all i have to say is OH MY GOD....i didnt even get the back ones changed, the front ones took me almost 3 hours....granted im slow, but still...

the coil on plug technology is nifty, but its a pain in the A$$!!

the "ignition cassette" that is built into the...they arent really valve covers, theyre head/camshaft covers i guess...its held on with 7 screws and then its SEALED to the covers....i had to pick at it and pry at it with a screwdriver tor at least an hour or so and then it finally took almost every bit of physical strength i could exert to finish breaking the seal and pull it off...

i was worried about the boots...not a problem, stick a finger in one until it seals tight, then curve your finger a little bit and pull it out....definetely handy to have the small hands..

now the spark plugs are recessed into the heads crazy far, a plug socket with an extension on it offered about 1/4 inch of metal sticking out of the hole, so using TWO extensions and a plug socket i was able to get high enough out of there to turn a wrench....

then at one point i decided it would i would put the socket into the hole without the extension on it....the plug went up into the socket where i couldnt get an extension on there......half hour later the socket was back out....thanks to whoever invented needle nose pliers.

i give props to GM for getting some new technology out there, but its quite a pain for your average shadetree mechanic to do something as simple as changing the plugs..

i still have the back ones to do, im not looking forward to that AT ALL.

end of vent

the following is from an Intrigue forum:

thats why i still do things myself

granted the Intrigue has no wires at all, and that price is probably a bit off...but it would still be expensive, and i cant afford it. id rather pay 15 bucks for a set of plugs and spend some free time doing it myself.

thankfully I only have 53,000 so I don't have to worry about it for a while, but either way, I'm not looking forward to it when the time DOES come. How did your original plugs look after you took them out? Do you think it was worth replacing them? What'd you replace them with?

they looked to just have normal wear, the ones i removed were some type of NGK, the numbers werent anything i had heard before...but i doubt it came factory with NGKs, which means that someone has been through this hell before.

i replaced them with NGK "G-Powers" which are TR55 platinums from my understanding.

gapped at .50 according to the owners manual, the Chiltons said .60, but they were pre-gapped at .50ish so i went with the manual.

Custom i dont know if you can do it or not, but i plan to actually rotate the engine forward a couple inches...i dont know if the aurora can do this or not, but i can, so i plan to make full use of it, ill try and snap some pics, i was going to on the fronts, but my camera died.

Pictures would be great! The more the better. I'm very curious to see what the engine looks like without the coil packs on it.

also, the Aurora'* engine cannot roll forward. :( I wish it could though because I can't even reach my 02 sensor to change it. :(

count your blessings, i cant even FIND my o2 sensor.....i know its in the rear exhaust manifold somewhere....but i can barely even find that...this thing is cramped pretty good on the firewall side....and kinda all over really.

but i should be working on it tomorrow...i really hope that back one isnt sealed as tight as the front one was....cant blame a guy for hoping.

also another little thing that may or may not have actually helped....after prying on the sealed ignition cassette forever with the engine cold, as in hadnt been run all day...i started it and let it warm up to operating temp and that was when it came off....mind you it was still hard to pull off...but im not sure if things being warm helped, or if i finally just got pissed and ripped the thing off.

oh, I should mention I can't see my 02, either. I found it by "feel." It'* on the exhaust manifold, right up next to the rear of the engine. It isnt' down further like it was on the 3800, it'* right at the top of the manifold on the LX5.