abbyp61•2d agoProlific Poster

Just realized I was torquing spark plugs wrong for like 5 years

I always just used the torque wrench dry until a Gulfstream lead saw me doing it and asked why I wasn't using anti-seize. He showed me the corrosion buildup on an old plug that seized up mid-flight, and now I never skip it. Anyone else have an old habit a senior mechanic caught and corrected on the spot?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer_jones172d ago

The senior tech on my old line crew told me the same thing about anti-seize on spark plugs after I melted a helicoil out of an aluminum head. He said heat cycles make dry threads seize up way faster than people think, especially on aircraft engines where temps swing hard. Now I use a tiny dab of nickel anti-seize, not the copper stuff, because the nickel handles higher temps without turning into cement. It's one of those things that sounds like overkill until you're pulling a seized plug out of a hot cylinder.

rowan_reed682d ago

Man I totally get that. Nickel anti-seize is the way to go for sure. I've seen copper stuff turn into a hard crust on exhaust manifolds after a few seasons, and then you're fighting to get a bolt out that should just spin free. The heat swing thing is real too. I've had plugs seize up in small engines on my own equipment and had to drill them out. Nothing worse than that job. A little dab on the threads before install makes all the difference down the road. It's cheap insurance against a headache.

sarahpark2d ago

Nothing worse than being the guy who has to admit the helicoil was your idea in the first place.