Wondering if you can get heads in any other material than aluminum? Clearly steel would be too heavy but it seems I often hear that there's great concern about stripping the head when doing a plug change and since I'm about to go down that road, I'm wondering if head come in a "harder" material where you don't have as big of a concern and might be able to limit the use of inserts/helicoils.
Thanks!
It's not only the weight what makes heads not come in steel. It heat dissipation.
Use anti-seize paste on the plugs and you won't have the problem.
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"I often hear that there's great concern about stripping the head when doing a plug change and since I'm about to go down that road, I'm wondering if head come in a "harder" material where you don't have as big of a concern and might be able to limit the use of inserts/helicoils. "
The trick to not stripping out the sparkplug holes is to use anti-seize compound on the threads. When you go to install the plugs if you can't get the threads started by hand, push a piece of fuel line a few inches long over the end of the plug and use that to get it started in the threads, then pull off the line and use a socket to snug it up.
Chris
And avoid removing/installing the plugs when the heads are hot.
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