Spark plug blew out. Who's responsible?

[rhinedogg]

I have a '97 Ford Taurus SHO with a V-8 Yamaha engine with 104K miles. I had the plugs changed out by a dealership about 6,000 miles ago. I was driving and all of a sudden my check engine light came on. I noticed a loss of power and pulled it over to the side of the road and looked under the hood. Oil was coming out under the engine cowl. The dealership said that the plug blew out and the oil was coming from the valve cover seal.

They(dealership) said that the piston looks ok and they have no idea what happened. It seems to me that plugs don't just pop out for no reason. They want over $4,000 to fix it and say they have to remove the engine and replace the head.

My question is: if the #4 piston is ok, then what happened?

The car is sitting right now waiting for me to deside what to do next. HELP!

Thanks.
- Robert Rhine

 

[1fastsho]

That's what happens when you tighten spark plugs with a 1/2" impact gun

I say it is the dealers fault, they overtightened the plugs...or at least that is what it sounds like. I ran across a case where a dealer put the wrong plugs with the wrong thread patttern in-that really screwed the car up.


------------------
Shawn Pasley
Innovative Performance Technologies

92 SHO red/grey
3.2L Lowered compression(9:1)
stageII cams, Ported/Polished heads,Ported/polished Intake manifold(runners, endtanks, and behind the throttle body), big bore butterflies,80mm maf, LPM,equal lenght Long Tube Headers and custom Y pipe, Dynomax cat-back, Koni/Sho shop linear springs, poly-bushings everywhere, solid subframe bushings,subframe connectors, tubular aluminum adjustable rear control arms,shortened shifter,235/45/17 comp T/A ZR's on TSW VX-1's. 15 lbs of boost here I come!