Here is another of the “Quick Tip” series that I’m doing. I had to repair a heater hose on this Ford V6 and needed just a little more room to reach down behind the engine. I used this trick that someone taught me years ago to do spark plugs on a GM 3.4L, I’ve used it on other cars with some success. I know it didn’t look like it moved very far but it was just enough for me to do what I needed to do to get the job done.
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Can't you pull the motor forward with a strap ?
Thexton 419X is the tool . I believe it's for GM . I don't know if it works on other V6 engines . About $ 30.00 . If it saves labor and skin , it's worth it . There are You Tube videos .
I would think that the dogbone and the oil pan area Shock would need to be undone people are passing you info around and leaving out the loosening of dog bones and stabilizer shocks for that axis. Doh…
This way is great and works for most everything. If you need more clearance though, you don't have to take everything off, which is a pain (especially on a 3.1). Go under the car and unbolt the engine mounts (and transmission mounts if necessary), get a 2×4 and lay it across a jack, and jack the engine upwards. I don't mean a ton and to support the weight of the car – just enough to get those desperate few inches you might need. Had to do it before, and doing it that way saves HOURS compared to fiddling with everything and removing it just to get access.
holy shyte, you saved hours of my life changing out my spark plugs, thank you.
I was doing a Spark plug and Ignition coil change on a toyota sienna ( i realize it won't give me a lot of room but every little bit helps)
where was this tip when i needed it lol i wish i watched this video sooner!
I did this to replace heater fan motor in 99 Pontiac Bonneville. Very helpful tip! Thanks
What a cute little dog! Sounds like a cute little kid too.
Did the spark plugs on a 2000 Chrysler Sebring 2.5L. Had to remove the upper intake plenum to get to the rear three plugs. UGH!!!!
I changed the plugs on my 98 Dakota Sport this weekend.  It had original plugs and wires.  I bought the truck two months ago.  The boots were a pain to get off, especially cylinder #5.  There was almost not enough room for a ratchet on the socket. And to make matters worse, the boot was so hard to get off, I damaged it slightly but didn't know it.  So I get the new plugs in with anti-sieze and di-electric grease on the boots and go for a drive.  Two miles into it, I get this nice amber colored light on the instrument cluster. You got it…CHECK ENGINE. Code P0305 – Engine Misfire Cylinder #5.  It was grounding against the engine and it had a slight surge.  It took 1.5 hours to change the original wires because they were stuck on the distributor cap and I could barely get my hand on it between the throttle body and firewall.  I hope a mechanic gets paid 5 – 6 hours for a repair like that cause it's not worth it for an hour or two. Can you say BS?  Anyway, I love my truck and it's got way more room to work with than the newer transverse-mounted engines, but damn that was a pain.  I don't want to do that again!  The silver lining was that the plugs that came off were the orange-ish color that indicates a normal condition in the cylinder.
I had to do this on a '97 Chevy Lumina sedan once. Except I called the dog bone mounts "praying mantis" mounts. Man I hated that 3.1 motor!
bush mechanic
A Unicord? 🙂 Great vids!
lulz at the shade tree joke
bahahaahaha I laughed out loud when you said.. "and *pauseeeee* here comes a little dog.
GM 3800 V-6's on the left dogbone (facing the engine) has 2 locations for the bolt. disconnect both dog-bones, rock the engine forward and place the bolt for the left dog-bone into the second location (its more like a catch) and through the dog bone. Now you can reach the back of the engine. remove the coolant res and your good. I usually tying webbing or a rope to the back engine cover mounting bracket of the engine and pull on it to rotate it forward, it takes a bit to do this the first time.
Thank you for posting these videos!!!!
omg!!! I've been beating my buick trying to get the heads off!!!!! ty!!!
Eric, I just changed the spark plugs and wires on my '00 Regal 3800, and for that appliaction, GM used TWO dogbone engine mounts. But, the principal is still the same, I disconnected both motor mounts. The only difference is I just used a ratchet strap, found solid hook points on the motor and chassis and ratcheted it forward. A lot less cumbersome then trying to rock the car back and forth and timing hitting the parking brake right.
SHADETREEMECHANIC
some of those GM cars with the dogbone mounts actually have a second bolt hole under the mount, so you can remove the front bolt pull the engine forward and stick the bolt in the second hole to hold the engine forward, giving about 4 extra inches of clearance between the firewall and rear cylinder head.
@brakedd Yea I wish I had a GM when I did this video as this really works on those.
Eric thanks for this video, I just did the plugs on a transverse 3100 V6. All I did was unbolt the dogbones, rock the car, and grab it with the parking brake.
It helped IMMENSELY. Didn't think I was going to be able to get the rear bank plugs changed at all.
@doppleganger34 Cool, thanks.
In West Auckland, New Zealand, I believe that would make you a Westie YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH! Go Holden :o)
@siemenstraffic It's true, he is a great helper.
Sergeant was helping Eric to "Stay Clean"
@devilsbox Yea, he's a great little friend.
@alkalinetaupehat Glad you liked the video sorry it was tool late. Thanks for the info on the GM engines.
haha I wish I knew this when I was changing the spark plugs a couple months back!
Thanks ETCG, I'll def. use this next time.
P.S. the GM 3100 and 3300 only used one upper dogbone, and were mostly in the late-80's early 90's GM cars. The 3800 and maybe the 3400's used two.
@ncarter124 A GM tech taught me that. Thanks for your comment.
Great idea!
It makes you a shady car mechanic..
@joshpotts Good tip, thanks for posting. I've also seen that happen, it sucks.
@EricTheCarGuy I will have to give it a try Thanks Eric
@Chris07860 If I did do a video this would be step one. I had to do a heater hose on this car that's why I moved the engine, you can use the same technique to remove the plugs on both cars, some engines will move more than others, these don't move too much unfortunately. Good luck.
Hey Eric could you possibly do a video of how to do a tune up to those cars because I need to change the plugs on my car and there is absolutly no hand room behind the engine I have a 2001 Sable with the same engine and my g/f has a 2003 Taurus with the same engine
sweet idea
Not mine, she was just visiting. I sometimes do a lot of videos using the same car, depends on what I'm doing to it really. A Taurus is not a bad car at all. I prefer something a little less generic myself but a good car is just that, a good car.
Is that your Ford Taurus, Eric? If so how do you like it?
Ive seen you work on it in other videos.