antiseize on spark plugs

[GhettoPop]

78 Blazer w/ stock 350....is it required to put anti-seize on the spark plug threads?

i already installed them yesterday w/o anti-seize and was wondering if i should pull them back out and put some anti-seize on them.

 

[K5dreamer]

you dun right.

i would never put anti-seize on sparkplugs. never put loc tight on them either. nice clean threads are the ticket.

 

[munepit]

In all my time changing plug, I have never used it. Hell, I have never even hears of it being used on spark plugs. Your good the way it is.

 

[496truck]

I have used it on plugs before. A very light coating with no problems. I was taught to do it this way in school, especially with aluminum cylinder heads. But I come from the rust belt where everything corrodes and rust-welds together.

 

[rufusbooth]

The official line from plug manufactures is to NOT use anti-seize on spark plugs.

My personal view is if the plugs are going in a set of iron heads, NO anti-seize. If the plugs are going into an aluminum head, ALWAYS use anti-seize.

Aluminum and steel spark plugs don't get along well and can corrode (dissimilar metals). Once corroded the plugs can pull the threads right out of the head when you remove the plugs.

Cheers,

Rufus

 

[Fordum]

If its ferrous heads, and they were hard to get out, I might put a drop of motor oil on the threads.

If its Aluminum heads, ALWAYS, like they said.

I have had to pull entirely too many Volkswagen heads off to put in Helicoils to ever put them in without it.

And, I have pulled entirely too many engines to get rebuilt after someone listened to a mechanic who said that the stripped out plug hole could be helicoiled on the engine as long as you blow or vacuum the shavings out of the cylinder afterward.

J.

 

[diesel4me]

I use it on spark plugs in aluminum cylinder heads ,especially air cooled engines..but dont get any on the electrode or porcelain,it'll short the plug out and you'll have a nice skip and dead cylinder...

I have heli-coiled many engines with aluminum heads and never had a problem as far as chips getting into the cylinder,I put a good blob of wheel bearing grease on the tap to catch the chips..yes,a few chips always "get away",but being aluminum they usually dont do much if any damage to the engine..

 

[GhettoPop]

thanks for the info. i always used anti-seize in the past on alum heads just didn't think it was necessary for the stock iron heads on my '78 350. so, as most recommended, i'm going to leave them in as is, with no anti-seize.

 

[Chevy305]

Anti-seize it, you will thank your self in 30-50K miles

 

[obijuan]

my dad always told me to do it and im glad i have done it. just a tiny bit on the threads is all you need.

 

[4X4HIGH]

ALWAYS use anti-seize on plugs going into aluminum heads but not needed if going into iron heads.

Also if a spark plug thread ever needs to have an insert installed a Time-Sert is MUCH better than a Heli-coil.

 

[Fordum]

I use it on spark plugs in aluminum cylinder heads ,especially air cooled engines..but dont get any on the electrode or porcelain,it'll short the plug out and you'll have a nice skip and dead cylinder...

I have heli-coiled many engines with aluminum heads and never had a problem as far as chips getting into the cylinder,I put a good blob of wheel bearing grease on the tap to catch the chips..yes,a few chips always "get away",but being aluminum they usually dont do much if any damage to the engine..

Well, Yeah....
Thats because you are lucky enough to work on big honking cast iron blocks, in cars probably not belonging to hot girls you are trying to impress!

Believe me, I have tried the grease, and it works fairly well. Also a few other tricks.

But you drop even a small aluminum head shaving into a solid aluminum block, and the shaving and cylinder walls are on equal fighting terms.

Then a few days later, you get invited over for dinner, and the question comes up......Uh sweetie, why is there some smoke coming out of one of the exhaust pipes, or why is my car making this sputtering noise when I give it gas.

That bedroom door might as well be 2 feet of Krell steel with 8 inch thick Chromalloy bars across it for all the chance you are going to get to see the inside of it anytime soon.

Pulling a bug engine in an apartment house parking lot with hand tools and muscle, loading it into the trunk of your car, and taking it to a friend's machine shop is no fun at all.

Putting it back in with jacks and 2X4s is no fun either.......

J.

 

[brian wafer]

was told by ngk guy, black plug antiseize silver plugs didn,t need it. if you use it watch not to touch porcelin or electrode,can jump fire. i use it all the time.

 

[diesel4me]

Well, Yeah....
Thats because you are lucky enough to work on big honking cast iron blocks, in cars probably not belonging to hot girls you are trying to impress!

Believe me, I have tried the grease, and it works fairly well. Also a few other tricks.

But you drop even a small aluminum head shaving into a solid aluminum block, and the shaving and cylinder walls are on equal fighting terms.

Then a few days later, you get invited over for dinner, and the question comes up......Uh sweetie, why is there some smoke coming out of one of the exhaust pipes, or why is my car making this sputtering noise when I give it gas.

That bedroom door might as well be 2 feet of Krell steel with 8 inch thick Chromalloy bars across it for all the chance you are going to get to see the inside of it anytime soon.

Pulling a bug engine in an apartment house parking lot with hand tools and muscle, loading it into the trunk of your car, and taking it to a friend's machine shop is no fun at all.

Putting it back in with jacks and 2X4s is no fun either.......

J.

Well,nowadays I fix more small air cooled engines than V8's...and I learned long ago trying to impress a hot girl by fixing her car,usually results in bitter dissapointment..(I have seen those iron bars on the bedroom door more than once after my attempts to repair a damsel in distress's car before,believe me!)..
...sometimes I think chicks buy junkers no one can fix,just to see how far she can get a guy to go as far as fixing it,then slams the gates shut on her purse,checkbook,or
privates after your best efforts failed!..

One thing I'll never do again is fix a womans car at MY expense,with her promise to "even up" with me when its done..its NEVER "done".unless "DONE" means just that--JUNK,time to crush it!...

One car I put THREE transmissions in before I got a "good" one for a lovely female "friend of a friend",in hopes I'd get in good with her--then three weeks (and NO dates!) later,I get a phone call--seems her latest "boyfriend" (sucker?) had taken her to Cape Cod and was doing a little "dune hopping" and now the tranny was slipping,and she demaned to know what I was going to do about it!--(after she never paid me one cent for the tranny's OR the labor--or offered any other type of "payment"....

.A girl with a Pontiac quad 4 that needed a water pump cried when a shop told her 400 bucks--me being a horny fool,offered to do it for 100 bucks,not knowing it was hidden deep inside the engine and was run by the timing chain!..after 3 nights of cussing ,drawing blood and fighting rusted bolts,I got it in..but when I went to start it up,evidently the timing chain moved a tooth,and it bent the valves in cylinder # 1!....now it was JUNK!....lucky for me she beleived me when I told her she must have overheated it a bit too much and the engine was junk,not because of my "mistake"..

I got paid for the water pump,took her on a date that cost me 100 bucks,and got a peck on the cheek when I took her home..and was told she wanted to be "just friends:..I haven't heard from her since 2001....been that long since I offered to fix any more females vehicles too..(now that I'm 52 I'm not so eager,ya know?)..

I pulled my '63 VW's engine out in my driveway,I used a few "blocks" of pine from a pine tree about 12" in diameter 16" high to raise it up high enough by nailing 2x10's to them for ramps..then I unbolted everything and let it drop on an old tire,by pulling on the tail pipes..then dragged it out from under it and put it on a rubbish barrel for an engine stand..ya,that was fun--the "good old days"..at least you COULD pull the engine yourself,and in about 15 minutes too--try THAT on one of todays die cast aluminum FWD sheet-boxes!..I think the air cooled VW's were light years ahead of many of toadys "cars"..