changing glow plugs myself, worth it?

[johnwolfe04]

My 95 F350 wont start unless I have it plugged in, even in warmer weather. Everyone tells me its probably bad glow plugs. The silinoid IS giving them juice. It would cost $500 to have them replaced at a shop. I was thinking about trying it myself. Is this pretty simple or is their lots of potential problems? I am a novice mechanic and dont want to get in over my head and have an inoperable truck sitting around because of a mistake.
Thanks for the help.

[CHUCK]

its pretty simple.... i'm sure theres a write up on the procedure here somewhere. I bought my gow plugs from autozone. THe valve cvr gaskets are reusable. Be sure to look at the connectors in the gaskets, for any burnt or corroided conntacts.

[Jimkfish]

I changed my glow plugs 2 weeks ago on my 99 F250. I hardest part of the job for me was getting to some of the value cover bolts. Needed 1/4 " flex joint and specific length 1/4" extension to get socket on the bolt. Also needed 1/4" 10 MM deep socket for getting the glow plug out.

If its cold in your area, plug the heater in to get the engine warm. Much easier on your hands!

In the process of taking the driver side value cover off, I took off the attached air breather. The 2 air breather o rings (about 1 1/2") must of enlarged over time, could not reuse them, had to purchase new air breather o-rings ($4 at dealer). You should be able to do job with leaving air breather attached to value cover.

Overall, I was very glad I did the job vs paying someone else big bucks. Also learn more about my truck.

[twistedmx1]

I replaced mine a few weeks ago also and like jim said the valve cover bolts were the worst part(passinger side closest to the firewall) I would test them first here is a link Troubleshooting GPR & GP's

here is another link on replacing them glow plug replacement question

I was told to do one side at a time and after you get all the old plugs out to turn the motor over a few times to get all the oil out of the cylinders make sure you have the 4 conectors on the valve covers unpluged so the motor dosent try to start

It is definitly worth doing yourself I would say i'm an average mechanic a friend and i swaped them out in 5-6 hours, if you do decide to do it yourself my only advice is dont get frustrated and GOOD LUCK

[benderado]

Its definetly worth doing yourself. Like all the others said, getting the valve cover bolts off is the hardest part. On an OBS the passenger side valve cover is virtually impossible to get off, but you can move it far enough out of the way to get to the glow plug.

[Jimkfish]

Okay, I keep seeing people talk about OBS. What does OBS stand for?

[twistedmx1]

obs = old body style

[dward]

I just did the glow plug job on a OBS 1997 f250. You can get the passenger side valve cover off by moving the alternator a few inches forward and carefully removing an air box or vacuum box that is screwed to the air conditioning unit that hangs on the firewall. You have to peel back the foil heat shield to get to it. Both of these things are not difficult to do but I wouldn't have thought of it if I hadn't read this on another web page.

[UnlimitedLove]

I did it and wobble extensions will be your best friends on those VC blots near the firewall!!

Go for it and call one of us if you get stuck, there has to be someone that lives close by.

[Gixxer]

I just did mine and I would definitely do it again. Started about 6AM and finished up before lunch. And that was taking my time with lots of breaks. Afterward I read somewhere that I should have torqued the injectors since I had the covers off. You may want to check in to doing that if you replace the glow plugs yourself.