I changed the spark plugs on my 2004 Dale Jr this afternoon after work. The back three were a royal pain to change. It took me forever to just get the spark plug wires off. The fronts were no problem.

The car has 88,500 miles on it and the original plugs looked pretty good. I replaced them with the same Ac Delco iridiums. I'm going to replace the wires tomorrow since I didn't get finished before it got dark. My original wires are Delco's that have Delphi written on the boots at the coils. I bought replacement Delphi wires since I have not had much luck with replacement AC-Delco wires on some of my other vehicles.

I definetly don't want to change plugs again anytime soon.

Wayne

 

Put some dielectric grease inside the boots of the new wires when you install them.
Makes it much easier to remove the next time.

The first time is always a pain anyways though.

-Riggs.

 

I will, I always use dielectric grease on the boots.

Wayne

 

you should try to change the spark plugs on a 4cyl ranger now that is a royal pain

 

Thats one of the few problems with having such long service intervals- the parts have plenty of time to bake together in the heat (or rust together depending what parts you're talking about).

Thats why with anything over 50k, I generally consider the plug wires scrap and just cut and hack them off to get the plugs out.

 

The factory wires actually look like they are in pretty good shape but I'm going to change them out anyway in case I damaged the back ones taking them off.

Wayne

 

You can't really see damage to plug wires that I know of... they jsut get dry and corroded nad just atking them off could cause micro cracks in the wire....

I didn't have too much trouble... it took me two hours to change out all the wires, the plugs, and the cabin air filter... I must have small, girly hands. I will say if you've never changed spark plugs, you're in for a treat. I learned on a Chevy Suburban and then a Chevy Silverado... so I knew a good bit about what a spark plug felt like and what I was doing when I went in... I didn't even take my motor mount loose!

 

I've changed tons of spark plugs over the years but I had forgotten how much of a pain it was on this engine. I changed them on a 98 GP we used to have with this engine but I don't remember it being as bad as this one. Maybe the GP had more room by the firewall.

I got them all changed tonight but I didn't get the wires done so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Wayne

 

It's not so bad if you pull the upper "dogbone" motor mounts, rock the engine forward, and then secure it with the "second hole" in the passenger side upper motor mount bracket. This adds an extra inch or two of clearance in the back, which I've found really beneficial.

 

Thats what I meant- they usually look pretty good and can easily last the 100k like the stock plugs; but if you're changing plugs and there's much over 50k on the wires without ever having been removed- then to me its too much work to try and perfectly get the stock ones off, so I just scrap them and hack them out to get to the plugs instead of trying to be gentle with them.