TIME-SERT 5553 Spark Plug Thread Repair Kit with 389-4000

Excellent repair kit. I followed the instructions and my repair was flawless. The tools are razor sharp. I was looking for a cheaper way to perform the repair. Through a lot of research I decided this was the way to go. This kit restores the plug to the original position in the head. This was important to me. The repair was performed on a 2001 Mustang GT Deluxe, 4.6 Modular engine.

2002 F250 5.4 Blew a plug, and I'd never done a job anything like this on my truck before (I am by no means a mechanic). I didn't want to deal with a huge repair bill from the mechanic for this truck, so decided to take it on myself. The directions were great, Dennis called me back when I had a question, and it all seemed to go really well. Started up and sounds good so far! Will update after it's actually on the road again. I used a magnet on my boroscope (I bought a cheaper scope that connects to my phone, worked toatlly well enough for this job and cost $40 or so) to ensure that there was not an old repair from before I bought the truck. I couldn't tell from the visuals whether it was replaced or not. I had an air ratchet, but ended up doing a fair bit of the work without it since I liked being able to feel how it was going. I bought an extension blower (metal & 12-20") for my air compressor which I used over and over again in the process to blow out the shaving. Felt productive. All together good service and a well-guided repair even for a fairly novice guy like me.

My 2005 F150 XLT pickup blew out the #4 plug in February 2019 on my way home from work. I had gotten quotes from a couple of local auto repair companies that have been in business for over 30 years. Both places were hinting towards $4000 or more (north of Seattle) for a new head. After finding the Time-Sert 5553 kit and watching the videos on Wiseautotools.com, I had decided to do the repair myself. I needed to be sure this was the only cylinder with a problem and discovered the #3 cylinder actually had a Calvan insert that came out with the plug! The Calvan insert OD is 0.73"! Because of the Calvan, I also purchased the Time-Sert 5588 add on kit for larger holes. I could have bought just the larger Time-Sert 5600 kit but wanted to remove the least amount of material during repairs for #4. These kits are amazing! Well engineered and sharp. The addition of the included Leak Tester made it easy to know the valves were closed. The Time-Sert 5553 instructions were easy to follow and the videos on the Wiseautotools.com website show how to do the job correctly. I did purchase an air ratchet locally and consider this to be a must have tool, along with a bore scope. With the cylinders so far back in the engine compartment, it would have taken much longer to cut the extra step out on the RF1L2E style heads on my truck. The air ratchet allows you to let the tool do the work rather than short ratchet steps. I had ordered the tool on Friday just before Dennis was closing up for the day. He said he could swap the inserts with the full threaded inserts with no cost difference and was able to ship the order Saturday so it arrived on Monday! I studied the tools and found the setting tool had burrs on both sides of the groove where a rubber O-ring sits. This caused the insert tool to be very difficult to go into the extension tool. When the insert tool was expanded (to hold the insert), it made it impossible to install or hold the insert tight if inserted first and then tightened. I used a Dremel to remove just the burrs from the O-ring area allowing it to expand and hold the insert firm. It now fits like a glove. I took my time with the small compressor I own and was able to repair both cylinders. I have been back on the road for about a month now (a weekend repair in the driveway) and haven't regretted my purchase. Just under $1000 for the right tools, plugs and a coil on plug. I will check with Wiseautotools.com for any special tools that may be required in future repairs.

Used to fix a blown spark plug in a 97 Ford F150. Tip: I used an air blow gun tool with a suction venturi tube and a piece of 1/4 inch tubing attached to the suction tube as a vacuum to suck out the filings from the cylinder. You can cover the blow-out tube with a sock or something to catch the filings so they don't go flying all over the engine compartment; much safer for your eyes too. After it was mostly all cleaned out, I blew it out as well, but found that the suction device actually worked even better for getting it all out.

Great set of tools to fix the problem. Seems like it's engineered to cure the problem permanently.

The only reason that I gave this product 4 stars instead of 5, is simply due to the slight confusion between the instructions provided, and the video on their website concerning the use of the counter bore tool. The instructions SHOULD say that if there's any possibility at all that the damaged sparkplug hole being repaired has been repaired previously by a former vehicle owner with a heli-coil or otherwise, then the counter bore tool should NOT be used, or permanent damage to the cylinder head can be done. The instructions should also explain that a magnet should be used to make sure that there isn't steel material in the hole, which would indicate a previous repair. If the a magnet is NOT drawn to any part of the hole, then that would indicate that it's a "virgin" hole which contains only aluminum from the cylinder head itself. In fact, this is so important that I believe that a handy telescoping magnet tool should be included with this kit for that determination to be made by the end-user. After two phone calls, and three emails to both the manufacture and the distributor, I was able to understand the importance of the need to determine if a previous repair had been made on the damaged sparkplug hole in my 4.6L DOHC Ford engine, and when I determined that there was NOT a previous repair performed, I then used the counter bore tool which worked fantastic to clean up the shoulder of the hole to be repaired. Other than that confusion about the counter bore tool, the tool itself worked excellent, and so did all of the other tools in the Time Serts kit. This repair system is far superior to any heli-coil repair tools, and the steel threaded inserts actually make the hole better and stronger than it was from the Ford factory since steel threads will be much more durable than aluminum threads are. I performed repairs on two damaged sparkplug holes with the Time Serts kit on my 2002 Lincoln Continental with a 4.6L DOHC engine, and both the repair kit and the results were fabulous!!! I highly recommend this kit to anyone with a 4.6L, or 5.4L DOHC Ford/Mercury engine. And I also highly recommend spending the extra $80 for the bore scope video camera, since it prevents the end-user from working completely blind, and enables you to make sure that all of the big aluminum chips are cleared away after each step in the repair process. By the way, I also spent a few extra bucks for the company to include the full threaded inserts with my Time Serts 5553 kit so that I can use fully threaded sparkplugs and all 9 or 10 threads on those plugs are fully engaged with the insert instead of merely 5 or 6 threads. If I ever have another sparkplug blown out of this engine from another cylinder, I would perform the Time Serts repair gladly, and with complete confidence!!

Used the 5600 thread repair kit to install replacement threads for my spark plug on a 2001 F250. Great tool!

The time in-sert kit 5553 was a knock out repair for my 2001 Ford E 250. The first plug that had blown out, I had a mechanic fix it and was told by him that it was not the best repair (He used a coil type) but he was not qualified to do in-sert type of repair. I'm mechanically inclined so I looked on line and found the Time-Sert insert repair kit and a video. I did the repair using the Time-Sert sytem and it was a success (or we could say time will tell). My repair is a week old and the mechanics' repair is two weeks old, truck is running great. Just waiting for the next plug to blow out. I look forward to using the kit again. I'm looking forward for a long term success. Still have plenty of work for the truck. All the the tools in the kit looked and worked like quality tools/sys.

I used the kit on a 5.4L E350 motor. Just getting to the plug hole is a project, removing the fuel rails, under the dashboard, as well as the rest of the clutter in there. The added timing blowout tool made it painless to determine compression position for a one man job. The tool kit worked as advertised, and was high quality. It worked right the first time with no issues. For my blowout tool I used a short length of 1/4" poly tube attached to a presslock 90 fitting on the blow gun, which made short work of a proper cylinder clean out. I was interested to note that there was a small square (hardened?) locking insert piece in the bottom side of the thread insert. Siliconed in place and pressed into the aluminum head material with the thread forming tool. I didn't see that part noted in the advertisement and how to videos. But it makes good sense as an extra measure of protection from the insert backing out over time. Phoned in order, customer service was awesome, as well as the expedited shipping. One and done...Thanks MTW

Worked great on my 03 E350 Super Duty 5.4. The air hose tool is a great addition to the set! Really fast shipping too- ordered Saturday- received Monday. Thanks