Does yours have the factory tachometer in the dash? If so, what rpms are you turning at 55-60?

 

I do not have a tac. I feel like I'm in a healthy RPM range if I'm in OD, probably around the 2500 mark. I guess I'm not sure though as I'm still relatively new to the vehicle.

 

Well I have an unfortunate update. Simple maintenance work caused more problems...

I was changing out all the spark plugs and when I got to the last one, the one closest to the firewall, it was seized really bad. So I sprayed the base in penetrating oil and let it sit for about 15 minutes. I came back and it still wouldn't budge so I started to work it back and forth, still no sucess. Me, getting frustrated, then grabs a peice of pipe, about 2 feet long and uses that over the ratchet. With a little more effort with the pipe on it comes loose. Then I try putting in the new plug only to find out I have stripped the head threads.

I wasn't even prying that hard! Even if I was using the pipe I feel like it should've held up to that. So that got me thinking that maybe the threads were already a little screwed up from the last time they were changed. Does anyone know what plugs they put in at the factory? I had autolites in mine.

Then to make matters worse, when I was taking off the old distributor cap, one of those bolts broke off. That is not as big of an issue though, I took out the whole distributor and got the right drill bit and EZ out. I'll do that tomorrow after I let it soak over night in penetrating oil.

Anyway looking at the old spark plugs(pretty nasty) I would expect that with the new rotor, cap, wires, and plugs that it will run much more efficiently so hopefully that was the main cause of my poor milage. I won't be able to tell for at least a week.

 

Chances are someone else ruined the threads before hand and just put the plug as tight as it would go. Once the plug turns a little bit, the seat pressure would have relieved and it should have turned out by hand.

 

Hmm well that's a little concerning as the only ones that came out that easy were the two middle ones. Actually the third one from the front was pretty loose already so the compression in that cylinder alone I think would cause efficiency and performance problems.
If the majority of the threads are messed up, would it be cheaper to replace the whole head with a scrapped one from the junkyard or have all the threads chased/retapped? How hard is would it be to replace the head myself?

 

If the plugs go in, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just have the bad hole helicoiled or whatever and call it a day