Changed my plugs after 38k (PICS)

["G"]

Nope, 7-year-old info needs to be updated. So when people search they are not reading outdated info.

[mirageman]

Originally Posted by "G"

Nope, 7-year-old info needs to be updated. So when people search they are not reading outdated info.

Hit the nail on the head. I am about to change mine out tonight and started reading this many-years-old post from the beginning. Maybe late answer for the original conversation, but not a late reply for this thread at all. Keep it all in one thread, otherwise we'll have a thousand threads.

[mirageman]

Well, at 101,000 miles, I changed out my oem spark plugs. Pictures look better than actual. I usually get 46-49mpg this time of year, and I have only been getting 44.5 at best this year. We'll see if the sparkplugs will help. First plug had lots of resistance when I was taking it out, I sighed, thinking I ripped out head threads, but was pleasantly surprised when it came out clean. Turns out (pun intended) I had overdone the anti-seize a few years ago on the spark plugs when I tested compression at like 18k miles (I reused the oems at that point) and it just was too gummy after all these miles. I vacuumed out each hole with a vinyl tube and the house vacuum.
I did not go with the oem iridiums. They were over $9 a piece. I found these at Advanceautoparts.com.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...6953/5531691-P

Their description online says they are "oem approved". Although they are rated for 30k miles of use as opposed to 100k, they are 1/4 of the price. Made in the USA with Japanese and domestic parts it says on the box. V-groove gimmick looks cool. The way I see it, changing these out 4 times will get me farther than the 100k, and I'm out the store door with 4 new ones for $8.40 with an online coupon! Plus if I get rid of this car before the next 100k miles, I'll be losing money on the iridiums. OEM on mine were Densos.

I feel nothing different. Starts and goes just like before. I did however do a resistance check on the new and old. 3 new spark plugs were just about 5,200 ohms, one of them was 4,820. I only was able to test one oem used one at 6,400 ohms, the others did not give a reading, I guess due to the carbon, I didn't bother trying too hard to clean the tips and get a reading. On each of the 4 oems, tips and ground straps were worn on one side only. Funny how the picture doesn't show that. I think only the good sides were facing the camera!

[mirageman]

Yay! 48.3 mpg highway, light throttle 60-68mph.... loving these cheap plugs!

[BIGTAZ351]

Well then, I have some "Updating" of my own...It was found incorrect to depend on NGK’s "trivalent coating" and not using anti-seize (my mechanic friends joke as “irrelevant coating”). It has been discovered in the mechanic world that it isn't as good for corrosion/seizure protection as once thought, especially on subsequent (after first factory installation) new plug installations, as can be seen in many of the removed plug photos you will have carbon in the plug and head threads, and that can/will cause seizure of the plug, if you don’t clean it off (not recommended as you dump that crap down on top of the piston and it can damage the cylinder walls) or add a small amount of anti-seize and torque them to the proper “lubed” torque spec. After the steel “coated” but not anti-seized plug has been installed and heated thousands of times in an aluminum head, and that heating/cooling causes the plug to microscopically “walk” in the head due to the dissimilar metal’s expansion rates, creating a carbon grinding action, which breaks down the coating, and allows corrosion of causes seizure. The plug manufacturers don’t want you to use anti-seize because not many people know how to de-rate the torque spec for installing the plugs. However, there are automotive manufactures that DO recommend using anti-seize, regardless of the plug mfr’s recommendations.

Just what I have learned from the Automotive and in the Power-Sports world, in the last 8 years…

I have always used Anti-Seize as taught to at the small engine mechanic shop I grew up in, but it was more a personal preference thing. (I even use it on lug nuts and other long-term attachments, never had a problem, EVER.)

I also change my plugs long before the 100,000 mile recommendation.