Travel

Route 66: Day 1 - Spark Plugs Flying

By MaxW on May 11, 2008 in Travel Blog

With a late start we headed to the freeways to get out of Los Angeles, but as soon as we got on the 10 freeway we came to a dead stop.

According to Google Maps it was bad traffic for the next 35 miles.

Right as we are preparing to merge into the 5 north from the 10, one of the dirtiest, congested, graffitied areas in Los Angeles, probably the world, we hear a loud explosion and rumbling noise we thought we had a blown tire, about 2 miles down we find a pullout large enough for our rig and look around to find all the tires intact.

After looking around more we discover there is air rushing from the engine and it is misfiring, when we open the engine hatch i immediatly see the problem. We saw a gapping hole, and a spark plug dangling precariously by a thin wire!

At first not knowing what to do about it we tried calling a tow truck but they don’t do road side repairs anymore and all the shops in the are where closed for the weekend.

So with that bad news and being stuck on the side of the 5 South with traffic blasting past us i tried to see if we can get the plug back in.

After looking at the engine and the spark plug i realized that the engine and parts are intact. After putting it back in and torquing it by hand i put the Coil back together, it was then i noticed that the bracket for the Coil was broken and it would have nothing holding it there. But we where sitting on the side of the 5 freeway so we had to get it moving, with the Coil jury rigged in place i started the engine and it sounded better then before.

After calls to RV Dealers to try to get a new Coil we where told that spark plugs shooting out is a common issue, most the time ripping the threads from the engine block.

We then found the next Ford dealer that was on our way and purchased a new Coil for a whopping $106.09, remember we have a V10 so it would cost over $1000 to replace them all. Probably would be cheaper to buy a reconditioned engine!