Hi Guys,

2001 Ram, 5.9 motor, 70,000 miles, got it for 3,000 off a fisherman in Michigan. Decent right?

Thing's old, works great, but nothin had ever been done to it. Spark plugs were ORIGINAL. Decided it was time to change the plugs and wires.
Started on PASS side, moving front to back; no issues, all 4 wires installed. Start drivers side, get through two plugs, moving front to back, wires installed no problems. Get to the last 2 effing plugs...

Stick the spark plug socket into the well, at first I think I cant get a good fit onto the spark plug nut. Finally realize I've got plenty a good hold onto the nut, the spark plug is just spinning in place because the threads are gone.
SAME THING HAPPENS ON THE LAST ONE
So those last two spark plugs (the ones closest to the firewall on the driver's side) were not even tightened down, just freely moving around. Now they are of course completely stuck in there, spinning freely but never engaging thread and tightening or loosening...
Seems that the best course of action is to just go ahead and remove the cylinder head.

Questions for the forum are:

Can anyone give me a quick run down of what needs to be removed (radiator, fan, AC compressor, alternator, intake manifold, etc.) in order to get to that cylinder head and get it out of there? YES I know there have been threads about this in the past, but I can't find them, and it seems like there's a lot of disagreeing. Guy on youtube took apart effing everything that I mentioned above and that seemed excessive when I saw guys saying all I needed to do was drain the coolant, get the intake mani off, exhaust mani, and maybe a few other things. So what I'm really lookin for here is some help with order of operations.

I understand that coolant must be drained so that it doesn't get into my oil galleries and junk, but I need to know what else has to happen. Does the entire radiator/fan assembly need to come out like youtube dude did, or no? Thanks for any other pertinent tips/suggestions

 

Are you sure the socket is going down on the plugs all the way? The heat shields tend to trap dirt and crap at the bottom, and sometimes, getting the socket on is fun..... If they aren't threaded in, simply starting the motor would blow them right out. (and it would be loud too....)

Pull the heat shields.... clean around the base of the plug, and try and remove them again.

 

Thanks for the tip I'll definitely double check in the morning,

what is the best way to remove those shields? I tried w/ some channel locks couldn't budge em (they are suuuuper far back there and hard to reach). Do you know any tricks for getting those suckers off hopefully in decent condition?

 

Vice grips! Several threads on the subject.

 

Don't worry about destroying them taking them out. Don't really need to put them back in anyway.

 

There are tools for removing broken plugs from all kinds of engines. You don't have to remove the freakin heads. Little dramatic, no?

Goodness, Ford made a ton of mechanics rich and happy with their 5.4 engines. There's even mobile crews that remove broken ford plugs on F150s as a full-time job!

 

Do you mind providing any links sir? I wouldn't mind tooling up for some spark plug jobs. I do a lot of them, and this job has almost scared me away from them. If I could get some more tools to help, that would be great.

 

If I were you, I would pour some ATF into those spark plug bores and let it sit for a week to soak down to the threads.

 

http://www.autozone.com/test-scan-an...plug-extractor
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/ford-spark-plug-tool
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/l.../65600/4414132
https://store.snapon.com/Spark-Plug-...n-P646966.aspx
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/lil-65600
https://www.matcotools.com/catalog/v...service-tools/