Hurt the GT Yesterday.
 

Went, and had a little fun yesterday at St thomas Dragway.
Got my new best E.T, and 60 foot.
13.070 at 103.2 mph with a 1.70 60 foot. So that is the good.
I got a little greedy, and wanted to hit that 12.9 or 12.8, it was there, but the GT would not let me have it for the life of me, but the GT came home on a flat bed!
The 6th run i missed 4rth for some damn reason while i was power shifting at 6400 rpm, so she rev'ed up pretty good, put it into gear, no power, running rough, had an exhaust like sound coming from the engine, the little 4.6 was not happy.
Checked the oil, and level, all was good, no oil on the ground, again good, thried to start it to see if it would, but no luck, but did turn.
So tonight i pulled the plugs. All plugs looked real good, and normal except for a few covered in fuel from trying to restart it, and one plug... number one plug had something attached to it....
See pic....
Plug #1
https://www.cmoc.ca/attachment.php?a...ine=1319508122

Plug #2 to show the difference....
https://www.cmoc.ca/attachment.php?a...ine=1319508122

Plug #1 had the insert that the dealership had put in last year still attached to it.
When i come to pull all the plugs out, #1 was finger loose, and basically not even threaded!!I think it could take the high rev's or strain anymore, and worked it's way loose/stripped. Just spins when i tried to see if it would thread back in.
Gonna talk to my Ford tech guy, and see what he says. I'm hoping we can fix it for now, and i will lay off the racing, and aggressive driving style next season, and start saving for a set of Trick Flow heads, and related hardware....
Unless for some reason i come into some big money, and get myself a termi crate, or the new 5.0L crate, and control pack LOL!!

Anyways, gonna pull the cam covers off to make sure the valvetrain is still good. But so far, looks like that 31 plug might be the issue!!!

Dude, that really sucks, sorry to hear about the damage. Hopefully the hit to the wallet won't be too severe.

man that sucks, I killed the stealthstangs topend at my last track visit so I know how you feel

Sorry to see this 1LOW, and sooo damn close to that 12 sec run.

That sucks, sorry to hear. Those inserts are just a band aid in my opinion and it's a matter of time before this happens. Once you get the trick flows cracking into the 12's shouldn't be an issue anymore.

So will a new plug screw in or is the area they go into stripped? See that's why I don't race lol.

Sorry to hear that 1Low. Once you get her fixed she'll be better than before and it will just seem like a bad dream. Hi-perf guys always come out better in the end. The damage is always replaced with something newer, faster, stronger.

The first thing that came to mind when I read that was Lee Majors in a hamster wheel under the hood... LAMO!

Thanks for the kind words guys.
Not gonna make a move yet.... but start saving a few bucks LOL!
Once i get the cam covers off, i wil have a better idea on what i will do.

Racing didn't cause this. This is very comon issue with the 4.6L 2V head. This happens to guys just driving like a grampa on a sunday after noon. What happens is the threads get stripped out, and to the fact that the Ford engineers designed the head with very little threading material for the plugs. :)
You can't put another plug in. The hole was inlarged already for the threaded insert fix which taps the hole larger.
I've been checking a company called Timeserts. They have the proper fix for this issue, and they also have a larger insert repair kit to fix plug holes that have been fiixed by other types of inserts LOL! Lots of guys have used Timesert with great success, even under boost. So who knows, this might be the way to go. But i have to pull the head off to do it right.
But like i said, i'm not making a move yet. If the GT sits for awhile threw the summer, then it will, i just want to make sure i do it right, and better. :D

I'll have to look into these timeserts. I believe the ones we use came from Mac tools, but we may be on a different brand now. They are ok but in my opinion not a permanent fix.