Spark Plug Installation How-To

I know its been covered before, but I happened to have my tripod out and decided to snap some pictures and do a small write up. I didn't realize I had my macro lens on until after I was dirty, so enjoy the super close ups.

So I started with a car that had the cabin filter, engine cover and cowl already off. Its only a few 8mm bolts to get to this point, no sweat. I may come back and add all the photos to get to this point but here's a picture of where we started:



First step is to flip open the top of the coil to eject the harness plug. I grab both sides of the coil top as shown and pull up like flipping a lid. Do this for all 6:




Next, in the hole of the lid, put a screwdriver through and then apply upward pressure to pull the coil out off the spark plug. In the picture i only have one hand on the screw driver, i used two but i couldn't take a picture showing it. Don't jerk the coil up and out, just slow pull up and they come right out:



Once the coil pops up, then pull the coil out:



Using a thin wall 14mm socket to take the spark plugs out:



I used a wobble extension:



Which allows the socket and extension to "wobble" or angle out of line from each other while still being engaged:



A close up of the tip, similar to a CV joint - sort of anyway:



Then, pretty important, blow each spark plug hole out. I had this on hand, its a tire inflate-tor that i removed the tire bit from, so its a flex hose blow gun:



This actually turned out to be a really good picture of the spark plug. You can see how soft the edges are, and how big the gap is, showing just how used the plug actually is (63k miles). I wish i had a picture like this of the new one so you could see how squared off the prongs of the new plugs are. I couldn't see the detail in this until i uploaded it to my computer after the job was done. Lets just say replacing these plugs made a really noticeable improvement:




So here we go with the new plugs and some anti-sieze:



Anti-seize applied to the threads:



Here we are dropping the spark plug into the cylinder head. Its important to thread this in by hand. I even prefer to use a straight extension if possible to have a better feel of the spark plug threading in. Don't get impatient here, if a plug isn't feeling right or threading right keep starting over until it threads in correctly:



Here we are using a torque wrench set to 17 ft lbs, (approx 204 in pounds) tighten until it clicks:



Never store a torque wrench pre-loaded, always unload it to 0 so it doesn't give inaccurate torque readings. Even better to have them calibrated every once in a while if you do really precision stuff:



Once thats complete for all 6, drop the coils back in, align then correctly, and then push down on top of the coil until it bottoms out on the spark plug nipple:



Then engage the harness plug and push the coil pack lid down until its in the closed / locked position:



Willing to work with members in the Florida area. Enjoy the new plugs!

Attached Images