Tips for Spark Plug Change

[VaGT]

I am currently at 23,500 miles. A spark plug change is coming up soon. I assume not many of you are leaving them in for the absurd length of time that the manual says.


Plug brand - I will probably go with the high quality NGK's on PFYC, but if I don't want to spend that much, how are the AC Delco Rapid Fire plugs? I used them in my previous car, and was pretty happy with them.


I am also a little worried about being able to change the back 3. My hands are not small, and neither am I (6-2 240 lbs or so). How hard is this going to be to do? I have done a search, but not too much came up. It must have been an old board version, but I remember a lengthy thread about it. So, how did you change them? What tools / adapters did you have to use to get to them. Did you take anything else off of the car to make it easier?

Do I gain anything other than looks from new spark plug wires at this point?


I am not too car savvy, but I have changed plugs before... only it was on an inline 4 Cylinder, so they were all right up front. I have thought about taking it somewhere to have the back three done. Would I hurt anything replacing just the front 3, then driving the car to a shop to do the back? Has anyone had any problems with a shop not replacing the back, but telling you they did to avoid the hassle?



Thanks for any help or tips.

[lrymal]

Originally posted by VaGT
I am currently at 23,500 miles. A spark plug change is coming up soon. I assume not many of you are leaving them in for the absurd length of time that the manual says....

Well, actually......... I'm sure most of the tweakers will remove them prior to 100k miles, but these are high dollar plugs and will certainly go that distance for standard street driving. You should certainly expect at least 40 - 50k miles of service. These are not your old "standard" type plugs. They are quality units.

23K??? Heck, they ain't even broken in, yet. :)

[Macleod52]

Agreed Irymal! The AC Delco's that come in our cars are great and are the best for our car. Spoon said so himself. I checked mine at like 25,000 and the plugs looked almost brand new. I will change them out when I get around 40-50k though. I might do it next August just because the car will be 4 years old. But, still I would wait a while before changing them. Unless you have a lot of Performance mods (Headers, Intake, SC, etc.) I would not stray away form the AC's...

My dealer said that they have a special tool that brings the engine forwards for a lot easier access to get the plugs changed. If I have troubles doing it I will go to them and have them do it. Might as well. I would trust my dealer before I trust someone else. Then again my dealer gets GA's and Caddy's in all day so they know what they're doing and I know the Service Manager. Go figure :)

[iceman]

I had mine replaced at 21k.. I'll post pics if I can get them this weekend.

[lrymal]

Originally posted by Macleod52
...Then again my dealer gets GA's and Caddy's in all day so they know what they're doing and I know the Service Manager. Go figure :)

My biggest fear on changing these things is cross-threading so I'd be more prone to swallow the labor charge and have a competent shop do the job. It is those back three plugs that I'd be concerned about. I can recall these phrases from this board about the back three and the plugs in general. None were mine since I haven't changed mine yet. Folks might recognize their comments:

* I literally had to sit on top of the motor to get to the back three plugs.
* Only took me 15 minutes (yeah, right). You remove the coil pack assembly and the plugs are accessible. Not a problem.
* You don't have to gap them. They come pre-gapped.
* No, they don't. I checked mine and they were all different.
* Inspect the plugs for proper gap (Yeah!) (.060)
* Use only NGK TR-55IX
* Use only AC Delco Platinum Part # 41-940
* Be careful of the tiny tip on the gap. You might damage or chip it off if you are re-gapping your plug, thus ruining the plug.

That's it. All that I can remember...

[SWEET01GAGT1]

I have replaced mine with the Plus 4 Bosch Platinums and they sucks. I went back with the Regular Bosch platinums and a few weeks ago I went out of town and I got 31 mpg or so. Reallly changing the back ones were not hard but Since I have done ie twice trust me dont worry about crossthreading just worry about whether or not you can fit your hands and tools in there.

[action]

I repalced my wires and the back ones are a pig!! If you have a STB, remove it. A small extension and swivel adapter should do it, and sitting on the engine helps!!

The paltnum factory plugs are great, and I'd probably leave them 'till 50k or so.

[SWEET01GAGT1]

Just make sure that you have an extension and that you will have to lay on top of the intakle so make sure the car is all the wya cooled down.

[black99gt]

70k miles on my stock plugs.. no problems here.