If you change your own plugs, beware!

[sanoke_imp]

I was doing my 8,000 mile check today and I figured I'd wait until I got the valve cover off before I pulled the plugs (makes turning the engine easier). When I went to put the plug socket on, I saw a whole bunch of tiny stones around the plug base. So I put the valve cover back on and used compressed air to blow out the stones. Unfortunately, some of the stones had become wedged in between the plug base and the plug hole. I imagine the heating and cooling of the engine had done that. My only choice was to remove the plugs. Fortunately there is a small lip around the plug hole and by taking the plugs out carefully, I avoided having any of the stones fall into the hole. I then used my shop vac with a small hose to suck up the stones.

If I hadn't had the tank off, I never would have seen them. Just using compressed air to blow out the plug holes prior to removing the plugs isn't enough. You need to carefully remove them and then use a vacume to suck out the hole.

By the way, all the valves were spot on except one intake but it was still within the +/- tolerance.

[flynrider]

That's a common issue on I-4s with their deep plug wells. I had a similar issue when I changed out the factory plugs on my CB750 at 25K miles. I used compressed air, a shop vac with a homemade adapter and a long dental pic. I think I spent over an hour cleaning out the plug wells before I finally got around to removing the first plug. I even found a penny that had somehow wedged itself between the #3 plug and the plug well (had to pry it out).

It's a big pain to clean, but the consequences of having one of those little pebbles drop into the cylinder could be serious (and expensive).

[the Ferret]

Good info and also good to hear your valves were in spec.