What a PITA . Between blowing dirt off then loosening things and blowing again and taking care to remove plugs and blowing again. Good part of a day to do. But truck seems to be purring really nice.

 

i also have a 2002 model. is the year with the problem with the heads / plugs comming apart ? i am to the point of thinking of changing mine but am still undecided of doing it myself or taking it to the garage just in case something goes wrong.

 

no, by 2002 they had the increased thread count heads already..

you'll be fine but still be certain to replace the plugs with OEM motorcraft and torque em to spec.

that last part is VITAL, simply wrench tight wont work long haul..even on a higher thread count head.

 

OK OK OK... I have been holding off from doing my plugs for a long time b.c i thought the 02 f250s had the head issue.. my uncle has a 01 and he has blown 3 out already with 90xxx on his truck....... What should i do to change them .? hints tips? and should i just use motor craft plugs OEM part? what else would be a good decision to do while im there? i have almost 145000 on my truck and im not even sure if they have ever been done... I realy want to do them but im afraid that if i take them out they will blow out and make a mess.

 

I bought my truck used with only 60000 miles. Like you, I have read about plugs blowing out that I was almost sorry I bought the truck. My thought was if I got to check to see if I have any loose spark plugs I might as well change them out and really have piece of mind. I had 3 plugs that took no effort to remove the 3 on the passenger side toward front all others seemed pretty snug. I also replaced boots that I got on ebay. Just make sure you got enough socket extensions and universals so that you can get to those back ones next to firewall. Take your time and don't get frustrated.

 

Again, the root cause of the problem is NOT the year of the truck, it is the skill of the plug installer.

It is possible to strip the heads in ANY vehicle with aluminum heads. And some idiots do. The '02 and later heads will require a bit of extra effort to destroy them, but it has and will continue to happen until people understand and use torque wrenches.