Plug boots staying in cylinder walls

Call this post production work, silicone grease goes on those boots, battery electrical connections, help retard corrosion, and on all those O-ring sealed lamps, when that O-ring bakes on with the heat of the bulbs, will never get them off.

For spark plug boots, made my own tool, piece of 3/4" strap steel with a 90 degree notched end. Stupid pro boot removers are like a pair of pliers, and boots are like a Chinese finger puzzle, the harder you pull the tighter they get. With my tool, it compresses the boot.

But the only problem with it, does not work on the Cruze, blocked by that ignition coil module, no way to get at the bottom of the boots. So they get an extra dose of silicone. Those springs inside of the boots are to short, get hung up on the shoulders inside of the boots, stretched those out another 3/8 inch, and make darn sure all four are sticking out before putting the coil module back in. Has to be done at an angle so you can see all four boots are on top of the plugs, then straighten it out and push it down.

Then the brakes, may only find a couple of drops of silicone on the caliper guide pins, also load that boot with silicone, helps keep road salt out. Same with the piston boots, they pop out, put a rim of silicone inside the boot and push it back on, also helps in keeping road salt out.

Rest is done with anti-seize, under those torque plate clips, trap road salt and where the pad tabs touch those clips. Pull the rotor and paint the hub with anti-seize, cast iron on steel, if you don't do this, cannot pull the rotor off. Also on the outside of the rotor where the tire fits on, that center hub rusts out, can't even remove the tire, lug nut bolts get it, every break one off because the lug nut is rusted on tight?

Could barely pull off the rear tail light housings, used my suction vacuum puller for this, has a plunger on the end that jams hard into a rubber grommet. Open up that grommet a tad and coated that with silicone, sure doesn't rattle, but can slide it off with my fingers, don't need a crow bar.

Yep, post production work, may take two tubes of silicone, seven bucks each, but sure saves a lot of headaches later.

Ha, often make the comment, just want to remove a component, don't want to break it. Silicone also helps on those snap together plastic parts, those tabs break off very easily.

obermd said:

As easy as it is for the boots and springs to detach from the ignition rail I'm really surprised GM doesn't sell the boots and springs separately. As long as you got the boots out without tearing and reassembled prior to putting the ignition rail back in you should be fine.

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GM does not have the boots, but NAPA has them. I think they are around $6-7 each. And I think Standard Motor Products also has them, but I don't see these in the Rockauto catalog.

Look for a video from "briansMobile1" on youtube. He shows how to spray with silicone spray and use a pick to get under the bottom of the stuck boot.

Compressed air is a good idea as well. My 2012 is still rolling with original plugs. I strongly suspect that I'll be buying boots if I change the plugs.

I believe the two holes for the coil pack are tapped for the GM official coil tool, which I remember someone on the sonic form saying is M8 bolts.. It's either M8x1.25 or M8x1.5. At the time I looked at Menards and they did have threaded bolts that might make it easier than a vise grips or fingers to get the coil off.

I load my boots up with dielectric grease, never go beyond 15K miles, always get carbon build up on the plug's center electric insulator, shorts our a part or all the the spark.

Sounds like when you pulled your ignition module, the boot stayed on the plugs and came off the module. Ran into this on used stuff for my kids. Can take a screwdriver, heat it until its red hot, bend the tip 90 degrees, dip it in oil to hardened it, and use this to pull the boots out from the bottom. Didn't say this was easy, watch your language around women, but it works.

Other problems leaving the plugs in a long time with an aluminum head, the threads of the head come out with it. Helps to pour in Seafoam into the engine to help ease that carbon build up and carefully work them out. But still have that KD spark plug hole repair kit. Coating the threads with a thin coat of anti-seize helps prevent this.

Head is aluminum, plug is steel, dissimilar metals and alway have current flowing through the base of the plug, hey, they copied electroplating. On plugs that have threads inside the combustion chamber, really stupid, put those in my machine lathe and cut those off. Aren't doing a thing to keep those plugs torqued properly. When dealing with stupid people, have to learn to make adjustments.

They do cast in valve seats on these aluminum head engines, could also cast in steel spark plug seats, but prefer to give KD business.

Could take it to your dealer, or like my dealers tell me, trade it in for a new vehicle. Least in aircraft, do preventative maintenance, unheard of with land vehicles, keep on driving them until you are stalled in some godforsaken place.