After reading the horror stories of broken plugs, I decided to give it a go with my 06 last night with 41,000 miles. Following the TSB with some careful insurance enhancements, I got all 8 out without breaking a one and replaced with the Champions. I backed out each one 1/8 turn and sprayed penetrant into the wells. I waited 30 minutes then slowly backed them out another 1/8 turn, waited 10 mins, allowing the penetrant to wick down more, then backed out another 1/8 and waited, etc... Each one was screaching and had high resistance (over 30 lb/ft). I just knew at least one was going to break. I repeated this process about 5 times before I decided to go for it. I literally said a prayer before completely removing each plug. None of them came out easily, but they did come out in one piece. After removing the old ones, I put a couple of them in a vise and tried break the plug by cranking on it, but to no avail. While I know they are saying that the carbon buildup may be causing them to seize in the head, I believe much of the problem is just some defective plugs where the 2 pieces are formed together. One more thing, I don't know if it made any difference or not, but I ran a can of Chevron Techron concentrate in the last tankful of gas before the surgery thinking that it may clean out or loosen some of the deposits. It certainly didn't hurt. The 8 prayers didn't hurt either. Good luck to the rest of you who have not tried it yet. Just follow the directions, take your time, turn the wrench very, very slowly and pray for strong plugs.
Plugs Congrats man. Glad you were successful. I'll say this, if you were hitting 30 lb/ft taking them out, you were very, very lucky. Feels good to know you have one piece plugs in there now doesn't it? Hopefully you put some nickel antiseize on the barrel of the Champs (and kept it off of the firing end). How does she run with the new Champions? Mine have been in for like 12K miles and still runs like a new one. I love hearing stories like yours.
Good to hear it worked out for you! I haven't bothered to replace my plugs yet and am going to wait until the specified 100,000 miles. It seems like a lot of people get scared by the horror stories and go to replace the plugs and end up having no problems as long as they do it properly which is good to know.
I'd be worried about the one with 100k miles on the plugs. It's best to just pull them every 10k and re-apply the never seize.
Congrats bro. I figured I would post this for the newbs... Stage 3 Motorsports Ford Spark Plug Removal - 2005+
I'm with you on that. I don't want to touch them until I have to. I figure I'll have some port and polished heads by then anyway. That way it won't matter if the plugs break right?
