Fire it up! I changed the plugs on my LS1 Several cuss words & scratches later it is complete. 3 hrs. It took me a while for the dreaded #8 plug but it's done. I had trouble moving the coil packs, but once I figured it out things went smoother. The driver side was fairly easy. I didn't remove anything. The passenger side was a bit tighter & I moved the AIR & finally, the coil packs. I found a few cracked plugs but remarkably the platinum disks were all still on. I checked the gaps on the OEM plugs & they were all .060 coming out. I gapped them .055 going in. I searched many threads here last night for tips & tricks. Thanks for all info.

 

good job man....i'm sure you did...but the first time you take off the coil packs...leave the back bolt on the passenger side out! that thing is a pain.

 

Good to go for a while now...I always do mine in three stages (days) cause it's hot down here, and I'm lazy. Drivers side, 2,4,6, then #8.

 

yeah its rainning here today. i dont have to do soooooooo i think ill do mine. in fact ill ride on over to advance auto parts now. what plugs should i get ?

 

NGK TR55's are a favorite, and cheap - ask for NGK stock number 3951.

 

I wasn't able to get the last bolt off of the coil pack. However, I was able to swing it out of the way. I used stock AC delco platinum replacement plugs. $5.99/plug @AZ. I know the NGK's are good plugs. but I really don't want to change these plugs again anytime soon.

 

Isn't the 8th plug on the Pass side??

oh, yeah...

 

Yes...

 

#8 went surprisingly "easy" for me! It was #6 that had me scratching me head and then banging it off a wall .

Oh, and what made that job 10X worse was that I cut my right thumb REALLY bad on the heat shield on the driver's side when I was pulling the plug wires (that was about ~3 minutes into the job). So after I got my thumb all bandaged up, I took another ~4 hrs working with my LEFT hand only!!!

Ah, the joys of wrenching on cars for "fun"!!

 

On the 6....the dipstick gets in the way, just unbolt it from the block and move it out of the way...if you have headers, go from the top but stick the socket on from underneath the header. for manifolds just use a smaller ext.

after you do them a few times...obviously it gets quicker each time.
but it only takes me about 25 minutes or so now
first time i did them, i think it took me 5 hours!

 

How much difference did you notice? How many miles were on the old plugs? I'm nearly at 70K right now and running on stockers... thinking of changing mine...

 

I finally drove it today & what a difference. The idle is super smooth. The old plugs had 71K mi on them & the gaps were .060 +/- .010. Spending the time to gap the plugs exactly is time well spent. My engine has never been smoother.

My hands are all scratched up bad. It looked like I fought a cat & lost. My family & I went to church this morning & got a lot of "What happened to you?" questions.