It's not only the weight what makes heads not come in steel. It heat dissipation.
Read the full replyWondering 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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