goodbytes
New Member
- Joined
- March 15, 2013
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Jacksonville, Fla
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2001 Ford Explorer Sport
Okay, so it's 120,000 mile service time which means plugs, wires (seem fine so I might do them later), oil change, brakes, injectors, fuel filter, and transmission fluid. I've been doing it piecemeal; oil first followed by fuel filter and, today, brakes and plugs. Brakes were just fine and dandy but I have dreaded the spark plugs ever since the first time I looked down in the engine bay. I assumed the plugs had been replaced but looking through the service history, they never have.
Now, I don't know who these dissolute madmen are on this site claiming times of anywhere between 20 minutes and two hours but I'm here to tell you I cannot even concieve of Mister Fantastic having such an easy time of it. The brakes took two hours at a leisurely pace but the plugs... I looked and figured the passenger side would be the most difficult because there is a heat shielded something blocking the plugs for the back two. I came in from the side since the top seems a ludicrous proposition even if you remove the airbox which probably doesn't apply to my '01 sport because the airbox doesn't wrap all the way around to the side of the engine like some. So I began on the passenger side and got the first plug relatively easy. Of course the wrench was difficult to finagle into there and I could only get around 30-40 degrees of travel but I thought I had it. The next it took a lot of smoke breaks let's just say--trying to get two hands around whatever the hell that thing wrapped in aluminum foil is plus the tube to check the tranny fluid and a metal line that runs to a black pressure unit right next to said aluminum foil wrapped thing with the headers being in the way on the other side. There is such a limited space and I needed a "knuckle" that I didn't freaking have. Cursing the engineer and the tools will only take you so far away from crazy town before you have to take a break. Anyway, with the sun going down I finished with the last which was a breeze compared to the middle pass side plug. Again, extremely limited travel on the wrench. The sun finished going down as I put the last boot back on, three hours later, and I figured I'd start again tomorrow. I started the engine to recharge the battery from all the radio I had been listening to and check and make sure it would in fact still start. After a minute or two BAM oil leaking out of all 3. This served to incense me to a point beyond words--dumbstruck, speechless, EPIC FAIL. I am not getting enough travel on the wrench between taking up the minimal slack between the socket, extension, and wrench. I got them as tight as I possibly could but it wasn't good enough.
Now I told you all of this to provide as much context as possible--I need pointers and a PRECISE list of tools, please
(best size extension? more than one? , did you use a knuckle? y'know, the bendy thing? can you get good torque using a knuckle? how many degrees of travel should I expect to get on the wrench?
I know a lot of general articles exist and I"ve read them but are there specific idiosyncrasies involved in the sport models?
Now, I don't know who these dissolute madmen are on this site claiming times of anywhere between 20 minutes and two hours but I'm here to tell you I cannot even concieve of Mister Fantastic having such an easy time of it. The brakes took two hours at a leisurely pace but the plugs... I looked and figured the passenger side would be the most difficult because there is a heat shielded something blocking the plugs for the back two. I came in from the side since the top seems a ludicrous proposition even if you remove the airbox which probably doesn't apply to my '01 sport because the airbox doesn't wrap all the way around to the side of the engine like some. So I began on the passenger side and got the first plug relatively easy. Of course the wrench was difficult to finagle into there and I could only get around 30-40 degrees of travel but I thought I had it. The next it took a lot of smoke breaks let's just say--trying to get two hands around whatever the hell that thing wrapped in aluminum foil is plus the tube to check the tranny fluid and a metal line that runs to a black pressure unit right next to said aluminum foil wrapped thing with the headers being in the way on the other side. There is such a limited space and I needed a "knuckle" that I didn't freaking have. Cursing the engineer and the tools will only take you so far away from crazy town before you have to take a break. Anyway, with the sun going down I finished with the last which was a breeze compared to the middle pass side plug. Again, extremely limited travel on the wrench. The sun finished going down as I put the last boot back on, three hours later, and I figured I'd start again tomorrow. I started the engine to recharge the battery from all the radio I had been listening to and check and make sure it would in fact still start. After a minute or two BAM oil leaking out of all 3. This served to incense me to a point beyond words--dumbstruck, speechless, EPIC FAIL. I am not getting enough travel on the wrench between taking up the minimal slack between the socket, extension, and wrench. I got them as tight as I possibly could but it wasn't good enough.
Now I told you all of this to provide as much context as possible--I need pointers and a PRECISE list of tools, please
(best size extension? more than one? , did you use a knuckle? y'know, the bendy thing? can you get good torque using a knuckle? how many degrees of travel should I expect to get on the wrench?
I know a lot of general articles exist and I"ve read them but are there specific idiosyncrasies involved in the sport models?
