Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Spark plugs in a newer 5.7 Hemi Ram

Has anybody else tackled these?

Owners manual says 30,000 mile replace them, and I'm at about 43,000 now. I got 16 of the OEM plugs, and started in on it tonight. Book says gap ought to be .043" and the first 2 I pulled were only .045". Not all black and sooty, some red deposite stuff, but not bad looking plugs at all.

I'm wondering do I need to pull all 16 and check for wear? Or will all the cylinders burn their plugs at the same rate? It's going to be a real PITA to get to all of them. Was 7 degrees out and I got the wood stove cranking and had the shop up to 25 and was already to settle in for a night of cussing and busting knuckles, but figured I'd stop and come in and check with the experts on here.

Jason

FWIW it's a '12 2500.

They should all be the same. If they're not, you have another problem like a leaking head gasket, bad injector, or something.
If the vehicle was older, since I was going to all that trouble, I'd get a compression gauge and check each cylinder as I went.

I have 181K on my Frontier and I have never taken a plug out, the 275hp 4.0 still gets 19.5 in town and 22 on the highway and I drive the biatch like I hate it.

Personally I would not pull the plugs for another 40K minimum.

Read an article linked on Facebook yesterday about Car and Driver's Dodge Dart long-term test vehicle. The factory recommended replacing the iridium plugs at 37,000 miles. They ended up paying the dealership a little over $43 apiece for the plugs and the total service bill was almost $500. What the hell is Chrysler thinking these days?

I have a 4.0 liter V-6 4WD Tacoma with 233,000+ miles on the odometer and have changed the plugs once (at 150,000 miles). Performance and fuel mileage remain the same as they were with 10,000 miles on the odometer.

Well, I was concerned I'd negate my warranty if I didn't do it. I've been reading a bunch about them, and from what I can tell they supposedly run better on the copper core plugs, hence the 30,000 mile change. As opposed to for example my 06 Chevy that had a recommended interval of 100,000 with the OEM iridium plugs.

The truck is running good, just trying to stay current on it with services etc. Only new vehicle I've ever had.

Mudhen, the dealer in town quoted me north of $300 to change the plugs, I'm not paying that. The dealer also quoted me something ridiculous just for the plugs. Looked the the manual, did some poking on line, and I got the same NGK plugs that came from the factory for $70 something bucks for 16 of them at Oreilly's. But they're not platinum or iridium plugs either.

I don't know if it's just something unique to these motors they're supposed to eat plugs that fast? But it looks like I'm putting the coil back on those 2 plugs and buttoning it up for awhile before taking it on again.

Put it off 'til dave needs to return a favor...

Your ignition system was designed for the standard plugs, use what is original and replace at the recommended time. 30,000 miles. There are many vehicles with plugs designed for 100,000 plus miles, but you don't want those plugs in a vehicle designed for standard plugs, it will cause drivability issues.

I would replace them but I would wait for warmer weather.

I just replaced the plugs for the first time on my 2006 Silverado (4.8 V8) at 140,000 miles (yes, I waited a little long). I expected trouble getting them out. Nope, no problem. I expected them to look awful. Honestly, if you'd told me they had just 40k on them, I would have believed it.

Changing plugs every 30k miles??? I thought that went the way of carburetors and cassette decks.....

For whatever reason this motor is supposed to run better on the copper cored ones.

For what I paid for the damn thing I'd better keep up with the little stuff. Going to make a run at it tonight.

He'd crossthread one on purpose.

Just threaten him with pulling the red cord. That oughtta keep him in line.

Well 5+ hours later I got 'er done. Holy balls what a PITA.

I have 255,000 miles on my Ram 2500 CTD and have never changed the plugs. Lately I have noticed that when I really get down on it, it has black smoke coming from the exhaust. Could that be my problem?

Tim

I looked and looked and couldn't find my spark plug wires, much less the plugs themselves in my Cummins either? WTF??? Damn thing smokes when I get on it as well

I don't think you guys are running enough sugar in your fuel by the sounds of it.

I don't want an obese truck.

How far into it did you start thinking the $300+ at the dealer wasn't sounding too bad?

Use premium and it won't smoke as much.