exhaust manifold on 2003 F150

[Captn. J]

i know i heard alot problem with those exhaust manifold bolt breaking or whatever  which i m sure mine had one brokjen at least so far and is leaking  which i wanna tackle myself and i ve thought about doing sparkplugs while i m there    again i heard horror stories about doing sparkplugs ... anyone have done those on a 2003 F150 with 5.4  i know someone mention he did it himself but cant recall who did .   i had a quote of 800 bucks  which i rather save and do myself if i can.   any tips or tricks will be great .. thanks all 

[randycrane79]

ive done them both and good luck if they been done before and aint stock ya might be lucky  if not all hell will break loose  mine come out with finess just keep in mind they will break they will break and they come out and get the truck warm to operating temp and then soak with some pb or something and let soak both the plugs and manifold bolts does help alot  good luck and if plug does break which i had happen before they do make kits to fix it with head on truck agin good luck

[Captn. J]

yeah i m sure they re stock and i m thinking about soaking em a week before i do em....  how much re the kit?

[Eroq]

Spray some pb blaster in there before you start...   put the plug socket on an extention and hammer on it a bit...  not super hard, quite a few good taps,  this will help break them free, try loosening it a bit, if it dont go keep working it with a hammer.    Some lube and some hammering will break damn near anything loose,   

infact i bought me a good air hammer a few weeks ago and its already saved my ass so many times breaking stuff loose, even OEM brake bleeders!  Cant reallt get one in there to do plugs, but good luck!

[rangerwheelinmike]

i hear a lot of bad things abought changing he pulgs in these if the plug brakes it falls in the head then you have to pull the head

[DANGER-RANGER]

ive had a couple of plugs come out hard on them but just spray some penetrant in hole if it wont turn very well and work it back and forth it will come out ive never broke one off. on the manifold ive done a lot of these also i just torch the nuts off all the studs pull the manifold and then extract all the stud by welding a nut onto it works great

[Captn. J]

ive had a couple of plugs come out hard on them but just spray some penetrant in hole if it wont turn very well and work it back and forth it will come out ive never broke one off. on the manifold ive done a lot of these also i just torch the nuts off all the studs pull the manifold and then extract all the stud by welding a nut onto it works great

maybe u can do it for me

[DANGER-RANGER]

im a long ways from burton but i could do it for ya if you can get it to me for a day..lol

[dietsch]

Im a ford tech I do them all the time. None of the "tricks work" go to napa get the spark plug kit for the 3v. Its 100 dollars money well spent. If the plugs going to break its going ti break. Don't spray any lube on the plugs it makes it harder to use the removal tool if u need to use it.