Spark plug replacement tips

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

Since I seem to recall seeing a crop of new Spider owners recently, I
thought I'd pass on the tip I was taught about safely changing spark
plugs in a Spider, or any other Alfa four-cylinder using the
Giulietta/Giulia based engine.

The problem will be obvious the first time you look under the hood and
notice those deep wells in which the spark plugs sit.  Dust, dirt, road
grit and other detritus that finds its way under your hood just
naturally gravitates to the area right around the spark plug opening.  I
was afraid that removing a plug would cause said grit and gunk to fall
into the cylinder, which seemed like something to avoid if at all
possible.

I won't even bother describing my first efforts, which involved siphons
and running the engine to dry the remaining water after cleaning the
engine.  Instead, I'll give the tip that Bob Wandell, the Import Doctor,
showed me.  You'll need:

  - 1 towel that your significant other won't scream about if it gets 
    oil soaked
  - 1 can of brake cleaner/degreaser (e.g., Brakleen)
  - Compressed air
  - Clean shop rags or paper toweling
  - Safety glasses -- put them on before the procedure starts

1.  Place the old towel over the top of the engine.  

2.  Lift enough of the old towel that you can spray the brake cleaning
compound around the spark plug well.  Use the towel to absorb the
overspray/splashing and shield your paint. 

3.  Repeat for all four spark plugs.  You will end up with a small pool
of brake cleaner and dissolved gunk in the bottom of the spark-plug
well.

4.  With the towel still around and over the plug wells, place the
nozzle of a compressed air jet in the spark plug well.  Blow compressed
air into the well so that the brake cleaner splashes up and is absorbed
by the towel.  Use care to make sure that the brake cleaner doesn't
splash on paint or into your eyes (you're still wearing the safety
glasses, yes?)

5.  When you have done this for all four spark plugs, inspect each plug
well.  If there is no more liquid brake cleaner in the well, you can
take the air jet and blast everything once more to make sure that all
grit and dirt is removed.

Your spark plugs are now ready for replacement.  Note that the book says
to torque them, with the threads oiled, to 18-25 lb/ft.  I use
anti-seize, and yes, I *always* use the torque wrench on Alfa plugs. 
Use it on the oil drain plug too (55 lb-ft, but not anti-seized -- those
threads are well oiled anyway).

Oh, one final tip: on my Spider, the plug wires are grouped by twos,
with #1 and #2 in a clip and #3 and #4 in another.  I marked just the #1
and #3 wires with a tiny strip of duct tape around the wire, an inch or
so from the connector.  I figure if anyone asks what the tape is for,
I'll simply say, "Don't those two wires look odd to you?" :-)

Anyway, I put in four new Golden Lodge HL plugs yesterday afternoon,
along with a new engine oil filter, 6 quarts of Castrol Syntec and about
half a quart of regular Castrol GT (to account for the pint or so that
goes into the new filter).  I also took out the old air filters and was
surprised.  While they had looked reasonably clean the last time I
inspected them a few months ago, that was only because I didn't have new
ones to compare them to.  I took in an old one and a new one to show my
wife.

"They don't look that different," she said, looking at the exterior (the
"clean" side.)

"That's because the outside air comes in here," I said, and let her peek
into the upstream side of the filter.  The new filter is pale butter
yellow; the old filter was sort of khaki.

"I guess they're doing their job," she said.  Looked that way to me.

The car doesn't run any different than it did before all this work,
which of course is always initially disappointing -- having started out
working with hopelessly shot old British sports cars for so many years,
I got used to spending three or four hours on a car and getting another
500 RPM out of it, or a smoother idle, or some equally noticeable
improvement in how it ran.  After a block or so of driving the Alfa, it
hit me -- the point of maintenance is so that there's NO difference in
how the car runs, not merely from before and after the work but from one
month to the next, or one year to the next.  It really means that the
car always runs as if it had just been tuned up.  I'll take it. :-)

My next maintenance operation will be to change the fuel system filters,
something I've never done on a Spica-equipped car.  I'll be grateful for
any been-there-done-that tips on safely getting to the oil filter in the
Spica pump housing, as that job intimidates me more than a little --
I've known several people who have stripped the bolts while trying to
replace them.  

One final comment: the Alfa must have the best-designed cooling system
in the world.  While crawling under the nose of the Spider, I estimated
that between the bumper and its support mechanisms, there's about four
square inches of open space through which outside air can actually get
to the radiator, yet my car ran comfortably in 105 degree weather last
summer.  Imagine how well it'd work if it actually got any airflow!

- --Scott

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