I was out last weekend and decided bought spark plugs, cables, distributor cap, and a distributor rotor, since i'm at 105k miles. My buddy was suppose to help me the same day but that didn't happen. so i decided to take this on when i got back from school today at 3 didn't even finish until 630ish. The spark plugs were a nightmare to get out. since the thermal shields were rusted on the headers, i just yanked them right off and gave me a little bit more room. routing the wires turned out to be a challenge as well, but i did the best i could. One of the spark plug cables boots were on backwards, so i had to yank it off and do some of my own diy on the thing. Only issue is i couldn't get the bottom plug on the left and the middle one on the right side. i just get my buddy to help me finish that this weekend hopefully. i ended up drawling myself a little diagram, so that i got my firing orders right on the distributor which helped a lot! Long story short i had fun messing around with it today, but in my own opinion the block looks pretty rusted surface wise. maybe ill even rig up a cold air intake this weekend too.

 

Sounds good. Did NGK v-power plugs the other day. V-8 needed to pull air filter box out and still had to get into some tight places but all and all not bad. Have a Lincoln that I have to pull the intake manifold off of to get the plugs on the passenger side. Hope it works out. Good Luck.

 

i just put on a diy grill i made with some gutter mesh, i think it came out pretty damn good!

 

Looks awsome; you should make a write up.. So how do you open the hood now? Got a pull wire or something?

What kind of tires are those?

 

Most are pull a wire. I've saw a few guys just eliminate the secondary latch. Those are bfg a/t's

 

wow thats cool i would love to do that if you can make up a DIY write up

 

there is actually already a write up found here https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...grill-diy.html
i just need to figure out how he did the grill at the bottom of the bumper. i used 12 guage wire for the latch. i thought this would be harder then what it actually was. it totally changes the look of the front end now. i like it! got the other two plugs out the one snapped and it was a huge mess to get it out ...

 

funny how similar our grills look
2011-10-08_16-19-41_498-1.jpg

 

yeah i was trying to message you the other day on how you did your grill, but your inbox was full. i happen to come across that thread last night and went out to lowes and did that quick. i was like he has same exact truck i have except yours has v8. now how did you do the bumper grill? i was digging through that thread and saw different ways on how people did it. oh and i see you have 32s right now im at 31s. did you need to do anything extra to get them to fit. i believe my truck sits relatively high compared to the other dakota's ive seen around, what do you think?

oh and the whole spark plug thing heres a pic... we got it out after numerous efforts on how to go about getting it out. it fused itself to the metal shroud.

 

anti-seize compound