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

Yes, this perfectly sums up how I feel right now

 

I found these type of spark plugs in my truck! Swapping them for OEMs Toyota plugs. Guess these are ok for the 1st Gen V6s, so someone must've installed them.

 

I know that feeling
Good job!!

 

Those are totally the wrong plugs for the Tacoma. There is even a big warning sticker on the drivers side valve cover to install the long thread plugs.

 

I purchased my truck about 6 months ago and no record when the previous owner changed them. Judging by the consistent gap and overall good shape, they probably don't have many km's on them. I changed them anyways so I know exactly how many are on them now.

 

Yup! So glad I checked them. Here's the incorrect vs. correct ones.

 

Did my plugs last weekend. It is amazing how much nicer the truck runs.

 

How would you guys read this gap? I see 0.044 as that is where the leading edge stops.

If that's the case then here are the plugs (and gaps) I just picked up from a dealership.

I'm going to call them tomorrow to double check if they are supposed to come pre-gapped

Plug change coming up this week.

 

Just finished this! Write up was spot on. I have a TRD offroad, so I have to move a pump on the passenger side to access the intake bolts. Serial numbers were perfect and they came from the dealership “pre gapped”. Not sure if this is on purpose or just luck. Took me just inside of 2 hours, even with cleaning my K&N filter and cleaning the MAF sensor. The old ones were in rough shape....

 

Flying_taco...did you check the gaps yourself?
See my post above yours.

 

I ended up using a feeler gauge to set the new plug gaps at 0.040. They were way off from the dealer.

 

Yeah, I just picked up the coin type gauge to double check. Mine were .040-.043, good enough for me

 

Just curious where the range for the spark plug gap in the original post came from
In my owners manual and in the Haynes manual they both say .043 without any ranges at all

 

That's what I set mine at.

 

Did my plugs today. Truck was at 39,100 miles and replaced all the plugs with Denso K20HR-U11 and gapped them at .43 thanks for the write up and the tip to use the Gear wrench swivel spark definitely made the job easier. Toyota really torque those spark plugs. I was a little worried that I was going to damage a spark plug. Man, those coil packs also were a pain! I ended up using pliers to remove the coil pack and that made my fingers happy. Here is a bad pic of my plugs. I definitely think the Denso were the better one to go with since then glad are so dark.

 

That dark thread plug looks like the one I just pulled from my drivers side firewall. I wonder if oil is getting by the valve cover o-ring.

-RJM

 

Thanks for the writeup Chris! Have not changed spark plugs on a vehicle for long, long time. Gonna do it for my 2008 Taco.
One question please? I did not scroll through every page to look for this, so apologies if it was asked previously.
What did you use the long needle nose pliers for?

 

Props to OP writeup i followed it as a noob and did great, i HATE the coin type thing tho mine seemed to suck ass

 

Just replaced my plugs in my 2014 Tacoma with 68,000 miles on them. A little tricky getting the drivers side completed but overall pretty straightforward process. I noticed the plugs seemed to be torqued on pretty high from the factory. The color of the plugs was good and showed a decent amount of wear on the electrodes.

I went with NGK Iridium plugs as these plugs will be changed at 80,000 miles. The heat range is the same as the factory plugs so I wanted more durability through the interval that would be considered "reasonable" for a spark plug change. I used no grease on the threads as I remember that the plug manufacturer doesn't recommend them due to the coating of the threads. I am sure you could probably use a sparing amount of anti-seize if you wanted to. I paid $25.00 for the 6 NGK Iridiums.

I drive the better part of 25,000 miles per year so long term maintenance intervals have to be considered as well as consistent performance. Using even numbers is easy to remember when you have three trucks to maintain. Oil changes are at 10,000 miles using full synthetics as we are in the standard service category. I change air filters at 20,000.

Great write up.