Hi guys. Had my 09 Cobalt SS for about a month now. Car has 176,000 kms (110,000 miles). Found out from original owner that the car still has original plugs in it, so I'm going to put new ones in. To avoid breakage, is it best to remove the plugs from a cold engine or warm engine ?
Thanks for any help.
Jeff

 

cold. never remove plugs from an aluminum head when its warm.

 

Cold, don't put a lot of force on them.

If they won't budge, spray a little lube or penetrating oil in plug hole and wait 20 min.

Make sure to put anti sieze on them and electrical connector grease on stud

 

Luke warm... Just cause

 

Change them between firing cycles while its running like a real man lol

 

You need some one in the car revving the car up to 5050 rpms exactly while in neutral and then get under that hood and put about 200ft*lbs of torque on those suckers to pry them out. If your buddy doesnt have it reving at exactly 5050 rpms, you will get injured and more than likely damage the car.

 

I was told to do a compression test when the car was warm, and that means taking spark plugs out while the car is hot no?

 

care to elaborate?

 

Almost pissed myself

 

This is great.

 

i take hot plugs out of aluminum heads all the time, just dont put cold plugs in a hot head

 

That would be awesome to see someone try. But the car would already be misfiring cause you'd have to remove the wire.

 

It's pretty common place at test and tune night at the race track, as well as when dyno tuning. lol

yes lol

 

Thanks guys

 

Cold. Never ever remove from aluminum heads when hot or even warm.

 

This^^

 

 

If you know what you are doing it won't matter at all. I've done hundreds of spark plug changes on all temperature ranges and all engine configurations, if you remove them properly and coat the threads with a little anti-seize compound when they go back in and follow the basics for not ******* up anything, you will be just fine.

 

On most car's its not recommended (especially aluminum heads) that you use anti seize, as it screws with the torque spec. As long as you torque the plugs properly there is nothing else you should have to worry about, hot cold, whatever.

 

This is true, but if you know what proper torque feels like you will be there anyway. There's not enough of a reduction to make a serious difference, and following the old 3/4 turn to crush the gasket or 1/16th turn on a taper seat works very well regardless of lube, assuming standard automotive thread sizing. Some of the newer smaller plugs will vary that slightly but the difference is quite minor.

 

You're a big boy. You can do the reading on it.