How To: Spark Plug Change (1 GR-FE)

I want to change my sparkplugs myself, but i have a supercharger in the way. Anyone have a link to a video i can watch to help me out with this?

 

Super easy process...I didn't read all 110 pages...but if anyone's looking for it, the torque specs for the plugs are listed already...the coils themself I had to look up, its 10 ft/lb.

 

Just take off the SCer... thats what i plan to do....
TRD/ Magnuson 4.0 Supercharger Tips, Tricks, and Mods thread is the best...

 

nice write-up!

 

2nd time using this tutorial. Thanks again! I was way overdue! Plugs were worn to 5 and 5.5.

 

This tutorial was awesome. Thanks @chris4x4

Took me about an hour, including cleaning the air filter, playing with the pup, and having a cold beverage.

A few of my plugs had bad gaps up to .060 but overall nothing crazy or gunky. It was a bit overdue, but was waiting for the Vegas temps to go under 110° haha. New plugs are all around .041 or .042

 

Used this again for my second plug change. I skipped the anti seize though. Only put a little dielectric grease in the boots. The rear driver's side plug had a little oil on the outside of the plug so I guess the valve cover might be starting to leak a little

 

So is there a reason why you recommend the Denson over the ngk plugs? Just wondering.

 

Plug change with out removing SCer

 

I was ready to pay dealer (I'm in northern Va.) to do the plugs on my prerunner; but the dealers in this region are don't quote just the plugs; want to do a bunch of 60k services for like $1200.!!. One even quoted 600 'just to do the plugs'.
Really got P/Oed at that treatment, and got out my old tools. Did have 5/8 cushioned plug socket but plug gauge was so old the LARGEST gap pin was .040 [and it still had blades on the other end for gaping points!]
Bought Toyota (

$7 90919-01235 Toyota Genuine Spark Plug

90919-01235) from a dealer in Ct. who had a better price then local NAPA even w/ shipping (hoping to avoid fakes, etc.) Total cost $26.00.
Not too bad for 90minutes work.
Thanks for the directions in this thread.

 

I’m gonna give this a shot this weekend. Getting the plugs tomorrow.

 

Tips from my experience:
Tape the plug socket to the socket wrench extension (electrical tape is good); found that the socket may stay on plug when withdrawing the extension after torquing. I dedicated one extension for the taped-on plug socket and had others for other bolts.
I removed each coil bolt first and then release the electrical connector (Very short wires); allows some wiggle room to detach. After plug install, helps to maneuver the electric connector back onto the coil before installing the coil bolt.
I did one plug at a time; I'm paranoid about stuff possibly falling into an empty plug hole and don't want to leave it empty longer than i have to. Put the removed bolts in your pocket, not on any engine surface. Plus I want coils in same place they came from.
I found some helpful uTube vids handy.
Take your time and Good Luck!

 

Thank you for the tips.

 

I was also intimidated, but no worries. The posted guide here with all comments are your best friend. I had '0' issues. Don't forget to check the gap on the plugs.

 

Did mine today and it took 1.5 hours. The ones I took out were Denso on the passenger, NGK on the driver. I did a quick time lapse video. Also, I found it useful to use a socket swivel as pictured. Really helped on a few. I used the recommended spark plug, I bought locally from Toyota and they were all pre-gapped to .044.

https://youtu.be/o1WMOpAkCSg

 

It did not take me that long, maybe 45 mins. Did you have some issues?

 

First time doing this vehicle. I read back and most of us took 1.5 - 2 hours. Glad you’re gifted! Here is the original post, highlited for your convenience. It looks like I came in under the average so looks like I’m all set. Thanks for your concern though.

 

I just changed mine yesterday and they seemed to have a lot of gunk built up on the threads and around the crush washer. Is this normal? I don't remember what they looked like last time I changed them. Also the 15ft lb of torque scared me a little bit seemed to tight to me

 

4 hours? Would consider that extremely excessive. It just isn't that difficult, especially if you go watch the YouTube video before you start. I can probably change the passenger side plugs in about 20 minutes without rushing. The driver's side requires a bracket or two to be removed. Would say the entire job takes me about an hour without rushing. A professional Toyota mechanic probably takes <30 minutes to do the job.

Now if you count the time spent researching the job, watching YouTube videos, only walking back to grab one tool at a time, and thoroughly cleaning them after each use, taking a snack break, etc., it may take you 2 hours.

Plan to change the PCV valve during my upcoming plug change, so that should add about 3 minutes to the job.

 

First of all, big thanks to the OP and others that contributed in to the thread! Second, a few things I hope others may find helpful:

1. The link to the spark plugs OP recommended now has them at $5 only from third party sellers. Amazon itself them them for $15.58 each at the moment! Pretty crazy. I found the same Denso part number Denso (3381) K20HR-U11 at this link

$7 Denso (3381) K20HR-U11 Traditional Spark Plug, Pack of 1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012Q4H96/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for only $5.60 sold by Amazon. Amazon vehicle fit info is wrong in this case - it says they don't fit our engine (2nd gen V6), but I can confirm they fit perfectly and are exactly the same as what dealership uses (Denso 3381 K20HR-U11). So if you want to avoid counterfeit plugs and buy from Amazon, you can ignore the wrong fit info on Amazon as long as the part number is correct. I could've actually gotten them slightly cheaper from a local dealership, but it would've been a drive and I figured time spent would've eaten away slight savings (could've gotten them for $3.80 each)

2. Agree with others that recommended magnetic spark plug socket. I personally purchased this one

$15 LEXIVON 5/8" Swivel Magnetic Spark Plug Socket, 3/8" Drive x 10" Total Length | Enhanced Magnetic Design with Thin Wall Socket, Cr-v Steel (LX-122)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MH5ZDMD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it worked amazing.

3. This was my first time using a torque wrench (I don't normally work on my vehicles), and after some agonizing I went with Tekton

$50 TEKTON 3/8" Drive Micrometer Torque Wrench (10-80 ft.-lb.) | 24330

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FMPKAD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I took the time to read the manual and practiced on some "unimportant" bolts (my portable backup generator frame bolts, the frame isn't aluminum, so I loosened the bolts and tried a few different torque settings, making sure increasing the torque allowed me to tighten the bolts more and in general got the feel for how the wrench clicks when proper torque is reached)

4. I decided to go with 12 lb/ft torque setting and it seems to have worked fine. Denso recommends 15-22lb/ft for this spark plugs in aluminum engine heads - see https://www.densoproducts.com/denso-3381-k20hr-u11-nickel-u-groove-spark-plug. They also recommend to reduce torque by 30% or 1/3 if using anti-seize, which I decided to use. So based on that, with anti-seize torque should've been 10-14lb/ft, which is why I went with 12.

5. One of the spark plugs was tightened a lot by the dealership during the previous spark plug change. It was a bit of a struggle to get it out. I made sure I had my socked extensions as inline with the plug is possible. It came out, but I couldn't hand-thread the new plug. I managed to get it a few turns in by hand, backed out, back in, and finally used torque wrench at 12lb/ft setting to get it in all the way. It did go in very easy with the wrench, and it did stop / clicked at the very end, so I hope the stealership didn't screw up the thread on that spark plug. One more reason to do it yourself rather than trusting someone else to do that.

6. While testing the truck after reconnecting the battery, it started and almost immediately died. After reading many pages of this thread, it sounds perfectly normal because I did have my battery disconnected. I was able to start it again and it idled fine, though seems a bit high - I think it was about 1100 RPM. Unfortunately I didn't look at what it was before my spark plug change. It was a bit rough before that, so maybe an unrelated issue. I also hope maybe computer adjusts after some driving around as someone else reported. We will see.

7. I did use di-electric grease, not sure if it was warranted as all my coils came out very very easily. I was able to pull them out with two fingers (and I'm a small guy). They didn't seem to have any signed of di-electric grease having been used on them before.

Hope the info about is useful to someone. Also hope my idle comes down some, otherwise I'll need to read up on it.