spark plugs

Hi all. I am considering changing the plugs on my 2003 H2. It has about 70,000 miles now and I don,t know the previous service history. Does anyone here have any tips to share to make this job alittle easier? My owners manual shows a gap of .060 and I believe the plugs to be iridium. On the sparkplugs.com site they show a selection of iridium plugs for this application with different gaps. They also say not to gap them as they will already be factory gapped and trying to gap them could damage the iridium tips. Any information on spark plug replacement you guys could share would be greatly appreciated. The owners manual lists Denso and Ngk plugs.  So, has anyone here changed the plugs on the H2?  Thanks in advance guys.

i am a huge fan of the bosch platinum 4's they come already gapped but are a liottle pricey

It never hurts to change them.....
 
Always check the gap.... they come pregapped.... but your autoparts store might have somebody like HummBob that stocks the shelves and likes to drop them....  ALWAYS check that gap...  The gap is written on the sticker under the hood on the radiator support...
 
Personally I think Bosch +4 is junk....  I change mine one a year and the porcelin used to crack in my Explorer...

really,man i have used these in everything and never had a problem,you didnt have hummbob install them did you

Thanks for the replies guys. My auto parts guy told me they have ac delco iridium plugs and my cost would be $9 each. Doesn,t sound too bad as the dealer is quoting me $15 each. Would you guys just snug them up or torque them?  I don,t have a service manual yet to know what they should be torqued at. I would guess about 10ft.lbs? The owners manual shows a gap of .060 Would you guys go by that or what the plug manufacturer says? Thanks again guys

i work on vehicles and the safest thing to avoid troubles is go to GM and get the plugs that are meant for your application..........spark plugs all have different heat ranges, and all these aftermarket companies are interested in is selling you their product. you would be ok to just snug them up also take your time and go easy you do not want to cross thread them.

For the threes:  Performance Spark Plugs for the H3   and an old tech read, the poster let his pics crash, but the tech is amusing on the topic!!  Spark Plug Technical Info

Thanks for your help guys!  Just one more question before my weekend project.  There is a metal jacket of some kind around the plug where the wire connects to it. I am guessing this is some kind of heat shield? Do any of you guys know if this shield comes off to get at the plug? Is this shown in the manual? It looks like you would pull the wire off the plug then possibly remove this heat shield then pull the plug. I have to get a service manual soon.    As always thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I always use anti seize too.... it's cheap and you will never regret using it....

Yes, I will use some anti seize on the threads.Glad you reminded me. In regards to the "heat shield" around the plugs. Does anyone know if this just pulls off or does it even have to come off to get the plugs out?

I wondered about that too. The best plug I ever used was the NGK Iridium plug. They're about $7-$9 each but well worth it. I must say that I have not tried these in a car or truck. I used these in a high performance Zenoah gasoline engine in a radio controlled helicopter. I ran the NGK Iridium plug, Coleman camping fuel instead of gasoline and mixed AMSoil Sabre 100:1 Synthetic 2 stroke mix. Man that was a sweet setup, it seems to produce about 10-20% more power, never flamed out and had an idle that was smooth as butter. Plus after dozens of hours of flight time the cylinder walls still showed signs of the original honing and cross-hatching.

You can order those plugs in various temp ranges from cool to hot.

Sorry I missed your heat shield question....
 
It is part of the plug wire.... and there is a little spring too...
 

 
 

Thanks for the reply and especially for that picture (a picture is worth a thousand words)so they say. I couldn,t for the life of me figure that out.

Anytime... I like taking pictures....  I'm just sorry it took me so long to reply...

I hope you,re still around Muddydawg because I am having a hard time pulling the wire off the plug. The first plug I try and I can,t pull the wire off. Is there any trick to this?

Twist.....  Don't yank them.... you will destroy the wires....

quote:

ORIGINAL: Muddydawg75

Twist.....  Don't yank them.... you will destroy the wires....

 
you should do that on every vehicle

That,s the reason I ended up buying the new taylor wires. I couldn,t get the last one off and ended up pulling it apart. Anyhow at least I know my plugs and wires are new now. Truck runs great,seems a little smoother now.

Never hurts to get new wires.... and if you get the expensive ones.... they have 3 year warranties.... then when you "accidently" destroy one next time..... they are free....