Subject:
Date:     12/23/2004

I own a 1999 Ford Expedition. Recently while driving on the freeway I
heard a loud bang, the engine began to run rough, and there was a very
strong smell of gasoline. I immediately pulled over and had the truck
towed to the nearest Ford dealer. There I was informed that the number
3 spark plug had been blown out of the head stripping the threads along
the way. The fix was to replace the head and that would cost $2,000+
dollars. The bad news is that there was approximately 38,000 miles on
the truck and I do not have an extended warranty. The good news was that
Ford and the dealership would only require me to pay $495.

I was also informed that this is a very common problem with the aluminum
heads that Ford is installing in many of their vehicles. In fact this
dealership just had just received an F350 truck with a V10 engine that
had the same problem. I believe that this is a defect in the design of
the vehicle. From what I can tell, the cylinder closest to the firewall
on the right side of these engines gets overheated causing the failure
in the engine.