This is probably old news to most, and is discussed on many forums, but just in case, I figured I would tell the story here.
My 2008 Mustang GT, never babied, turned 100,000 miles recently. Time for plugs. As these things go, I ended up getting 2 of the 8 out cleanly. 6 broke. Of the 6, 4 pulled out with the electrode rod, which is ok. On one of the two with the rods I was able to pull out with needle nose, leaving one little bugger.
I bought and used the Lisle tool that pushes the broken ceramic down, and with an easy out extracts the broken off piece. While a bit stressful driving the ceramic the wrong direction, with lots of crunching going on, they all came out with no issue. All 6 in about 40 minutes.
With the new plugs in I started the engine, and it sounded like a little machine shop in there. It really sounded like a rod knock. I was bummed out for sure. I called my friend the next day, and he was just talking to a Ford tech that has done "over 1000" of them, and says that this is normal. I needed to go out and drive it. So I did. After 2 miles, keeping RPMs below 3500 RPM, it sounded almost normal. Then some 5000 RPM operation and it was running like normal.
Job all done, back on the road, but not without a little work and stress.
So why tell the story? If you have one of these puppies pull the plugs and apply nickel plated anti-seize compound. There are lots of you-tube videos and forum posts if you want to do the research.
