There is some very hard material surrounding the plug that prevents me from a getting a socket on it. I have went at with a drill, a punch, a holesaw, a screwdriver and a hammer. Nothing has worked. Has anybody ever seen this? How do you resolve this? This is the 5 & 6 plug on my 96 Ram 1500 5.9l.

See pictures. Thanks.

 

remove the shields and that crud will come out. slap a pair of vise grips on the shield and wiggle it. it will come out eventually!

 

You might take a shop vac to the plug holes before you remove the plugs, keep that **** from falling into the cylinder....

 

do you have a 12 point spark plug socket? i found that a 6 point spark plug socket would not work on plugs like that.

 

Yes, likely road salt/debris. The experience I had with my '96 Ram forced me to swap my engine, as the 3 rear plugs had corroded badly, I could not remove them (socket had nothing to grab and there was rust everywhere), even after removing the spark plug shields. Those don't look too bad. Remove the spark plug shields and spray the plugs with a good penetrating oil and they should come out. Another tip - remove all of the spark plug shields - they serve no good purpose whatsoever..

 

O.K. Thanks. Yesterday I soaked it good with carb cleaner and whacked at it with a pin punch and hammer and that did not work. I thought the shield woulb be impossible to remove, but I'll give that a go.

No socket will do the job at this point and I will definitely get the crud out before removing the lug.

Thanks again.

 

Remove the shields, get the crud out, soak good with PB Blaster (something equivalent or better) and use a 6 point impact grade socket to remove the plugs. In my case, some plugs were rusted so badly, I had to use an undersized impact grade 6 point socket to remove them..