hey ROTM, I was in agreement with you. Was just elaborating on the whole picture. :)

Saturn5 is correct too, a compression test would be great, I only did not mention It because you said you couldn't get a plug to thread into the hole, so you wouldn't be able to get a tester in that hole.
 
SaggyBagz said:
Out of nowhere last night while I was idling at a traffic light, engine started missing. Didn't think much of it since another coil or plug went.

Bought a new set of plugs and one coil just in case and started working on the car tonight.

Low and behold, the plug at the back on the driver side must have been pushed out by the piston. I'm thinking a rod went. What pisses me off the most is that I baby the car most of the time. :mad:

When I crank the car, I don't even hear air hissing in and out of that plug hole either, so that piston must be stationary.

Now I have no idea WTF I am going to do. The car will still run but it's no good for commuting. It could cost thousands just to get another engine in there.

For the short term, I will need to get my TBird out of storage, pay a mechanic to replace the trans tail shaft gasket (leaking like crazy) and use that car fulltime while I figure out what I will do with this car.. :(

eklDo.jpg
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Damn dude. Talk about sh!tty situation at the end of 2012. I hope you resolve this ASAP. Best of luck.
 
Wow, get a friend to help you pull a Mark VIII engine out at a Pick-N-Pull. I got mine on a half price day for $90 + $50 core charge.

Can't beat the price and they always have half price days on Holidays.

Good luck with the Mark and I'm sorry to hear that happened. Full autopsy recommended when you get it out! lol
 
You need to see if you can get a look at your threads and see if there are any usable threads left. There isn't very many threads to begin with, simply because of the thickness of the head at the plug holes. Always use anti-seize on our plugs.

I would think that if you had a plug thread that was a little bent/crossed, that chaser tool would help straighten it out, but if they're damaged enough to let the plug shoot out, I'd say they're ruined.

The local dealership quoted me $300 to heli-coil mine and they couldn't guarantee that would hold, so for the same amount of money, I bought the timesert kit and did the repair myself. I have since sold the car and everything was just fine after the repair. The hardest part was getting shavings out of the cylinder after the repair was finished.





SaggyBagz said:
hey guys, so the NAPA store, a brief walk from my apartment, has a few "thread chasers" in stock and was thinking about buying one. What do you think of these:

(I'm a little unclear about "thread size" and these two are different)

[url]http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=SER3688_0006401120[/URL]

[url]http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=SER3545_0006401120[/URL]
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96hotrodlincoln said:
You need to see if you can get a look at your threads and see if there are any usable threads left. There isn't very many threads to begin with, simply because of the thickness of the head at the plug holes. Always use anti-seize on our plugs.

I would think that if you had a plug thread that was a little bent/crossed, that chaser tool would help straighten it out, but if they're damaged enough to let the plug shoot out, I'd say they're ruined.

The local dealership quoted me $300 to heli-coil mine and they couldn't guarantee that would hold, so for the same amount of money, I bought the timesert kit and did the repair myself. I have since sold the car and everything was just fine after the repair. The hardest part was getting shavings out of the cylinder after the repair was finished.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's nothing usable now. I bought and tried the thread chaser tool from NAPA and nothing came about. After trying to screw in the spark plug, it's as if there's nothing left to hang on to anymore.

I've just placed an order on Amazon for the Time-Sert #5553 kit for quick delivery. I honestly hope this will do it for me.

Thanks for all the good advice.
 
The time sert kit is the only way to go. If you search around on ford truck enthusiasts dot com in the the v 10 forum you will find tons of good info about how to install the kit you bought. The plug blow thing is very common among v10 owners. Good luck
 
I popped a plug on my Town Car, damaged the threads so I too had to do an insert.


-Took the tap and covered it with grease to catch the metal pieces.
-Cut a few threads then cleaned the tap, repeated 3 times till I got enough threads to hold the whole coil
-Grabbed a new plug (Autolite 764) coated the threads with anti-seize
-Screwed the coil over the plug and put red thread locker on the coil
-Put plug/coil in socket with a locking extension, gently screwed in until snug
-Put COP back on, bolted down and fired up the motor


Once you fix the threads then do a compression and that will tell you a definite yes or no on the condition of the motor.
 
First good luck. If I understood correctly I sure wouldn't try to do all 8. Just what was necessary.
 
I'd do all 8 of them and be done with it.

It is a permanent repair that is MUCH stronger than the original factory threads.

I'm going to threadsert the plug holes in my new C-heads before they get installed.

It just makes sense to do all 8 and never worry about it again.
 
It is very different to say I plan to do all of the spark plug threads on a head that is off and intended for high performance use. Than to do it as preventative maintence on a running car. The odds are overwhelmingly against this ever happenning to another cylinder. There is much more risk of something going wrong doing it.
 
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