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Two engines, 16 spark plugs. 12 of which can be reached without much hassle. But the four on the outside of the starboard engine are impossible to reach. Not without removing the deck/seating above it. Like I had to do when replacing the water heater. Joy.

Oh and it's also a disappointing surprise to discover the plugs in the engine have been gapped wrong. The factory gap is supposed to be .060. The plugs are AC/Delco 41-985 with the iridium tips. Those come from AC/Delco gapped to .040. Most of the ones in the engines were actually gapped even less than that (probably around .037). Just great. So I got to spend a bunch of time re-gapping 16 plugs. Sigh, at least it's a comfortable 75F out here today, not the sweltering 100F it was a couple of weeks ago.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Got 'em all replaced and didn't have to remove the decking. I could have and it'd have made it easier to get to the plugs, but the work to remove the deck would've be a hassle too. So I wedged my fat ass into the engine compartment and managed to get to them. If you don't have one already, GET A UTILITY BLANKET. The kind movers use to protect furniture. They work wonders for keeping the hundreds of sharp edged hose clamps from slicing me up like a Bass-o-matic. Now I'll just need a very long hot shower to un-kink all the muscles in my back from all the contortions...

While I was wedge down in there I noticed a couple of drips coming out of the water heater overflow valve, hmmm. That might explain the source of fresh water that keeps appearing in the starboard bilge. I put a longer hose on the line and snaked it over into a bucket in the center bilge. If it's more than an couple ounces then I suppose the valve or heater might need work. I really don't like any leaks into the bilge so hopefully this will be the end of it.

The port engine plugs were all gapped to .040, as per shipping spec from AC/Delco. The starboard engine had most of them also gapped that way but the outside four were almost .060, go figure. Seems someone was lazy on the Crusader assembly line that day. I spoke with Crusader and confirmed it's supposed to be .060 with these plugs. The new ones are all gapped properly to .060

For having ~300 hours on them the plugs looked to be in decent shape. The usual slightly brown staining to them but no black deposits or oil fouling. Looks like the engines have been running well.

Nice to be doing preventative maintenance and not finding something worse. Unless you count the eff'ing seat fungus and the heater leak... Still, it beats dealing with the looming ToDo list at home!

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

geez Bill, your having all kinds of fun on the boat recently. New plugs, new batteries.... whats next?

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
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Heh, sure seems like it sometimes. The plugs were just regular maintenance, I'd been wanting to get them done all summer but only now got to them. Like installing a bracket to store the dinghy's outboard.

I will not tempt fate any further by speculating on anything else.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista