I did a search but.... My school district that I work for got a used 2002 350 with the triton 5.4. It has over 100,000 miles but was in great shape and avery good deal.I went to change the plugs doing a full maint on the truckand when I took them off they were Autolite HT1 plugs with a steel "sleave" on them. My ford service guy said this is what that truck has and I sould get the Motorcraft ones and not let them stay for 100,000 miles because they get stuck if you dobut my NAPA dealer said those plugs were not used untill 2004 and that the steel sleaves were used to solve a plug blow out problem.I had thought he gave me the wrong plugs at first. He slod me the HT1's to put back into the sleaves. The sleave is made of steel and the plug passes through the sleave. My question is who is right and would my 2006 250 5.4 have the same set up? Also does anyone have a hint on getting the last 2 on the passenger side they are in a difficult spot. Thank you for your help and sorry if it been talked about before.

 

All 6 removed were sleeved?

The sleeves are thread repair inserts.. The earlier Tritons have a history of the plugs blowing out.. Here's a pic of what one of the 'Time-Sert' inserts look like..Look familiar?

[IMG]local://upfiles/6756/0A2F419E6A5F423DAD55A4476064B9D5.jpg[/IMG]

 

No, that does not look like the one I have. Mine is threaded like that but it has about a one inch area on top of the threads that is a hex head, 11/16ths. The plug that goes into it screws into the hex head area and has a long electrode part that goes through the threaded area. The electrode at the end of the plug is looped all the way from one end to the other,like a U. There is no way to gap it because of this. It is black steel the one in the pic looks like alu. also the threads on the insert have what apper to be very tapered ends and groves cut through them, maybe cutting grooves? And all 8 removed had the sleeves. You can see the plaug at www.autolite.com its called the revolution HT.

 

hayapower, I did a web search using "triton spark plug blow out" and got 300 page's worth of info. I see that the one you show is the Full Torque brand insert, the only Ford approved one, in a huge and widespread problem. I have only been useing disel Fords and did not hear about this problem. I'm sorry I got this truck now. The dealer acted like they knew nothing now I know why, Fords doing the same. Thanks

 

02 5.4 with 16mm thread?

 

If you look up the applications for that HT1 plug on the Autolite site it says Ford, Ford truck, Lincoln truck, Mercury truck. But it does not give the years. According to my Napa dealer it was 2004 and after. I wonder if the Ford approved sleeves would still fit into the head now, the ones from Full Torque, since these others have been installed.Ford claims these are the only ones to allow proper heat transfer from the plug to engine. www.fulltorque.com/ford_triton.htm Ford TSB 07-21-2

 

Well I went back to the dealer to see what the plugs looked like that were listed in the trucks owners manual. They were regular looking plugs. The ones that were in those sleeves had that extra long electrode end because now they are basicly threaded outside of the head and it needs the long end to get back to were it needs to be. I dont think that the Ford recomended repair will fit anymore since the sleeves I had allready cut a bigger holein the head. This is what the school board gets for buying us a used truck, ifthe repairdoes not work they will be buying us a new head. Thanks for the help Hayapower.

 

I recently had the same issue with my 02 E250 van. Plug paticially blew out, tried to remove it and found that odd hex head insert in there after an hour of pulling my hair to get it out.

However I cannot find the source of the inserts and no one I talk to seems to know anything about them. I have been searching online and through parts stores for days.

Does anyone know where to get these special inserts. They are about 2 inches long, the plug screws into them, they have a hex head and have some kinda self tapping threads on them. They take the HT1 and 2 kind of plugs too.. They are not made by helicoil, lock an stitch or timesert so dont bother linking those sites.

Anyone help is greatly apreciated s I have a number of 5.4L vans and could really use this insert.

Kenny