Spark Plug Change???

What kind of job is it to change the spark plugs on the passenger side of my '01 3.4L V6?

 

Do you have the coilpacks (coils that sit on top of the valve cover)?

If so you just take the one bolt that holds each one to the valve cover, and pull them straight up. You'll have to disconnect the wire bundle that goes to each one to be able to take the packs all the way out.

After doing mine best advice I can give is let the engine cool 'cause you're gonna be touching a lot of hot parts if you don't, and my Haynes says you can gall the threads in the head if it's hot.

Use never-seize on the new plug threads and start them carefully. Heli-coiling heads really isn't fun.

 

See here: http://www.4runners.org/writeups/sparkplugs/

 

Thats a great thread. I just finished mine and it took me about 1.5 hrs. The intake is not that hard to remove. Also since you will have the intake removed you may want to clean the throttle body. Tape the spark plug socket to your extension with duck tape. Rick

 

Interesting. I changed all 6 plugs on my 02 3.4 and didn't have to take anything at all off..especially the intake. Glad I didn't look up how to do it properly first.

 

well i don't know about your 2002. The question was for a 2001 which I have and yes you do have to take off the intake to get to the coil pack on passenger front plug. Those instructions have been a god send to a lot of us who likes to work on their veh. Rick

 

yeah, need to remove at least the intake hose in order to get to the coil pack. i had to on my 04, and im assuming its the same as an 01 or an 02. the passenger side is cake with the hose removed....the driver side takes a bit longer,since you gotta move a few hoses and brackets outta the way. still not hard to do though.

 

Relax, I was just saying I did NOT have to remove the INTAKE on my 02, in fact if you look at the pictures on that thread the intake HOSE is off, NOT the intake. The first picture says under it "[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-2]You can choose to remove the entire air intake system shown in red or just the tube portion shown in yellow". [/SIZE][/FONT]I chose to do just the TUBE, and I didn't take that off either, just disconnected it at the throttle body end and used my forearm to keep it out of the way while I pulled the coil pack.

Been working on cars since 1975. Got a little "likes to work on their veh" in me...

Brackets on the left side made things a bear, but I didn't have to pull them either. The 2nd gens might have more hoses and other goodies there than the 1st ones, dunno, never peeked under ones hood.

 

No big deal. You are right it is the intake hose I removed. That was my first time to change the plugs on my Tacoma. Felt real good about it. Thanks for your post. Rick