G'day,
Ive just done allot of work to my mums BA fairmont. Just rolled over to 100,000 yesterday so ive done all the usual filters, hoses, belts ect but the one thing staring me in the eyes is the dreaded spark plugs.
ive been reading up and think that ill get a thing of heavy duty carb cleaner and soak them for a few days. there is allot of opinions out there on whats best so what i want to know is who has used a method and never broke one. ive heard that rattly guns actually work well but im really not liking that idea seeing as its a stainless plug in an aluminium head.....

other think is are there any marvels under the rocker covers connected to the variable valve timing because the seals need leaking but before i rip them off i wanted to make sure that there wasnt any sensors or s**t thats going to go flying down into the sump or become uncalibrated.

its amazing what you find when you start looking at cars mechanics have serviced. still had original fuel and air filters and all the belts and tensioners. she was knocking like a dog but with some nice expensive nulon oil and a fuel filter ect it just about throws you through the back window when you plant it not (almost liking it more then my FG xr6). hasn't been like that for years.

thanks allot
Jay

Last theory I heard was it's better to remove the plugs with the engine warm but before you do that go and give it good caning to try to burn as much carbon of the the end of the plugs as possible. As soon as you finish that squirt a whole lot of that Rostoff stuff from Wurth down around the plugs. I wouldn't use a rattle gun.
There's no sensors that will fall off if you take the rocker covers off.

yea i wouldnt use rattle gun either.
and pete goin by that my plugs must be clean as.

ive changed the cam phasers myself and yea only way your gonna stuff that side of it is if you undo the phasor and drop the chain.

I don't know anybody who has never broken one off... They are the worst spark plug design ever...

I found this ages ago...

http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/prod ... roduct=484

It's not cheap, as Lisle tools aren't, but it serves the purpose... I do know people who have done what this tool does with a pin punch, hammer and an easy out... But if you hit the porcelain in too far it'll fall onto the cylinder...

Other thing that I've heard that works good it work the plug like a tap... If you feel it start to bind on the way out... Then go forwards again and keep edging that little bit further out each time... backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards...

INOX, rost off, wd-40, etc will all definitely help... As for warm or not... Not sure if it helps as I'm not a materials engineer... If aluminium expands faster than stainless steel then yeah you'd want it hot... If stainless expands faster than aluminium then you'd want it stone cold... In an aim to try and get the maximum tolerance around the plugs as possible...

Hopefully you have some good success...

Cheers,
Tim

I have done them without breaking any! I followed the TSB and 4 came out very easy/ 4 were tight but intact. The car had done just over 150K running on premium only but developed a miss (it ended up being a sparkplug that lost a bit of electrode).