Hey 5.4 guys, sparkplugs WTF!?!?
 

Its 5:13 in the morning here in PA and i just got home. I should've been sleeping the last 4 hours but instead i decided to be a good friend and help a buddy. He called me at about 1 and tells me that his 98 f250 spit out a sparkplug... AGAIN! this is the second time in the last year that i have been sitting on top of a triton, in freezeing temperatures, with a flashlight and a magnetic screwdriver trying to pull chunks of sparkplug from a cylinder. This time it was #8 cylinder, but at least it wasn't snowing this time. My question is WTF?!?!?!? is he the only person with this problem, is he buying the wrong brand of plugs, if so, what type of sparkplugs do you guys recommend, is there a brand he should stay away from, WTF!?!? Now im gonna try get some sleep, i got school in 2 hours

Dayum! It just... exploded?

I know the 5.4s like to spit out plugs more than the 4.6 but I've never heard of them disintegrating before. As for brands, the good stuff are Motorcraft/Autolite, Champion, NGK, and Denso.

the heads on many 5.4's only have like 3-4 threads in contact with the plug. This is a weak spot by definition and combined with over-tightening and/or power adder use have shown themselves to lead to plugs entering orbit. The solution is to find a set of heads that has the fix (a full 8 threads in the spark plug hole IIRC) and not to over-tighten them.

It's not common per se' but it's not totally uncommon. Many many people have spit plugs out of 4.6's and 5.4's. Ain't that a bitch.

Brand of plug should have nothing to do with the problem. FWIW, I use good old fashioned copper core autolite's.

When i got home from school today i went to his house and realized theres a dent in his hood right over the # 1 cylinder plug so i started thinking that it was a problem with the heads. the plug must have exploded on impact with the hood/overhang i guess.
r3d you should wright a book or something on 5.4's lol
thnx guys

nah... writing 3 other books right now (and reading 5). can only do so much at once.

Its a very common problem due to not having enough threads for the plugs to hold onto. Ford redesigned that part, I can't remember the exact year, with more threads in the heads to fix it.

Ford Horsepower blowing spark plugs to hell ftw!