How to Replace Spark Plugs 1999-2007 Chevy Silverado

Okay, friends. Now, before we get started on this spark plug video, we want to go over a couple brief things. The number one concern is always safety. Make sure you're wearing hand protection and eye protection at all times. The next thing I wanna talk about involves the spark plug directly, and it's located right here. It's the gap between the electrodes. You wanna make sure you have a gap there, and the gap for this vehicle should be 0.040. You can get yourself one of these gap tools, maybe it'll come in handy. One thing about using a gapping tool is that it's made out of hard metal, and these spark plugs right here are made out of precious metals on the end by the electrode. If you shove this hard metal in there, you could potentially damage it. So maybe you could just put it up close, see if it looks like it's approximately right. And you could also compare it to the rest of the spark plugs and make sure they are all approximately the same going across. Once you've confirmed that they all look fine, let's continue with the install.

Now in this video, we're gonna be showing you how to do the front right spark plug, but the process will be the same for all. What we're gonna need to do is remove the lower part of the spark plug wire from the spark plug. You wanna be very careful that your engine is not hot because this is your exhaust manifold. Give it a nice twist, see if you can break it free. If you can, twist and pull, should come right off. I always like to take a peek to make sure that there's no damage, there's no moisture, and there's no corrosion. That looks like it still got some lubricant on there, so that looks great.

We're gonna take our 5/8 spark plug socket, and we're gonna come right down, put it onto the spark plug, gonna give it a little spin, you should feel a click in, go ahead and turn it to the left. I'm only gonna give it a couple turns and then we're gonna use some compressed air to make sure we blow out any debris that might be in there.

Let's just take a quick look at that spark plug. Look at the condition. Does it look as though it's got funny colors? Maybe it has buildup of any sort? If you see buildup, you know that you're not burning proper fuel and, of course, your new spark plug's probably going to get buildup over time as well. This one looks fairly decent and it's not worn at any angles. I don't see that there would be any issue. Let's go ahead and replace it.

So, we've got our old spark plug, let's grab our new one. And we're gonna look right along this edge right here. That's where it's gonna mate to the engine, you wanna try to compare those together. And then come right up along the top where the electrode is, make sure that it comes out to the approximate same length. If for some reason your new or old spark plug was higher or longer than the other, you know you're probably going to have an issue. More than likely you have the wrong spark plug.

Once you know you've got the correct spark plug and it's gapped as close as possible, let's go ahead and carefully install it into the engine. Just wanna find that hole, guide it in. Always start it in by hand, and you never ever wanna use an air gun for any reason doing spark plugs.
We're gonna go ahead and torque down. When you torque it, if you're torquing it into an old head or a used head, you would torque it to 11 foot-pounds. If you're going into a brand new engine or a brand new head, torque it to 15 foot-pounds.

Now it's gonna be time to get your coil wire back on here. Before you do that, I just like to say, it's always a great idea to replace your spark plug wires when you're replacing your spark plugs. Either way, whether you're replacing them or not, I definitely recommend using some dielectric grease right along the area that's gonna go over the spark plug. That's gonna help this release easier next time. Go ahead and slide it on there. Make sure it clicks in. Beautiful. Follow the wire, make sure you didn't give any tugs and it's not going anywhere near the exhaust in any way. Do the same for all the rest.