Does anybody have any tips or tricks for tightening a compression tester properly on a Magnum Engine?

I find the spark plug wire boot heat shields that are attached to the cylinder head, get in my way of properly hand tightening my compression tester. I think this may lead to inaccurate compression tests.

When I do a compression test on my truck (2001 5.9 gas), I tighten my compression tester by the piece of hose that connects the gauge to the fitting, because the heat shields stop me from "handling" the compresstion tester fitting itself.

But sometimes I can only get it so tight before the hose starts to spin on the fitting (and the fitting stops tightening into the cylinder head).

Once I used needle nose pliers to reach down into the heat shield and back out a stuck comp tester.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to properly tighten a compression tester inside the heat shields?

Any special tools available for this job?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Get rid of the heat shields.

 

+1. grab those mother ****ers with a big pair of pliers and shake them back and forth until they come out, then throw them as far as you can....

they lead to difficult plug changes, possibly stripped threads, dirt into cylinder, etc. i got rid of mine about 4 years ago with no ill effects.

 

hmmm, if I'd known this a few days ago, I might have pulled mine out too. I thought they were better off stayin in there

 

yeah, I like the fact I have those heat shields. you could try lubricating the threads in the head along with the O-ring on the end of the compression tester. also is there a way to stop the hose from spinning without tightening the threaded portion of the gauge? maybe a zip tie or small section of hose slipped over the union? maybe some heat shrink? maybe all these things in conjunction could get you an accurate reading without s-canning the heat shields. good luck!

 

The pliers-type spark plug wire removers will work just fine.

 

to tighten the compression gauge or to remove the heat shields?

 

To tighten the compression tester.

 

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated. I think that I will leave the heat shields in there. I seem to remember the FSM saying not to remove them.

I like the ideas of lubricating the fitting and o-ring, and also using the spark plug boot puller to tighten the fitting. I will give that a try.

Is there any chance that a spark plug wire could arc to the heat shield? Has anyone encountered this?

Thanks again,
Chris

 

I tried getting them heatsheilds off last night and they wouldnt come off at all. i twisted the hell outa the one, and it just looks like a spark plug blew up inside of there