2005 Saturn Vue 4 cylinder spark plug change

We had the Saturn Vue back in the shop today. The neighbor hit me up to change the spark plugs in it a few weeks ago and we finally got a little time. Here it is just after I pulled it in. It has 137,000 miles on it and the plugs have never been changed. Changing the plugs in a vue is one of the easier vehicles to do. Everything is pretty accessible and on the 4 cylinder all the plugs are right on top of the engine. That's nice because your not right against the firewall with no access.

 The first thing you need to do is remove the duct assembly. To do that remove the plug that goes to it, and the pcv hose. Then loosen the 2 clamps on the duct. There is a push pin attachment that just pulls up and out. You can then remove the duct.

 I put a paper towel in the intake plenum to keep any dirt from getting in there. Just make sure you REMOVE it before you put the duct back on. This is what it should look like now. There are (4) 10 MM bolts on the top of the coil pack. You need to remove them.

 Remove the wiring harness plug that is on the coil pack. You will need to remove the gray little clip and then you can remove the plug.

Now just pull up the coil packs. My hand looks all funny because they were hot and it was burning my fingers when I was trying to get a picture.

 I vacuumed the top of the engine off so nothing would fall down into the cylinders. This area is always full of dirt, sand and other debris.

 Still vacuuming it off.

 I also took my blow nozzle and blew out the spark plug holes as an extra precaution.

The first plug looked pretty worn. This is comparing the old one to the new one.

 A long extension works great to get to the plugs. Here the 2nd one is coming out.

 This one was really worn. The electrode was almost gone from it.

 The number 2 and 4 plugs looked like this. I was surprised that the car didn't have any misfire codes. They were definitely in need of a change.

A lot of new plugs are gapped from the factory. These ones needed to be gapped. They are set at .045. I had to adjust the gap on all 4 plugs.

 They tell you NOT to use anti seize on the plugs when installing them so I didn't. The torque for the plugs is 15 ft lbs. The old ones came out just fine so I didn't worry about not using anti seize. They say not to use it on this engine because it will cause you to over torque the plugs.

 Now just install everything in the reverse order of removal. The 4 bolts for the coil packs are torqued to 89 IN lbs. It only took about 45 minutes and that included cleaning up the engine compartment a little and checking the oil and tires. Not a bad job to do so there is no reason not to change them at 100,000 miles like they suggest.

Well, the baja is going away one piece at a time as people come and buy parts off it. We should be able to get the new blue bug into the shop and get the engine removed from it soon. Isaac is getting really excited to start on it. Hopefully the weather will cool down a little bit. It makes it a lot easier to go out in the shop and work. Check back and see if we get things rolling on "old blue" as Isaac likes to call it. I am leaning toward the name Lulu. What do you all think?