03 spark plug change..interesting find. 170k miles

[Good351]

I finally got around to changing the spark plugs on my 03 V8. Took this pic after pulling the passenger side middle plug (both middle plugs actually). The plug came out a little tougher than the others (they all were pretty tough). But these 2 were brownish and the boot was discolored. Maybe there was some leakage from these two?

I believe the plugs were the originals (170,000 miles). After installing the new plugs and a test drive, I found the engine has a lot more response! It ran fine before..no skipping or hesitation. But now when you goose the throttle a little bit it responds right now! The old plugs had a larger gap than the new ones..don't know how much, didn't measure, but i could see a difference.

The tick tick tick, of what the previous owner told me was a cracked exhaust manifold, also seems to be gone. The engine is overall much quieter.

 

[Sherminator866]

I just changed mine yesteday as well. 85k. They must have been done before because the ngks weren't in there. Man what a massive pain to get them out though. I was sure I was going to snap a couple of them.

Those look like they burned nice. The only weird thing about the boot is that its the same color throughout. I would think with a leak you would have more of a discoloration instead of a uniformed brown like that.

 

[Good351]

Ya, I was worried about snapping a couple as well.. I was sure to use anti-seize on the new ones. And Ya, I've read all the threads on yay/nay of using anti-seize.. I've worked with too many metals that for no apparent reason will fuse together and not budge.

ps, I don't know for a fact that these were original. The previous owner had it from 110k to 160k and didn't change them. All I do know is that they were in there for a long time!