Anti-seize comment

[TominMO]

Copied from another forum:
The zinc oxide anti-seize sold for spark plugs is strictly for the steel/aluminum interface. It is not for steel/steel. For steel/steel, use a copper anti-seize or moly-lithium grease. Moly-lithium is classified as an anti-seize. Stainless steel/stainless steel requires copper anti-seize or it will seize. Plated steel should not have anti-seize on it.

[Larry Hampton]

Did they also state that a pencil eraser sized amount will cover the entire surface of the earth and all the planets and sub planets and moons in the entire solar system?

[Zanzer]

Any anti-seize is better than none when it comes to spark plugs in an aluminum cylinder head.

[bravekozak]

Anti-seize compound can be manufactured with different metal flakes. There is also stainless steel flake anti-seize. Expensive, but nice. If you get some gold flake, I have the formula. Together we could make the most expensive anti-seize compound in the world. We can even call Guinness.

[Bert]

Plugs aren't supposed to be torqued in very tight and yet when you go to remove them from an aluminum head they are a sonovagun to break loose, especially if they've been in there for a decade and you happen to live in the rust belt. I was sweating yesterday in preparing my daughter's new purchase 00 Ford Focus for a cross country run when the spark plugs required an inordinate amount of leverage to remove. Folks that buy and install iridium or platinum or other long life plugs don't realize that when they wear out 100,000 miles later they will have 'become one' with the head. Better to buy cheap plugs, touch them up with antiseize and remove them on a regular basis.

[drddan]

My #3 cylinder on the old B3 required me to use a breaker bar and a short pipe on the bar to get it out!!!! I was waiting for the spark plug to break in half.
It was like that no matter what I did until I got a thread chaser for the threads and ran it in there to clean up those threads. I tried anti sieze, didnt seem to help until I cleaned those threads up. Then I only needed the breaker bar without the short pipe on it!

[tooldude]

According to experts in Underhood Service Magazine, anti-seize lowers the coefficient of friction enough that it should be compensated for by lowering applied torque, I believe in the range of 15 - 20%. This should be especially true with threads in aluminum. (thread lightly)

[tooldude]

If spark plugs are easy to get at, as on the Festy, why not just take them out and reinstall them at, say, 50,000 mi., or change early. I'm not ever going to run any plugs 100,000 mi. and then see if I got lucky. Ford has that Modular engine which is famous for having the plugs seize from carbon and twist off on removal (4.6L,5.4L,6.8L - 3 valve engine). Even if they are hard to get at, that's nothing compared to having to remove a head.

[TominMO]

If spark plugs are easy to get at, as on the Festy, why not just take them out and reinstall them at, say, 50,000 mi., or change early. I'm not ever going to run any plugs 100,000 mi. and then see if I got lucky. Ford has that Modular engine which is famous for having the plugs seize from carbon and twist off on removal (4.6L,5.4L,6.8L - 3 valve engine). Even if they are hard to get at, that's nothing compared to having to remove a head.

50K miles is way too long to leave them in without anti-seize. Annually removing them, inspecting them and reinstalling would be more like it. But it's all easier with anti-seize.