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Not surprised. I honestly don’t know the state of my current plugs so I just picked up this set in case they need changing. Figured if I’m gonna go through the trouble bore scoping, then might as well change the plugs while I’m at it.
net net if you're tuned replacing plugs and coils at 5k miles is a smart move as (to me) those 2 are the main culprits to most misfires (in addition to tune issues). you likely can get away with longer intervals on the coil pack replacements if you are changing plugs more frequently at the 5k mile interval. interesting that i had 12k miles on those ngk1555 plugs with a 100 and 93 octane tune from AMS and only in the last 1k miles did i start getting random misfires. would NOT advise going that long without plug changes i was just lazy and should have gotten to it sooner....
Not surprised. I honestly don’t know the state of my current plugs so I just picked up this set in case they need changing. Figured if I’m gonna go through the trouble bore scoping, then might as well change the plugs while I’m at it.
admittedly, he did have just a few more horsepower/tq than me 😆 (10/20)
Last edited by PeterUbers; 07-18-2023 at 11:26 PM.
net net if you're tuned replacing plugs and coils at 5k miles is a smart move as (to me) those 2 are the main culprits to most misfires (in addition to tune issues). you likely can get away with longer intervals on the coil pack replacements if you are changing plugs more frequently at the 5k mile interval. interesting that i had 12k miles on those ngk1555 plugs with a 100 and 93 octane tune from AMS and only in the last 1k miles did i start getting random misfires. would NOT advise going that long without plug changes i was just lazy and should have gotten to it sooner....
Us higher elevation folk only get access to 91 octane. I’m going to ask the previous owner what octane gas he put in his(vehicle is from Cali).
ETA: google says Cali has 91 as the highest octane available so the tune I have is for 91 octane which is good.
One more time thank you Kenny I finished the whole car plugs and wires and indexed 100% up. If it wasn't for your video that I've watched now maybe 10 times lol I would of had no idea how to do this. It's done and done perfect.
I did the passanger side very quick. Much more room than the drivers side. She fired right up and super smooth. I don't know of it's just me but it seems to fire up rather much quicker than before and responsive. Anyways they were all indexed completely straight up.
almost all where at 45° prior.
Definitely a cool project, if your a bit handy.
And you know you did it better than anyone.
Hey guys silly question here, what 3/8 torque wrench are you guys using to torque the plugs . Just going to start doing the plugs & realized the craftsman (and any 3/8 in big box stores) click style only start at 20ft lbs./33.9 Nm lbs on the scale . Going under the scale a few lbs accurate ?
Last edited by SilverE5588; 09-01-2023 at 02:29 PM.
Hey guys silly question here, what 3/8 torque wrench are you guys using to torque the plugs . Just going to start doing the plugs & realized the craftsman (and any 3/8 in big box stores) click style only start at 20ft lbs./33.9 Nm lbs on the scale . Going under the scale a few lbs accurate ?
This is my 3/8 in torque wrench https://amzn.to/3Elfg3Z
I personally would rather go "mechanics touch" AKA good-n-tight rather than trying to guess outside of a torque wrenches limits.
And to be honest, I didn't say this in the video, I've literally changed 2 to 3,000 spark plugs. I was an aviation mechanic for several years and the spark plugs have to go in and out of those all the time.
And out of those 2 to 3,000 spark plugs, I've used a torque wrench exactly zero times... except for in this video LOL
This is my 3/8 in torque wrench https://amzn.to/3Elfg3Z
I personally would rather go "mechanics touch" AKA good-n-tight rather than trying to guess outside of a torque wrenches limits.
And to be honest, I didn't say this in the video, I've literally changed 2 to 3,000 spark plugs. I was an aviation mechanic for several years and the spark plugs have to go in and out of those all the time.
And out of those 2 to 3,000 spark plugs, I've used a torque wrench exactly zero times... except for in this video LOL
Ended up ordering a cdi 3/8 torque wrench off amazon 10-100 ft lbs. Home depot's 1/4 doesn't go high enough & their 3/8 starts too high , ha same with other big box stores . Last problem I expected to run into . Just an fyi for anyone doing the plugs, if you need a torque wrench plan ahead.
Last edited by SilverE5588; 09-01-2023 at 10:15 PM.
Just did the plugs this weekend right around 96k. Almost every new oem mb plug fell around 9:45 & out of the window . Washers ended up all very similar to yours kenneyd 1.25-1.30mm needed to obtain 12 oclock or very close .
Ended up using a few dabs of super glue & stuck em to the bottom of a tube of touch up paint to save the ol fingertips. Scoped the majority of the cylinders esp. #5 all looked great , thats a relief (car has never been tuned) .
Side note car starts noticeably faster & is smoother/more responsive. Also fyi if anyone uses the depstech amazon camera to scope it works great . But has a cheap thin screw on metal ring collar at the end of the camera . It worked it's way loose & almost fell into a cylinder towards the end. Best ting on the floor i've heard in a while !
Last edited by SilverE5588; 09-10-2023 at 10:20 PM.
Yah mine feels more responsive and starts quicker too
Just curious as I don't think it matters , which side of the gasket did you sand down - head or spark plug end side ? head side already had detents so I used that side.
Just curious as I don't think it matters , which side of the gasket did you sand down - head or spark plug end side ? head side already had detents so I used that side.
I ended up sanding the side that is against the plug. I chose that so the little nubs were still available to thread back onto the plug and keep the gasket from falling off the plug during install.
I ended up sanding the side that is against the plug. I chose that so the little nubs were still available to thread back onto the plug and keep the gasket from falling off the plug during install.
Yes gaskets were looser , but didn't fall off luckily .
Just curious as I don't think it matters , which side of the gasket did you sand down - head or spark plug end side ? head side already had detents so I used that side.
the bottom as it comes off the plug. Which is the head side
What’s the trick to removing the washers on NGK’s? I tried with pliers but no go. I must be doing something wrong.
I used oem plugs , unsure if the washer is different on the ngks. But the trick was to keep the washer flat/ as level as possible. Was able to spin then off by hand that way.
I used oem plugs , unsure if the washer is different on the ngks. But the trick was to keep the washer flat/ as level as possible. Was able to spin then off by hand that way.
Ya doesn’t look like these can be removed. I watched Kenny’s video and I can definitely see that the washers on the OEM plugs are more loose than the NGK ones. Bummer. I was really looking forward to indexing these…
Just did this job with the OEM Bosch plugs. It took a long time since I had to pull the spark plugs out multiple times for each cylinder in order to get the washer thickness perfect for indexing @ 12 o'clock.
One thing I want to point out: my vehicle came with a mix of new and old ignition coils. 3 had a newer design boot and 5 had an older one. All 5 of the older ones were partially broken by the previous owner when they did the prior spark plug replacement. The design of the old boots is such that it's pretty much impossible to remove them without something breaking on them. There's just nowhere to hook onto and pull. The ones in Kenny's video are the newer design. Pulling those out with a right angle pick was a sinch.
Here are pics of the two designs:
Newer design - part # 2761590242 - as you can tell, there is plenty of meat along the tube to hook something underneath and pull. No problems with these.
Older POS design part # 2761590042/2761560900 - as you can see, the shark fin type design that runs along the tube has no room to hook anything underneath it. It's also way thinner and easy to break especially if the plastic is old. About the only thing you can try is to stick a thin pick in small opening inside of that shark fin. I did that and it' still broke. Again, the plastic is just to thin.
Top side of the old boot design. It's basically clamped together.
With that all being said, I found an aftermarket solution that runs half the cost of the OEM ones and uses the newer beefier design. Made by a company called Intermotor SMP - # SPP222E
Just did this job with the OEM Bosch plugs. It took a long time since I had to pull the spark plugs out multiple times for each cylinder in order to get the washer thickness perfect for indexing @ 12 o'clock.
One thing I want to point out: my vehicle came with a mix of new and old ignition coils. 3 had a newer design boot and 5 had an older one. All 5 of the older ones were partially broken by the previous owner when they did the prior spark plug replacement. The design of the old boots is such that it's pretty much impossible to remove them without something breaking on them. There's just nowhere to hook onto and pull. The ones in Kenny's video are the newer design. Pulling those out with a right angle pick was a sinch.
Here are pics of the two designs:
Newer design - part # 2761590242 - as you can tell, there is plenty of meat along the tube to hook something underneath and pull. No problems with these.
Older POS design part # 2761590042/2761560900 - as you can see, the shark fin type design that runs along the tube has no room to hook anything underneath it. It's also way thinner and easy to break especially if the plastic is old. About the only thing you can try is to stick a thin pick in small opening inside of that shark fin. I did that and it' still broke. Again, the plastic is just to thin.
Top side of the old boot design. It's basically clamped together.
With that all being said, I found an aftermarket solution that runs half the cost of the OEM ones and uses the newer beefier design. Made by a company called Intermotor SMP - # SPP222E
I had same issue with Bosch boot - until I warmed up engine for 3 minutes then it popped off easily - but love the beru beefier design - not surprised Benz service bays switched to this in order to preserve boots and not have to incur more charges (unless they didn't eat the cost and passed it on to the owner)
I had same issue with Bosch boot - until I warmed up engine for 3 minutes then it popped off easily - but love the beru beefier design - not surprised Benz service bays switched to this in order to preserve boots and not have to incur more charges (unless they didn't eat the cost and passed it on to the owner)
Got the boots and installed everything back in. Fired her up without a hitch. To me it feels as though the car has less of that wub wub wub(upon initial acceleration out of my driveway). Like it’s less pronounced and smoother. Will give her a proper thrashing tomorrow and see if it’s just a placebo effect or the real deal.
Welp. Got the boots and installed everything back in. Fired her up without a hitch. Drove to the gas station. After fill up, fired her up again and check engine came on. Gonna scan for codes. In the meantime, I’m guessing a check engine can get thrown due to improper gap?
is the gas cap tight? Crank that sucker tighter and re start the car
Ok one more question, so with this 0.022 gap and index at 12 o’clock, the car now feels ultra smooth upon acceleration. Like not as brutish. Is this a sign that I’m down on power? Or is it a sign that my engine is happier lol?
I read that making the gap too tight leads to reduced power? Should I have stopped at .024? Previous plugs were gapped at .026.
Ok one more question, so with this 0.022 gap and index at 12 o’clock, the car now feels ultra smooth upon acceleration. Like not as brutish. Is this a sign that I’m down on power? Or is it a sign that my engine is happier lol?
I read that making the gap too tight leads to reduced power? Should I have stopped at .024? Previous plugs were gapped at .026.
Or it's just happy with new plugs
usually you'll have a little extra vibrations in low rpms with narrow gap on these engines but I never experienced that when I was at 0.022. And
there is no way to quantify the improved feel you're experiencing and also no way to know, shy of a before and after dyno, if you're down on power but you shouldn't be.
i dyno'd (dyno tune) with 0.022 and OEM gap 0.026-0.030 and had the same dang power - both OEM plugs (93 octane ams tune). I dyno'd my 100 tune with OEM plugs at OEM gap (current situation) and it makes prodigious power.
usually you'll have a little extra vibrations in low rpms with narrow gap on these engines but I never experienced that when I was at 0.022. And
there is no way to quantify the improved feel you're experiencing and also no way to know, shy of a before and after dyno, if you're down on power but you shouldn't be.
i dyno'd (dyno tune) with 0.022 and OEM gap 0.026-0.030 and had the same dang power - both OEM plugs (93 octane ams tune). I dyno'd my 100 tune with OEM plugs at OEM gap (current situation) and it makes prodigious power.
you should be fine 😊
Thanks Pete, you tha 🐐. I just took ‘er out for another flogging and ya smooth powerful pulling. I’m happy as long as the M157 is happy.
07-18-2023, 11:10 PM
