Mission Accomplished.
It took me all day and I'm pretty sure I'm sunburned, but I got all 8 done. I have no garage nor any trees that cast shade on my driveway. It was hot as balls out today and was overall pretty brutal. But one by one I got them all done.
First, the results:
I can definitely feel a difference. Its seems to rev up from idle faster. And when I'm hard on the gas, it seems to apply power more sharply, without any lag. But most noticeably, when you're in a high load situation, like driving up a steep hill without giving it much gas, a situation that might bog down the engine, it muscles up without any hesitation. I'm very interested to see how it feels after I drive it some more. At first I wondered if it was just all in my head that it was driving better. But after the hill climb, I'm pretty sure it's legit.
Also my engine light went out. That could entirely be a coincidence, it does go off periodically then come back on. But could plug issues be cause my P1174 engine code for something about air fuel mix I think it was? Seems plausible, and that would be a nice bonus. Also I imagine the fuel economy must be getting some kind of a small boost if I'm combusting more efficiently? Nothing I'll see until I stop mashing on the gas at every green light. Eventually that gets old, even with a 5.3
Next, the old stuff:
I took some pics of the old stuff before I tossed it. The wires look... like wires.
The plugs on the other hand, were more interesting. The gap is WAYYYY off on one of the 8 plugs. It's so bad, I thought no way I was driving with that, I must have dropped it while removing and that bent the top of the plug. So I did a test drop of another old one and it didn't move at all. This was definitely like this. And there was no impact indications on the top of the plug, like the piston or something had smacked it. Of course if that had happened, I assume that would also mean the engine was dead. But it wasn't, it was running perfectly fine, just without the throttle response of a brand new engine.
Pretty strange, what do you make of this? I do NOT think this plug came from #5, where I had the misfire and misfire code earlier this summer. It is not in contact, there is a gap there. Just not much of one.