Spark plug swap issue...thoughts?

[Ilya]

So, went to do the spark plugs today and ran into a couple of issues and gave up (and for those of you who know me, I've done many a DIY/HowTo so doing spark plugs is considered easy for me).

I first tried the first plug on the left side of the engine...the spark plug socket went in very tough...turns out there was some 'rubber' material on the walls of the tube or whatever. No idea what it is or how it got there. After an hour of struggling to get the socket out I managed to do it.

I then decided to see if the first plug on the right side had the same rubber coating or whatever and it did not. So I tried to remove that spark plug and got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable with the amount of pressure I was having to apply (and it was not budging).

So, for those who've done the job:

1) Did you have any such issue with rubber being on the walls of the spark plug tubes? It honestly looked and behaved like RTV silicone once it cures. Why would that be there? It was about halfway down the tube.

2) How much pressure can I realistically apply to the actual plugs once I get a socket on them? I felt like I was about to snap them but them might have just been me being super paranoid due to the first issue and taking it too easy.

3) Can I use PB blaster in there?

That being said, the local Infiniti dealer wants just under $600 to do the job...that's with me providing the plugs. That's highway robbery. I'll reach out to the two local Nissan dealers and see what they'd charge...if I can get them to do it for $250-300 I'll just eat it as this likely will never be done again under my ownership (not sure I'll own the car past 200k).

Also, if a dealer or a mechanic was to break a spark plug...would I need to pay for additional work/time to get it out? Or is that considered on them?

I've never abandoned a maintenance job before...first time in nearly 15 years. Crazy.

[ArmedAviator]

That is abnormal. Did the rubber boots on the coils present any melted surfaces such as the engine being wildly overheated? Unlikely, anyway.

My guess is someone performed a shoddy job in the past somehow, someway. Did the M56 timing chain recall require the intake manifold or the valve covers to be removed? If so, maybe upon reinstallation of either of these components (most likely the valve covers), the RTV was too generous and got into the spark plug bosses. It'd be hard to prove that.

When I just replaced them on my M37 last month, they came out without much drama at all.

[Ilya]

That was my guess after posting...that someone removed the intake manifold and that's how it got in there. I did have the recall done so who knows. We had two Infiniti tech's on here but they've stopped posting a few months back...wish we still had those guys around.

The coilpacks and their boots are 100% intact, no evidence of transferring material, etc.

The way I got the spark plug socket out was by basically scraping the tube with a flat head screw driver until I peeled away enough of the RTV (or whatever it is, but certainly is stretchy and rubbery like RTV). I then managed to apply some pressure on the socket (pushing the extension to one side and basically dragging the socket along the tube - otherwise the extension would disconnect)...took me FOREVER.

Can I safely apply PB Blaster down there? I think next time (unless I can get Nissan to do it for relatively cheap) I'd spray that in each spark plug tube and let it sit for 30 minutes and then try again to undo the plugs.

Never had this type of issue.

[Ilya]

Also, are our heads aluminum or cast iron? Should I wait for the engine to cool before doing anything (I was changing my oil today so it was marginally cooler than running temp) or should I do it with a warm engine in the hopes that the plugs will break free easier?

[ArmedAviator]

Aluminum head. Removing may be a bit easier at warmer than room temp, but absolutely do not thread in new plugs until the engine is back to room temperature.

[Ilya]

Aluminum head. Removing may be a bit easier at warmer than room temp, but absolutely do not thread in new plugs until the engine is back to room temperature.

Thanks.

[Ilya]

I ended up making an appointment for Thursday with a Nissan dealer under the same 'family' as the Infiniti dealer I usually go to for $200 after taxes. Not $600.

I could probably manage to do the fronts myself after all, but the rears would be tougher.

[ssmrico]

Damn that sucks man hope it all gets done and nothing wrong I got lucky I got my oil,plugs, trans, diff, aligment and air idle relearn and bmc code deleted for 200 and cost of trans, diff fluids and oil change

[EdBwoy]

I ended up making an appointment for Thursday with a Nissan dealer under the same 'family' as the Infiniti dealer I usually go to for $200 after taxes. Not $600...

You will save enough money to cover the coffee and car wash that you're missing out from the Infiniti dealership many times over.


On PB blaster, it burns off so I suppose if I had to, I would. WD40 is another option, and apparently Ford has a special penetrant for their engines.

[Ilya]

Yeah, if I ever have to do this again I'll keep that in my back pocket or pay someone again...but I'm hoping this is the one and only spark plug change I'll need to do for this car.

[Ilya]

So had the plugs done. $199.75 after taxes. Not bad. Nissan dealer had zero issues doing this. Might be butt dyno, but car runs smoother and pulls better. My old plugs don't look terrible...this is with 100,104 hard miles on them (I WOT many many times a week but I also am super overboard with maintenance and change my oil, PCV valves, air filters, etc. far more often than they probably need to be changed).

Here's a pic of the plugs...for those of you who have also changed yours at around the 100k mark are mine better or worse than yours?








Now I'm going to go re-flash my UpRev map as to clear the ECU and let it relearn how it needs to work with better parts (also installed new air filters this week and cleaned the throttle bodies slightly).

For anyone wondering: I bought my plugs here, seemed to be one of the better prices...this is for the V8/M56:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BP ... UTF8&psc=1

[jmissile]

So I decided to give this a try on my m56. I was able to replace all of them,took a good 3 hours unfortunately because I ended up dropping the only 10mm socket I had that night in the engine bay about halfway through the job. Took it for a test drive and it starts fine and idles good,but when start to pull away and u give it throttle it spotters and pops. Already checked for loose vac hoses,clamps,etc. I gapped the plugs at .41 like the owners manual says even though they were more like .38ish out of the box. I'm not sure what's wrong atm but i can tell u that i noticed that the coil plugs exhibited some mushrooming on a few of the rubber boots toward the outer edge where it mates to the top of the spark plug chamber. And i also encountered some of that grey rtv stuff getting in the way but was super careful getting it out before removing each plug so as to not get any of that stuff in the engine.
I guess I'm gonna take them all back out again and check them. Any thoughts? I thought maybe I crossed a couple of the coil connectors but I don't see how that's really possible since all the connectors were lined up pretty well already.

[Ilya]

You'd know you crossed the packs if your engine idled poorly (it's all timed/in order). That's odd...mine was the opposite. I used to have an occasional flatspot at like 5krpm and now it's gone. Car pulls hard all the way through.

[jmissile]

Turns out one of the plugs I bought seems to be defective somehow. After confirming that my gap was wrong (I put them at .41 accidently not the recommended .43)I reinstalled them and it still ran like crap. I was really frustrated at this point so I took them all back out again and reinstalled them all over again just to visually inspect them and see if the tip on any of them was loose which a friend told me happened to him on more than one occasion. Never even knew that the tip could come loose on a spark plug lol. All of them were intact and looked flawless.Anyways the car still ran like crap so I'm like about to give up at this point. So i try to not freak out since I've been messing with it for 3 days now and was determined to figure this out so I at 2am last night I threw the old plugs back in again after regapping a couple cuz they got tossed around after I removed them initially. Well whatdya know the car runs perfect with the old plugs! Im going to go pick up a new set of plugs again this afternoon expecting this project to be done by the end of the day if it would stop raining for two seconds.The good thing is with all this practice I can now change the plugs in 15 -20minutes lol

[Ilya]

Turns out one of the plugs I bought seems to be defective somehow. After confirming that my gap was wrong (I put them at .41 accidently not the recommended .43)I reinstalled them and it still ran like crap. I was really frustrated at this point so I took them all back out again and reinstalled them all over again just to visually inspect them and see if the tip on any of them was loose which a friend told me happened to him on more than one occasion. Never even knew that the tip could come loose on a spark plug lol. All of them were intact and looked flawless.Anyways the car still ran like crap so I'm like about to give up at this point. So i try to not freak out since I've been messing with it for 3 days now and was determined to figure this out so I at 2am last night I threw the old plugs back in again after regapping a couple cuz they got tossed around after I removed them initially. Well whatdya know the car runs perfect with the old plugs! Im going to go pick up a new set of plugs again this afternoon expecting this project to be done by the end of the day if it would stop raining for two seconds.The good thing is with all this practice I can now change the plugs in 15 -20minutes lol

That's crazy but hopefully your fix is the one.

[jmissile]

That's crazy but hopefully your fix is the one.

Thanks, I installed the new plugs tonight and voila,it runs like a champ! I have 140k mi on my car and have had it since 90k and assumed the plugs had never been replaced before,there was a mild carbon buildup on a few of them. You can definitely tell the car loves the new plugs or just that the ones I took out had a slightly narrower gap in the upper .30's which was weird but could definitely impede the performance slightly imo

[prsquash]

Sorry, but what was the final gap used to make it fun properly?

[Ilya]

Sorry, but what was the final gap used to make it fun properly?

They should be 0.043 per the manual.

[Q70sGuy]

Modern spark plugs (iridium) should not be gapped… the other guy most likely broke his. They come ore-gapped and messing with that is unlikely to improve anything

[VStar650CL]

Modern spark plugs (iridium) should not be gapped… the other guy most likely broke his. They come ore-gapped and messing with that is unlikely to improve anything

Yes and no. Always make sure the cardboard sleeves which protect the plugs in the package are all intact and not bent or crushed. Parts and tran-sport people occasionally drop packages. They have oopsies just like the rest of us, and if there's any evidence of that, don't trust the gaps.