2000 GT, Trouble removing spark plugs?

[jayrw]

Hi I have a 2000 Mustang GT with 89K miles and was wanting to change the plugs, I bought the car 4 years ago and not sure if or when the plugs have ever been changed, I have a JLT cold air intake coming in the mail and figured I would give it a tune up.

The problem is I can't get the plugs to come out I tried but it's at the point I'm afraid of snapping them, Is there a trick to this? I'm trying to remove them on a cold engine of course (car sitting overnight). Is there a specific max ft pounds of torque I can try? I went up to 20 ft pounds but no luck.

Thanks.

 

[vertigasen]

Are they all like this? I have seen where people put plugs in without anti-seize, and they litteraly bonded into the head. There are different types of plugs and coatings on plugs. A nickel plated plug is less likely to corrode than a regular steel plug. When steel and aluminum are put together, there is a very high likelyhood of corrosion. That is why anti-seize is used. It acts as a barrier. I had something similar with aluminum lug nuts on steel studs. When I didnt remove the rears for almost 3 years, several of the lugs were welded to the studs. I didnt break any of the studs, but I did leave quite a bit of the threads on the studs (I had to clean it off with acid....oh the fun). This is called a galvanic reaction, or galvanic corrosion.

There are some ways to get things seperated....they they are not especially friendly with aluminum. I would sugguest going down to a parts store and getting some penetrating oil. You can make some "home brew" that works the best, or get just the stuff off the shelf. Kano Kroil is probably the best off the shelf, followed by liquid wrench as a close second. The "home brew" is the best, and it is 50% ATF (automatic transmission fluid) and 50% acetone.

Throw some down in around the sparkplug, let it work in, then see if it will help. If the galvanic reaction is bad enough (I pray you dont spray wash your engine a lot), then none of this is going to help. But anything is worth a shot.

 

[jayrw]

I only tried 1 plug so far but figured they would all be like that, I'm not sure if these are the original plugs from factory or if one of the previous owners replaced them, hopefully it doen't turn out to be a big deal, I picked up some liquid wrench penetrating oil earlier (couldn't find Kano Kroil) I'll give it another go tomorrow morning, I'm assuming I'll want to somehow clean out the spark plug well before taking the plug out so this stuff doesnt drain into the motor?

Thanks for the reply.

 

[vertigasen]

a little bit of the penetrating shouldnt hurt much and will burn throgh the engine pretty quick after you get it started. Like I said, try them all, hopefully it is just one. If you have a lot of dirt and crap down there, blow it out with an air compressor, or get a can of the computer cleaning compressed air. That should get a lot of the junk/dirt out of the hole, then spray the oil and try to get the plugs out.

I dont know if you got a tub of anti-seize....but get some. It will save you from stuff like this in the future.

 

[jayrw]

I have anti-seize and a tube of dielectric silicone, I did some searching online on how to properly do the spark plug change and thought i was ready to go this morning but of course my luck got stuck on the first plug, so I appreciate the help, from what Ive read online if I do buy stock plugs I want them gapped @ 0.54 and torque them in at 11 ft pounds?

The only reason I'm not clear on which plug to buy I wanted to pull one first and see what kind its running now, I figured I'd buy the same plugs since the car has been running great for the 4 years ive had it, other than a cracked intake last year which was replaced with the newer revised intake.

 

[vertigasen]

Honestly, they type of plugs dont change much. They wont give you power, they wont give you more MPGs...... The only real difference between types of plugs is the interval between changes.

I read this somehwere a while back. Copper plugs - 14,000 miles, single platnums - 30,000 miles, double planiums - 65,000 miles, iridium - 100,000 miles.

 

[jayrw]

Thanks for the liquid wrench tip I was able to remove the plugs much easier after letting them soak for 10 minutes ,I only had to use it on a few plugs the rest were fairly easy to remove and the plug in cylinder 3 was barely hand tight.

The old plugs were Motorcraft Platinums (AWSF32P) I took one to autozone and they said the AGSF32PM platinums were the replacements so I got those, the new ones have longer threads which threw me off at first, also out of curiosity I checked the gaps on the old plugs and it varied from .63 to .74 (!??) I've read the gap widens as the plugs age so im guessing these had been in there for awhile lol.

All of the new plugs were gapped right around .55 / .56 so I just left them as is. (hopefully that was ok).

The car feels like its running a little stronger now I'm curious if Ill notice any further improvement with the JLT cold air intake, Ill find out early next week.

I took a few pics and was curious if you or anyone had any feedback on their condition, Some seemed pretty normal except a few had a white powder appearance on the tips, not sure what would cause this?

Old vs. New difference in threads:

Old plugs:

 

[vertigasen]

Glad it worked out for you. I have seen plugs worse, but those have been in there a while. Do you use fuel additaves? Sometimes the stuff can cause some deposits on your plugs. Some octane boosters are known to make plugs a funny burnt red color....others leave an ashy white residue. They look fine really....other than the rust and being pretty old.

The reason the new models have more threads is because they changed the heads in 04. They had a problem with spark plugs blowing out because there was only like 4 or 5 threads in the head. The 04s had 8 thread heads. That is why the new ones have more.