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Welded-On Spark Plug Boots
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Re: Welded-On Spark Plug Boots -
07-28-2004
, 12:39 PM
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Hello all, '99 Chev Malibu, 3.1 v6, 145,000km Changing spark plugs for the 1st time (on this car). Front 3 went smoothly. Rear plug boots seem to be welded onto the plugs (higher heat at the back??). Anyway, I'm changing the wires too. Any tips on getting the old boots off (short of using explosives??) Don't care if I mangle the old wires in the process. Regards, Al. Keep twisting, after you get about 180 degrees around they should break |
you put them back on and make a habit to twist the boots off and squirt a
bit more grease in once a year.
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#3
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Hello all, '99 Chev Malibu, 3.1 v6, 145,000km Changing spark plugs for the 1st time (on this car). Front 3 went smoothly. Rear plug boots seem to be welded onto the plugs (higher heat at the back??). Anyway, I'm changing the wires too. Any tips on getting the old boots off (short of using explosives??) Don't care if I mangle the old wires in the process. Regards, Al. |
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#5
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On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:39:08 +0000, Eugene <nospam (AT) columbus (DOT) rr.com wrote: Al Haunts wrote: Hello all, '99 Chev Malibu, 3.1 v6, 145,000km Changing spark plugs for the 1st time (on this car). Front 3 went smoothly. Rear plug boots seem to be welded onto the plugs (higher heat at the back??). Anyway, I'm changing the wires too. Any tips on getting the old boots off (short of using explosives??) Don't care if I mangle the old wires in the process. Regards, Al. Keep twisting, after you get about 180 degrees around they should break loose. Get a tube of dielectric grease to put inside the new ones before you put them back on and make a habit to twist the boots off and squirt a bit more grease in once a year. Right you are. Got them off and now nothing but joy (grin). Anyway, put a good dose of silicone grease in the boots at both ends of the cables. Hope the job goes easier next time. BTW, GM seems a bit optimistic with their 100,000 mile double platinum plugs. Mine looked pretty rough at 90,000 miles. Regards, Al. I replaced mine at 50k, put the old plugs and wires back in the plastic bag |
develop some sort of problem I can stick the old not quite worn out ones
back on one at a time to isolate a bad one. Did the same with the fan
belt, if the new one breaks I stick the old one back on and take the new
one to the store for warranty replacement.
#6
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Al Haunts wrote: Hello all, '99 Chev Malibu, 3.1 v6, 145,000km Changing spark plugs for the 1st time (on this car). Front 3 went smoothly. Rear plug boots seem to be welded onto the plugs (higher heat at the back??). Anyway, I'm changing the wires too. Any tips on getting the old boots off (short of using explosives??) Don't care if I mangle the old wires in the process. Regards, Al. Keep twisting, after you get about 180 degrees around they should break loose. Get a tube of dielectric grease to put inside the new ones before you put them back on and make a habit to twist the boots off and squirt a bit more grease in once a year. Right you are. Got them off and now nothing but joy (grin). Anyway, |
cables. Hope the job goes easier next time.
BTW, GM seems a bit optimistic with their 100,000 mile double platinum
plugs. Mine looked pretty rough at 90,000 miles.
Regards, Al.
#7
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you put them back on and make a habit to twist the boots off and squirt a bit more grease in once a year. |
dielectric
grease inside the new boots.
I would be a bit leery of pulling spark plug wires too much. Sometimes
when you pull the wires the metal clip inside the boot won't detach from the
plug, and instead pulls out from the boot itself, destroying the connection
to
the wire.
Ted
#8
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I don't really have much useful to say here except a bit of head shaking. It seems a bit strange to me now in 2004, after ALL these years of spark plugs, that we are still pretty much using a fairly antiquated design for connecting the power distribution lines to the plugs. So much has improved in materials and processes over the many many decades. You would think that by now the design would have been improved a bit more and resulted in a much better mechanical binding of the wire to plugs etc. Anyway... just wishful thinking for now. |
http://members.shaw.ca/ianrmac/Images/DSC00936.JPG
Those 6 things on top of the valve cover are individual
coil packs that just plug onto the spark plug.
http://members.shaw.ca/ianrmac/Images/DSC00945.JPG
Here you can see the plug in it's little cubby hole. This
is becoming very common. A number of engines use
this (or very close to it) system.
Ian
#9
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That's pretty cool. There is hope! My LS1 engine has 8 coil packs, but each one still has a (albeit short) wire to the plug. Still the boots and all that like has been for so long. Speaking of which... at how many miles would YOU change plugs on an LS1 Ian? I've read some people say that the GM interval is too long to wait. Maybe GM knows best, maybe not. |
klms on them with original plugs. If it was my vehicle, I'd probably just
do it every so many years no matter what the mileage. If you have cast
iron heads, it really doesn't matter. With aluminum heads, I've seen a
lot of vehicles that the spark plugs end up being welded into the head
because they were in there so long. Then the "long life"...."more
economical" spark plugs all of a sudden aren't so "economical".
Quote:
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Also, do you have any tips on the easiest least time consuming method to replacing that really hard to reach plug on it? I have a 2001 Z28 if that helps you get a better image. |
see many of those cars in the shop as it is. Other then the proper tools
and (hopefully) small arms and hands...that's about all I can offer ya.
Ian
#10
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On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 04:02:21 GMT, "shiden_Kai" violet-lightening-modified (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote: It's really up to you. We've seen some engines that have over 150,000 klms on them with original plugs. If it was my vehicle, I'd probably just do it every so many years no matter what the mileage. If you have cast iron heads, it really doesn't matter. With aluminum heads, I've seen a lot of vehicles that the spark plugs end up being welded into the head because they were in there so long. Then the "long life"...."more economical" spark plugs all of a sudden aren't so "economical". That sounds really scary (read expensive to fix). I sure wouldn't want that to happen. I wonder how long it takes for that. |
Dunno if I'm wasting a few cents every time I change
a plug (in anything) or not; but I always put a little
tab of anti-seize grease on the threads...
Ken
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