My freelance mechanic put anti-seize on my Autolite brand sparkplugs-car ran a little....

rough for a while including stalling a bit on starting, needing gas to stay on

my mechanic said they are necessary so that the plugs don't get stuck onto the header

he also claims that the anti-seize will dry up

it has gotten better after driving it as if the heat and air has dried up the anti-seize leading to better conductivity?

but i just got home from the tune up and looked on the web and there are many who say it can cause engine misfire

is this temporary as my mechanic has tried to reassure me, or is this a problem now?

the info on the web has made me worry

there is a service engine lite on but it's probably from the anti-seize

car has power and does not shake at a traffic light....like it did early on

the Inop ABS lite which also blinked for the last 10 years has been recently replaced with this new "service engine soon" light

im hoping 1 idiot light has been replaced by another idiot light both of which don't really mean anything, so I'm hoping there's nothing to worry about

and with the passage of time and with heat and air the anti-seize which my free lance mechanic applied to my auto lite spark plugs on the recent tune up he did, will be nothing to worry about
thanks for any constructive advice

 

by the way, I was away for a while, been back, and wish everyone a Happy & Healthy New Year 2022

i haven't had much trouble at all in the time I've been away with my 4th gen., 3.4 l, v-6

some of the searches have revealed that for American trucks,

applying too much anti-seize to the spark plugs, or to the lower threads of the spark plugs

isn't much of a biggie

got back way late last night and my recent conversation with my freelance backyard mechanic, who just 20 minutes ago woke up, revealed that he swore he didn't put much just a little of anti seize

here's what a GMC truck owner replied to another concerned person:

Quote:
"use the anti-seize. Excess must have burned off after driving for a while,"

said freelance mechanic also let me know that I can spray on some Carb cleaner like gumout to the carburator which would remove the excess, or misapplied to the lower thread anti-seize...even faster

thanks in advance for your help....

 

sorry bigcat but I don't recall what engine you have. I have used antisieze on my plug threads for the lt1 from day one. I have had good results using ngk iridium tr55ix plugs also laser iridium ngk. runs like crab with autolite

 

Oh, hopefully it takes 2 years to recover and enter another golden age

what i've known is that crisis , i was on-loan to nyc after the sept 11th attacks and breathed in a lot of metallic toxic dust

it had an impact on every aspect of my life

im still kickin at 50 which i turned the big half century a month ago

*yea, i would just assume that the anti-seize burns off, cos it's grease not h20 which would evaporate
so it burns off after driving for a long time like on a highway or on surface streets

as mentioned the rough riding status did get better with time and with my driving home from my free lance mechanic's house at 3 am last night

and
the gumout carb cleaner would make this happen faster

many newer spark plug companies (I had my mechanic use Auto Lite) don't suggest using anti-seize

maybe they want to avoid liability or toot their own horn, pat their backs, regarding how their spark plugs can save you $8 on a tube of antiseize and the time / effort to apply it

that "service engine light" probably will also disappear (pls correct me if im wrong) with the passage of time

it's an idiot lite cos it replaced the other abs inop(erable) break lite that flashed on my dash for the last 10 yrs

freelance mechanic also detatched the battery cables and reattached them, hoping it would refresh and remove this "service engine soon" but it didn't

so..in the final analysis, any thoughts? does anyone confirm this isn't a big deal?

thanks again

 

lol you and I posted at the same time. im not up on 3.4 so dont know best plugs for them

 

Hi, Craby. I just got your messge now, mine is a 3.4 Liter, v-6 show horse (front Lites looks like a tran-sam/Corvette Summer, '78 dragonwagon) lol

I'm going to purchase what plugs u mentioned above

this is just a temporary problem, it seems to me, he put all the plugs back in the right order working on it 1 at a time

thanks for confirming Craby that this is a
minor temporary grounding issue

God rewards every good deed a 1,000 times over

Wishing ya'll a great, healthy, happy, energetic New Year

 

the plugs I recommended would be for a 5.7 lt1 v8 I am not sure how they would work in the 3.4

 

This is probably a good idea for the younger Camaro owners

If you're getting expensive spark plugs that have been relatively recently manufactured after 2018, *and* you intend on having a tune up every 2 years

You should avoid using anti-seize as putting it on the lower threads towards the hook can mess up conductivity, or if you put too much

I'm having my freelance mechanic put in high performance spark plugs which are like $8 each x 6 of them

2 days ago he also put in 6 new spark plug wires, meaning, the rough riding, isn't a fault of after installing the spark plugs, there was an imperceptible tear in the spark plug wires

What's interesting is the anti-seize I used was a copper and aluminum blend, and they are conductive ingredients so I just dont understand what happened

It could be that autolite is the worst spark plug brand which is what I used

My mechanic took out each spark plug 1 at a time so as to avoid any timing mixups

He did a tune up 2 years ago, also, and that tune up went smoothly and that tune up didn't use antiseize on the plugs, so I'm guessing the only difference between 2 years ago and 2 days ago was the anti-seize which messed up the grounding

The spark plugs removed 2 days ago, came out quite easily, as if the ones I had my mechanic install at my last tune up 2 years ago were the newer ones which didn't require anti-seize and had their own built in anti seize on their threads already

The hi performance

E3 Spark Plugs E3.42 Automotive Spark Plug,

that I will ask my mechanic to replace the recently installed anti-seize ointment ones, will not have any anti-seize on them

if anyone wants to add anything more, please feel free to do so

 

If you still have the service engine lite you need to get the code checked. If its a Miss-fire code then just clear it can see if it comes back. I do not use anti-seize. The only real reason there is to run anti-seize is if you have a aluminum head and you want to run an uncoated steel plug. In cast iron heads like on the 3.4 I have seen plugs sit for 30 years and not had issue. The only time I can remember having issues is when water got in the engine and it sat a very long time. I think the process came from mechanics taking out steel plug from aluminum heads or just pulling plugs while the engine is still hot (a big no no with aluminum heads) and just having the aluminum threads just come out with the plugs.

As a general rule you do not need to run supper expensive plugs or change them every 2 years. In a stock motor just run what GM recommends and change the plugs 5 year or 60,000 miles. Your better spending that money changing you coolant or flushing your brake system or any service manual driven maintenance , Just to be clear as soon as you start messing with a cam profiles or engine compression of even just the tune then the stock plug is not a perfect match anymore.

Plug wires should be changed with plugs if you go the whole 6 years. Time is more of a factor to wires then miles. A lot can go bad during a plug change. It is easy to damage a wire or crack a plug during install. My personal experience agrees with you opinion on Autolite. When I was a mechanic and I had a car with a rough idle and I saw autolites first thing I did was swap in AC delco Just that fixed a lot of rough idles, This does not normally set a Service engine light.

 

Thanks so much for your help, Gorn

This mechanic also changed the air filter, which he also did 3 years ago

I'm not sure if basically what you wrote on a lot can go wrong with a tune up" can mean the air filter not being snapped in securely, he now works 3 jobs and was super tired

im giving him another chance to make it right tomorrow, Sunday night 1/9/22 then if it still runs rough, I'm taking it to my other respected mechanic who fixed my coolant system in 2015 or so

he has a lot of experience on my make model and year (experience on my particular car)

i recently passed CA smog so im not concerned about the check engine lite flashing at the moment
but will read into how to make it disappear more in depth later

after driving for 1 hour on surface streets and having the gas to a quarter, i dumped that Chevron tech fuel system leaner and filled it up with top shelf $5.25 gas, so hopefully that helps also

yesterday was upsetting since on the road at idle and then like backing out which obviously involves going from idle to acceleration, the car shook crazily and stalled a couple of times, so it's like getting worse

i'm going to have it running well....like before, just got to visualize success before it happens, like they do in the world of sports.

I am NOT going to have my car like this soon this year in 2022. I refuse to let that happen. This will be 1 of my best years ever, and so will it be the same for that of humanity. That's the mantra that will work on my subconscious mind

I got a few charities I will donate to if the free lance mechanic makes it run smooothly this sunday night

my sort of quid pro quo for good blessings.