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Blown Out Spark Plug

aboyer

New CEG'er
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
8
Location
PA
Has anyone experienced a blown out spark plug on their 2.5L?

It seems that this is a common occurance for some of the other ford motors but my Contour just spit out a spark plug and I can't find any references on the internet about this happening to a contour.
 
It is not common and is typically caused by an improperly installed plug which stripped the threads. You should look into getting a helicoil to repair the threads.
 
Done that. Installed a plug on a warm 2.5 and it must have cross threaded back in 1998 when I bought my first tour. Had a shop put a helicoil in and it held up great.
 
Every time I touch spark plugs I get paranoid that this will be the time I cross thread one and don't realize it. Joe's (blu_fuz) helicoil on his 2.5 seemed to hold up well until he swapped for the 3L.
 
i have dealt with this before. i have seen an svt with a plug that shot out while running similar to what you are talking about. just idling and bang!
 
I have had a couple go loose on me in the past.

These plugs don't have the little lock washer like many others do.
 
Mine actually blew out on the rear head. The college I was going to offered free auto service from the student techs, you just paid for parts. Well, the school ended up paying over $2,000 to have a new rear head installed by a ford dealership :laugh:. No helicoil for mine. Motor had over 212k on it when I pulled it a couple months ago.
 
I always remove and install cold just to avoid thread damage. Installing the plug by hand ensures you wont cross thread it.
 
Mine actually blew out on the rear head. The college I was going to offered free auto service from the student techs, you just paid for parts. Well, the school ended up paying over $2,000 to have a new rear head installed by a ford dealership :laugh:. No helicoil for mine. Motor had over 212k on it when I pulled it a couple months ago.

Ahh, that's right. I still don't know how you didn't manage to kill that motor long ago, between students & spark plugs and rocks & oil pans ;)
 
I had mine shoot when I was pulling away from a toll booth coming back from MN. It was at about 5k rpm and it shot out and hit the firewall. It scared the crap out of me. I had to drive about 50 miles on 5 cylinders, it was nerve racking. I had a helicoil installed. I had reinstalled a spark plug after checking it too quickly and stripped out a thread. Two years later, pop!
 
Thanks for all of the replies. The plugs were only changed once and it was done while the engine was cold. I always start the plugs by hand and seat them by hand so that I don't cross thread them into the heads. These plugs have been in the heads for almost 80k miles now. Unfortunately, the plug is in the rear head but I got a Sav-a-Thread kit (made by helicoil) and I will try to repair it this weekend.

I'll let you know how it turns out. I would really hate to scrap the car since it has good tires and I just replaced all of the rotors and pads.
 
Biggest thing is the shavings going into the cylinder. I know some have put shaving cream in there and then rotated the engine by hand it compress it out.
 
My CSVT puked a sparkplug while crusing at 80 mph halfway between DC and Milwaukee (Cleveland) on Christmas Eve. The sparkplug threads near the electrode were rounded up toward the top of the sparkplug (not what I expected) and the sparkplug ground was bent down to where it was now next to the electode. I pulled in out and ran about 25 miles on five cylinders until a repair shop fixed it the next morning. I have a three of questions: 1) In what condition was the sparkplug when it came out, 2) really how concerned do I need to be with metal shaving going into the cylinder, 3) is it possible the errant sparkplug contacted the piston before ot came out and 4) should I be looking for a new cylinder head? After the repair, my engine seemed to be running fine, but is now making "ticking" noises that sound lifter related. I love the car and would like to know if there is anything else I could/should do to help ensure it longevity. Thanks for all your help!
 
My CSVT puked a sparkplug while crusing at 80 mph halfway between DC and Milwaukee (Cleveland) on Christmas Eve. The sparkplug threads near the electrode were rounded up toward the top of the sparkplug (not what I expected) and the sparkplug ground was bent down to where it was now next to the electode. I pulled in out and ran about 25 miles on five cylinders until a repair shop fixed it the next morning. I have a three of questions: 1) In what condition was the sparkplug when it came out, 2) really how concerned do I need to be with metal shaving going into the cylinder, 3) is it possible the errant sparkplug contacted the piston before ot came out and 4) should I be looking for a new cylinder head? After the repair, my engine seemed to be running fine, but is now making "ticking" noises that sound lifter related. I love the car and would like to know if there is anything else I could/should do to help ensure it longevity. Thanks for all your help!
Sounds like in correct timing caused something to hit the sparkplug.Anyone that had these issues on a V6 should ask themselves if the timing chains were ever done?
 
Sounds like in correct timing caused something to hit the sparkplug.Anyone that had these issues on a V6 should ask themselves if the timing chains were ever done?

Also the spark plugs won't thread in properly without removing the UIM,the bad angle causes them to strip.
Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts!
Seriously, what was your thought process while typing either of these responses? First, a spark plug is stationary in the head. How, pray tell, would incorrect timing cause anything to contact the plug? Second, what specifically prevents the plug from threading in with the UIM in place? It's done all the time. This statement is just false.
 
That too. I just chose not to point that out since it doesn't bother me nearly as much as complete BS "advice" on a help forum.
 
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