Ford Enthusiast

[Jonnysig]

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Wife has an 02 Ford Escape that has had me busy for months. I am in the Service and unfortunatly do not have the money or time to keep up with it. #2 spark plug keeps blowing out on us. First occurance was 3 weeks ago during our base move from FLA to Cali. I checked the threads and they werent horrible so I put in a new spark plug and ignition coil and got back on the road to our new base. 2 weeks go by and it blows out again...same one! called many friends and many shops and decided to change out the helicoil in the head. Applied high temp locktite to the new helicoil and even bought a torque wrench for the spark plug so i knew for sure i was doing everything right. She held and ran great for 4 days and today (my 1st official start of duty at my new assignment) she blew out again on my way to work. I am a victim of the horrible housing market skam and own a home in florida and was forced to move to cali...cant sell the house cuz i will take an unmetionable loss and havent even found renters yet. so im paying that and rent in an apt in cali. Well needless to say i will not have the money to get the head removed and taken to a machine shop to properly install new threads. Luckily i got it to the shop on base who is going to give me an estimate which im sure will have a comma in it. The shop allows us to do our own work and fix it ourselves which im leaning towards. Heres the kicker..... I am new to automobile mechanics and new to fixing cars. I am an airplane mechanic in the Air Force and i am more than comfortable in my mechanical skills but just lack the knowledge. Although my nose is burried in the hanes manual...you can read it all day but if you dont have the knowledge youre going no where fast. I may not even know where all the other parts being removed are. I can read and have great mechanical skills....Is this enough to get the job done????? Im extremely worried about the estimate and if its too much i will be considering tackling it myself. Can I do it??? Can a very experienced jet mechanic but inexperienced car mechanic handle removing and installing the head???? I hope someone can help or at least boost my confidence in this matter. Thanks... take care everybody!

John