How to: Change spark plugs, brief guide with pics.

[brzperson]

EDIT: I was not able to successfully upload pics, so I just left the links in there for now.
If any mods want to fix that, please let me know.

Hello Everyone.
New-to-me BRZ owner here.
Absolutely love this car!

Anyways, as soon as I got it, I had to change the plugs .
I figured I'd do a writeup on it, since I found that there wasn't one with pics.

The pictures won't be great, and the writeup will be fairly brief, but it was dark, and I was in a hurry.
I would consider this more of a "helpful pics" with tips, than an actual full writeup, but I noticed that there were no pics for this, so I took some.

Other than a metric socket set with deep sockets, jack, block of wood, and jackstands, you will want a 3" extension (Wish they made a 3.5), a small wobble extension to torque the driver front plug, a pretty long (5-6ish inches) extension to get to the motor mounts, and a 14mm deep sparkplug socket. I used a 9/16" (technically 14.3mm), since that's all they had at the parts store nearby.
I was able to use with 3/8" ratchets for all of it.

This job is INFINITELY easier if you jack (or lift) the engine up, but you risk damaging whatever you use as a point of lift.
I'd rather spend the extra few minutes lifting up the engine, than try to mess around a 1" space, while not being able to fit a torque wrench in there when I tighten.
I'll leave the jacking point to your discretion, since I don't want to be blamed for broken oil pans or exhaust leaks lol.
Some say to jack up by the oil pan, but it looked pretty flimsy to me, so I used the exhaust manifold. I used a block of wood to distribute the load a bit. This engine really doesn't weigh much though.
I just went really slow, listened for noises, and periodically checked to see if anything was rubbing against the frame, or if I was pulling on anything.

- You MIGHT want to disconnect the battery, so you don't throw a code on startup if you're doing a compression test.

- Remove any intake piping, or anything else that is sensitive to the engine moving up a bit. I just had to remove some intake piping.

-Make sure you're on a level surface, have the e-brake on, maybe even put it in gear, and chock the wheels.

- Lift the car by the lifting point here:
https://ibb.co/VYqCkwZ

You can see where my jackstands are, and they are under the pinch welds.
Sorry, I couldn't get a pic of the jackstand points. It's in between the two divots near my jackstands on the pinch welds . Searching "jacking points" on this forum, will give a very good pic of exactly where to place them.

Once your jackstands are placed, you'll see a big undercarriage shield.
The bolts are 13 or 14mm if I remember correctly, and the clips can be taken off with any pry tool, or a flathead screwdriver, or a pick, or whatever your preferred prying tool is.

You pull the center out for the plastic clips, and it should look like this once they are ready to pull:
https://ibb.co/9hBDWK2

Next, you will want to find the motor mounts.

This is what they look like:
https://ibb.co/qxvPHdR

I just undid the side I was doing, one at a time.
You'll find ONE 15mm bolt under each mount, and it looks like this:
https://ibb.co/35bXrtM



Jack, or lift that side of the engine, lowering each side before you lift the other.
I put my block of wood and jack under the exhaust manifold of that specific side.
I went very slow, an inch at a time, and constantly checked for clearance around my exhaust, amongst other things.
I didn't have to make the ignition coils clear the frame rails entirely, I just lifted the minimum amount needed to get "enough" clearance. I'll also leave that to your discretion.

Mine looked like this on both sides:
https://ibb.co/zJH5MLB


That pic also shows one of the ignition coils, and they all have ONE 10mm bolt.
You'll need to undo that bolt,and pull the ignition coil out.
Once it's out, get your deep socket with a 3" extension (I taped the socket to the extension) and just pull the plug out, and put the other one in.

For the passenger side, you will need to remove this ECU.
The bolts are 10mm, and one of them is hidden. I tried to approximate the spot a red circle, but it looks like this:
https://ibb.co/BCp8ZTT

I couldn't find the torque spec for that ECU, but I tightened it down probably somewhere near 10 ft. pounds. It probably needs more, but I erred on the side of caution. I should have used the reverse setting to find the torque.


Contrary to what seems to be popular opinion, I was actually able to fit a torque wrench in there, and tighten the plugs to 12.5 ft. lbs fairly easily.
I did have to "hold it against" the extension, rather than put it in there, and I had to use a wobble socket for the driver side front, but they're all torqued to spec.
Here is a pic showing how much clearance I had for a torque wrench:
https://ibb.co/D9h8yVv

I torqued the ignition coil to 6.3 ft. lbs.

Then I just put it back together the way it came out.
After you get the plugs and coils in, and put the ecu back up, it's just a matter of putting your motor-mount bolt back on, and putting the shield back on.
Torque spec for the motor mounts is 45 ft. pounds.

Torque spec for the undercarriage shield is IDK, but I found torque specs here: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85760, and one of them (engine under cover) seemed like the right one?
I picked 22 ft. lbs, and it felt something like that when I took it off.
The plastic clips are easier to get in there if you pull them out really far and squeeze the arms together.

Lift by the lifting point and remove your jackstands, and put back whatever intake stuff and other accessories that you deemed disconnect worthy.

That's it!

Oh, btw, if you want to do a compression test, here is a pic of where the fuel pump fuse is located. It's a 20A fuse. I had it out when I took that pic, but that's where it goes.
It's a pretty lengthy job, so I figured I might as well do one while I have access to those holes.
Before I removed everything, I tried to start the engine after removing the fuse to make sure that the fuel lines were clear before putting a compression guage in there, or removing spark plugs.
https://ibb.co/6tsDKCn