Plug replacement at 33k miles

[WhiteExpress]

Well, I broke down today and finally changed my plugs before my road trip this week. I have just a tick over 33,000 miles on the truck with mostly highway miles. Sure it's pulled a trailer a time or two, and made 3 passes down the strip, but overall it's had a super easy life. Mind you the owners manual says to replaced the plugs at 32,000 miles or 24 months.

There is a good 'how to' for a '2010 Ram Hemi Plug Change' on Youtube, but there are no special tricks here.
Just need a 3" and 1" extension a plug socket and a 10mm wrench.
It all comes apart fairly easy. I did it one side at a time.
Take out all 4 coil packs and go to town.

I used factory replacement (surprise to me) NGKs. I always run NGKs, glad to see it's the stock plug though.

Here's the engine sans upper air filter housing and engine cover. Much easier to do with those 2 items removed.


Was impressed to find NGKs in there stock:


Had 12 plugs that looked like this, worn but otherwise clean:


Couple like this:


and 2 like this:


The 4 bad plugs came from 2 cylinders, the No 1 and No 8.
One of each from each (1 really bad, one kind of bad per cyclinder).

I'm a bit un-nerved by the differences. Anyone have any ideas?

All said and done, it was a pretty easy job, just a bit time consuming.
I sprayed the outsides of the plug boots down with silicon to try and keep em nice and factory fresh, put a new layer of dielectric on all the connectors too.

Truck certainly feels to be running smoother now. For the $80ish for the plugs, it's certainly worth it IMO.

 

[WhiteExpress]

And yes, I need to take off the engine cover and clean up the Hemi.
Poor thing.

Today was about getting the plugs done and ready for the road trip.
I have some painting plans for the engine cover.

 

[UNBROKEN]

Those are fine.
NGK actually has a nice chart for basic reading of plugs.

NGK Spark Plugs USA

 

[LB3711]

not bad. maybe thats part of the MDS cylinders

Now come do mine

 

[Burla]

Bookmarked.

 

[WhiteExpress]

Those are fine.
NGK actually has a nice chart for basic reading of plugs.

NGK Spark Plugs USA

Neat! Thanks for the link! I like "that's normal"

 

[TRXHemi]

I did mine this past weekend as well. I only had three out of the sixteen that had any carbon build up at all. I was surprised at the good shape they were in.

 

[WhiteExpress]

Yea, I think I'll change my next ones at in 27k (Or at 60k miles on the truck) and stick with a 30k change on them. 32k is an interesting #.

 

[chuck]

Thanks for doing such an extensive write up on it, that's good info for me on when I should do my first change on my plugs.

Quick question for you...if you don't want to derail this thread just send me a PM, but how do you clean your Hemi? I've been thinking of it but unsure of how to go about doing it.

 

[UNBROKEN]

2 cans of Gunk and a high pressure car wash....just don't hit the important connections with the high pressure spray.

 

[chuck]

2 cans of Gunk and a high pressure car wash....just don't hit the important connections with the high pressure spray.

Awesome man, thanks a bunch.

 

[WhiteExpress]

2 cans of Gunk and a high pressure car wash....just don't hit the important connections with the high pressure spray.

This works pretty darned well. I try to keep mine clean in general so I don't need gunk etc. I use simple green cut 50% with plain ol water.

I spray that on a cold engine, and gently brush, rinse and dry.
Then I take instant detailer spray and a few microfibers and go to work.
Get all the hoses, the plastics, everything I can. It takes a while, but it keeps it all looking good, and helps the hoses last longer.

This next time I'm going to try the Adam's SuperRVT spray instead of the instant detailer. I'm not going for shine, I quite rather dislike shine, but I want the protection.

 

[Hemi450hp]

I also use Simple Green. Let it sit for about 10 minutes while you scrub the dirty areas, and then rinse it off. I usually go over that with a can of tire foam. After spraying the foam, I wipe off the larger areas, and then you are good to go. Makes the motor look new again.

 

[kkreit01]

Nice job on the plugs.

I never take a hose under the hood. I did once -- back in the middle 90s. Never again. Electrical gremlins started. I now only hand clean with a damp cloth. I wipe underhood every time I wash, so it never gets that dirty.

 

[chuck]

Awesome guys, thanks so much for all the info. I'll have to try that out. Not that my motor needs cleaning already but can't hurt. I want to keep it in top shape so it'll last me forever.


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