DEMOCRATS PANIC IN RESPONSE TO DONALD TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION PLAN

Actually, I’m not really all that much of a Ford fan. It’s just that they’re historically no worse than any of the other Big Three when it comes to things like this. GM LSx truck engines have a problem with what GM calls “Cold Spark Knock” that eventually destroys the engine. Dodge Hemis throw rods and blow headgaskets. -shrug-

Ford did have a few years where the plugs would eject because they didn’t have long enough threads in the holes. There’s a Timesert kit to correct that (before or after ejection) that doesn’t require the head to be removed let alone replaced. Ford wasn’t the first company to have issues like this and the Timesert kit was available decades before. Honda/Acura engines have had problems with the same phenomenon, some VWs (not Beetles, later cars) do the same thing, Dodge Neons and Mazda Miatas are also afflicted. It’s not a Ford specific problem. They just happen to sell the most popular vehicle in the US (F-series truck) and it happened to be affected.

If your friend cannot find a competent dealer in MS/AL (which isn’t hard to believe, my experiences in those states have been pretty bad) and he’s tired of dealing with the cam phasers, there are lockout kits that immobilize/eliminate the things and he can go back to using the truck. However, that’s not really a problem with the design but a problem with idiot dealer techs.

Does he keep up on tech?

“Oh, once the spark plug hole strips, you have to throw away the head!”
You haven’t had to do that since the 1980s. Here are instructions from one of the biggest manufacturers of that type of repair kit, complete with video at link.

http://www.timesert.com/html/howtosp.html

Ford may have replaced the motor out of goodwill and customer service because if the techs at the dealership were incompetent enough to screw up 8 plugs they probably weren’t the kind of people you want installing Timeserts.

Also “he builds race cars, he knows what he’s doing” - yeah, *I* build race cars for fun and I know other people that do. Unless someone works for Penske or one of the big houses/names, that doesn’t exactly make them authoritative or their statements definitive. They’re just more experienced than the average joe, not engine gods.

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