Hey guys, I just bought a 2001 Silverado from the original owner with 49000 miles on it, in good shape body wise, generally looks good but rides a little rough and is tough to start at times. Found out the previous owner did not change the spark plugs or wires and when I pulled off the air intake filter assembly I found a bunch of crud at the throttle body. Could either of these issues be contributing to its rough running/starting? I have changed spark plugs before but it has been a couple years for my regular truck. I am curious about if these really are original will they be a pain to get them out? I do not want to break them off trying to get them out. Are there any tricks to getting the old ones out without damaging anything? I got an amazing deal on this truck so I don't want to lose a good putter truck. I will now have a good backup (hopefully) for when I have to do work on my regular truck. Oh yeah, has anyone ever tried the rubber tubing trick for putting new spark plugs in that the manual talks about? I have only put them in by feel and I am going to be changing my wife's spark plugs on her car soon and am wondering if the trick works well or if doing it by feel is the easiest.

 

Honestly changing the spark plugs on these motors is very simple. The only one that is tough is no. 8. But other than that, its easy. They should just break loose. But if not, warm up the motor and then break em. Get some carb cleaner or some throttle body cleaner and just spray her down until clean. Then start it and spray inside and rev to wash down the rest.

 

Those plugs should be good for 100,000 miles so I would bet that your dirty throttle body is the rough idle culprit. I would clean it first and see how it runs. All you need is a couple dollar can of throttle body cleaner. Take your time and really get it as clean as possible especially where the throttle plate contacts the inner wall of the throttle body. I like to use an old tooth brush to scrub the bad areas. I also like to remove the throttle body completely and clean it on the bench. This way you can clean the back side as well. There is a pretty good You Tube video on cleaning throttle bodies. I had one not too long ago that would barely run and would shut off when coming to a stop. I cleaned the throttle body and it was brand new again. If you do decide to change the plugs I would stay away from the Bosch Platinum Plus plugs. I just had a brand new one that wouldn't fire and the guy at O'reilly's said he was getting that on a regular basis. The rubber hose works to get them started but like Ruffneck said they are easy to get to on these truck so it shouldn't be necessary. Good Luck!

 

You should be big clean under body,washing with water in high pressure ,and blow rust-proof too,about engin,i think ,transmitting belt is chain which don't change all life time.

-sorry in my english writing-