Well, I am going thru the pain of changing the spark plugs on my 2001 Ram 5.9 V8. 8 hours and I finally had the 4 on the passenger side changed out! The heat shields will not come out on my truck, but I found a couple of things that might help others in this pickle. Napa has a deep thinwall socket that is just the ticket...part# BK 776-9052 It cost just $8.49 and works great! The other little tip is to cut and de-burr a short piece of 3/4" EMT .It just fits over the round part of the plug. The length will vary according to which plug you are doing. I blew out each plug hole with air and then carefully pounded the EMT down into the shield over the plug until I hit the head.The sound will definitely change when hammering.This cleans out all the crap in there and forces the shield out enough so that the socket slips right in! Use the air again and everything goes as it should.After discovering the EMT trick the driver side plugs took all an hour and a half. I haven't seen this posted anywhere, so I hope this helps!

 

I found it best to just remove the spark plug heat shields. They are totally worthless and serve no good purpose, other than to make spark plug changes difficult and allow debris to collect around the spark plug and boot.

 

Yeah, just rip the stupid things out. If you want the heat shields on the boots, you can get the slip over type they used on the older minivans 3.3 and 3.8.

 

+1 to just get rid of the damn crap traps, I yanked them out when I first got my 2nd gen

 

They will not come out...I tried.

 

Need to get more serious. Cutting down one side, as far as you can, and then deforming them to get 'em to let go works pretty good.

 

Grab them with some good vise grips near the seam and turn inwards while pulling out. I had a couple that I thought I wouldn't get but just kept at it and eventually they came out.

 

Never had a problem with them changing plugs. I use a cheap Craftsman socket set to do it too. I use the plug socket for removing and the regular 5/8 for putting 'em back in otherwise the socket can stay in there. I guess I don't understand the concern.

 

Is your truck garage-kept? Most trucks that get driven a lot and are out in the elements regularly have this issue.

 

I'm guessing they started putting these on in 96? I have two 96's and one has it and the other don't. ??? I also noticed that the center console dividers are different. Maybe i should start another thread about this.