Ford Spark Plug Problems?

j-d wrote:
Thank YOU!!!
Were any of the threads difficult or questionable?
Thanks again, for taking point on this, and the time and effort to produce the narrative and pictures.
You Da Man!!!

Not quite sure how to answer your question, but I'll give it a go.

I used some PB Blaster on the #5 plug that I took out a week or so back to get a match with the replacements. After seeing how easily it came out, I didn't bother doing that with with the others. All of the plugs unscrewed easily once they broke loose. I did use the ratchet when taking them out. There was no problem in starting any of the new plugs into the threads by hand. No indication of cross threading. Once in a while I had to back off a little after a number of turns because it got hard to turn the small diameter extension by hand. That cleared things and I was then able to get more turns. On most I was able to turn by hand all the way to the bottom. On one or two I used the 1/4" ratchet to finish the last turn or so. I believe the threads in the heads were in good shape with just some specks of carbon gunk left in them from taking the old plugs out. At one time I had thought about using a small bottle brush to clean the threads, but forgot about that idea after getting started.

The only plug that had any real deposit on the side electrode was #5, which also had the largest gap. I think that was likely the one that was miss firing. As you can see in the picture, all the plugs look clean. No indication of oil or dark deposits. Should be many, many more miles in this engine.

Forgot to mention above that we took the MH for a ride yesterday and the engine runs and idles smooth as silk. DW and I are happy campers again!

A big thank you to all who posted to this thread. Your ideas, suggestions and past experiences were a big help in getting this project done right.