Heat shield were on the motors throughout the production run. My guess would be that some previous owner actually removed them from one of your trucks. Mine has 'em still. As does the 98 motor hanging on the engine stand, and also the 95 motor, sitting on a pallet in the barn.

 

Never seen a garage in its life. But why would that make any difference whether a plug comes out? Again, the regular 5/8 socket fits in the heat shield just fine. It's been my DD since 2001 and has almost 200k on it.

 

One word: RUST


Something else that works great is a tire iron, giant screwdriver, or a longer smaller tipped pry bar. Do some bending and twisting with the visegrips and wedge that bugger between the shield and head and start prying.

 

As does mine, which will always have some kind of heat shields around its sparky thingies even though the ceramic on the headers has taken over a big part of that job.

 

Our DD 5.9 Has all of it's shields, and I have never had this spark plug changing issue due to them.
Maybe my pug socket is a thin wall and I never payed attention or noticed-IDK.
Then again my shields are slightly spread open (funnel like) at the seam by maybe 1/8-1/4 inch, and were like that when We got it.

I would think if they were "crap traps" that changing plugs could be potentially hazardous to cylinder condition and life expectancy.
TBH- the only thing Mine has ever collected is a bit of dripped oil here and there from routine oil changes.

 

Depends on what conditions you drive in. I live on a dirt road, so, "stuff" collects in them, and has to be blown out before changing plugs.

 

I see,the difference.
Even though it has never been garage kept and only gotten service needs met properly & timely after we got it, We make no use of gravel/dirt roads normally.

 

That's a good standard practice, regardless of the driving conditions.

 

indeed it is.

 

If you installed headers and didn't remove the heat shields when they were easy to access (like my dumbas* did) flex shaft extensions will keep you from taking a lighter to your truck when changing plugs lolololol