[flyboy2610]

When I replaced the plugs in both of our 4.2 I6 TB's, the first thing I did was to give the plug just a tiny tweak tightening it. Then loosen the plug until resistance was felt. Tighten it up a turn or so, then loosen until resistance is felt. Repeat the process until the plug is out. You do not want to gall the threads, and this process will help prevent that. Remove the plugs only on a cold engine. I always use a small amount of nickel anti-seize on the threads of the new plugs. Torque to spec. 13 ft. lbs. IIRC, don't have the book handy.

 

[Ravalli Surfer]

I mixed up a potion of white leaded grease and added some graphite flakes for my anti-seize paste.

So far, it's worked a champ.

 

[johnd393]

The combination wrench trick will give me a lever length of almost 26". My fist try was a little shorter combination.

 

[Schurkey]

Wild Guess: You'll have plenty of leverage to spread-open the O2 sensor socket, and round-off the sensor flats. BT,DT.

That's when I bought the socket I linked-to.

A guy who works with my wife needed an O2 sensor changed on his Dodge Charger/5.7L Hemi. The shop he took it to told him they couldn't get it out, he should go somewhere else. "Somewhere else" was me.

24", 1/2" drive ratchet with a 3-foot cheater pipe on the end. Enough overlap so that the whole lever arm was just over four feet. Took BOTH OF US pushing on the cheater pipe. "SNAP"! Good thing we were braced, or we'd have fallen over. Sensor screwed right out after popping free. Mind you, I tried everything including a 3/4" impact wrench and got nowhere prior to the ratchet-and-cheater-pipe deal. An O2 sensor socket would have been useless.



I use plain ol' commercially-bought "copper" anti-seize. Best I can tell, that's what Champion supplied for aircraft use--but I've never bought the Champion brand. Permatex or Loctite copper anti-seize for me.
Lifetime supply:

Amazon.com: Permatex 09128 Copper Anti-Seize Lubricant, 8 oz. by Permatex : Automotive

Buy Permatex 09128 Copper Anti-Seize Lubricant, 8 oz. by Permatex: Cleaning Kits - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Or stop at any decent auto-parts store, they're likely to have something similar locally. Reduce torque on nuts/bolts/spark plugs that have had the threads lubricated with anti-seize. I use 80% of "clean and dry" torque spec as a rule-of-thumb.

 

[johnd393]

A hose clamp tightened on the end of the slotted socket is to prevent spreading. I'm going to try lessor methods with what I have on hand before I work my way up to the 4 ft pipe on a breaker bar.
I'm working from the top. There's not a clear path to an extension on it from the wheel well. I've not looked at if a breaker bar could access it from the bottom.
Just saw another idea on youtube, clamp a vise-grip on the slotted socket to prevent spreading.
I have anti seize on hand
The 4 ft pipe on a breaker bar is still an option if nothing else works

The GD animal shreaded the insulating blanket under the hood. I don't think it was that way the other day.

 

[johnd393]

Worked on it after driving the car so the manifold was hot. Got the O2 sensor to move. I rocked it back & forth a little and sprayed more penetrant on it. I got hot and had to quit. It's gonna come out.
Bought a thread chaser tool while we were out.

 

[johnd393]

The sensor is out. The last few turns were just my hand on the slotted socket. . One wire is cut flush with the end of the sensor body. No chance of doing a decent splice. What was in there was #1258699
Bought a thread chaser
The Torque app is showing zero misfires on all cylinder, but there is a misfire history of almost 400 on #6. I think that MF history is still there from weeks ago when the coils got wet cus I left the hood up in the rain. The engine runs smooth with no perception of a missfire.

 

[chem_man]

Congrats! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Good Luck!

 

[johnd393]

Amazon has a marked down price on a Denso 234-4119.
Got tired of reading all the advice online about what brand sensor not to use and ordered this one. Had some credit card points for partial payment.
Saw Rock Auto has a similar price for the same one.

 

[chem_man]

Denso is a great choice! That is what I use on all my vehicles when I need an O2 sensor.

 

[johnd393]

Using the thread chaser. I keep dropping tools. 2 ratchets are hung up somewhere out of sight under the engine. I saw one and went after it with a magnet wand than it moved out of sight. It's about a 50/50 chance if a tool falls through to the ground or effing disappears.

 

[Ravalli Surfer]

As long as they weren't Snap-On ratchets, don't worry.

I just lost a $65 pair of dikes and I only got to use them once. They growed feet and just walked away.

 

[johnd393]

The Denso O2 sensor is identical to the original. It came with a little tube of copper colored anti seize. I never got the thread chaser all the way through but it's cleaned more thread than the sensor needs. The thread chaser screws in hard, than frees up as I rock it back and forth. Then I drop a wrench. Than I turn the chaser in a little more with another wrench. I've dropped 4 wrenches and recovered 2. A blister has almost healed as I waited for the new sensor to arrive.
Screwed the old sensor back in just to check the clean thread depth & condition. Installed the new sensor. Was afraid of stripping threads. There only less than 3/8" thread depth on the sensor. Was able to recover one lost ratchet..
Didn't start it cus although I had all day, but I didn't get motivated till 11pm and I didn't want to disturb my neighbors who are normal people that don't work on cars in the middle of the night.

 

[Ravalli Surfer]

"Normal people"?

I mow my fields at midnight with a bank of LEDs facing forward and backwards on my tractor and a Cherry Bomb muffler.

 

[chem_man]

"Normal people"?

I mow my fields at midnight with a bank of LEDs facing forward and backwards on my tractor and a Cherry Bomb muffler.

And your nearest neighbor is how far away?

 

[Ravalli Surfer]

1/4 mile to an inhabited building -- but it might just be chickens or horses.

 

[chem_man]

 

[johnd393]

Was loosing washer fluid. Filled the windshield washer with water. Found water pizzing out below one of the washer pumps. Wiggled the pump and the leak stopped. Maybe it got knocked ajar when I worked on the headlight.

The battery went dead. I charged it.
Started it.
CEL did not go out and misfire & O2 codes did not go away until i cleared codes. After clearing codes, they stayed gone, CEL stayed off, no misfires shown. Drove it about 2 miles.

After the dead battery & recharge the gas gauge started working again. I think it goes nuts at fill ups. I haven't figured out if it's a problem in the dash gauge or the tank.

It's fixed enough I can drive it for short trips locally, but there's still a list of things to do before it can do a road trip.

 

[chem_man]

Great!

For the gas gauge, try adding once can of Berryman B-12 to the gas tank before your next fill up. If there is any crud on the fuel gauge sending unit in the gas tank, it will clean it up. Also, if there is any varnish in the fuel system, it will dissolve it and mix it in with the gas and you'll burn it up via the combustion process. At the worst, it won't do anything and you'll find out that the fuel gauge sending unit has a larger problem.

 

[johnd393]

There is another fuel system cleaner product "Tech" something that was recommended that was supposed to help the fuel sender. I've put that on in twice. There's some in the tank now. It might have made a difference or the gauge may just be intermittent or something, or the stepper motor dial may be reset by a power interuption like when the battery has gone dead, which has happened, or it may act up only when the tank is near full. When the gauge malfunctions it might bury the needle beyond full or below empty or may just read wrong. So just now the needle was buried at one extreme end, after the dead battery & recharge it's indicating about half a tank which seems about right. One thing that puzzles me is I have a similar fuel gauge problem on a Malibu and when the gauge fails, it sets a gauge circuit code. I don't get any fuel gauge circuit codes on the Trailblazer which makes me think the problem might not be the sender.
I'll look for that Berryman B-12. Online search shows it cheap at Walmart.