You're My Boy, Blue

[ScottyB]

Came here expecting hilarity. It did not ensure. For once I'm glad for your sake.

i still have 2 quarts of Amsoil to swap into the gearbox, probably this weekend. don't worry, there's plenty of time left for my personal brand of cruel and tragic shenanigans

How involved is removing the cowl? I'm only around 76k miles so I have no intention of changing the plugs any time soon - just curious. My commute is now about 8 miles round trip so mileage is increasing at a snail's pace.

its not...hard. its just a bunch of pain in the dick kind of stuff that makes it a hassle the first couple times until you figure out what you need and how hard to push/pull on the plastic trim, then it becomes a 5 minute job. all you're doing is pulling the center plastic rain tray, and then the metal cowl (which is also an integrated strut bar) underneath. The tray is snap on and plastic plugs, and the cowl is 10 and 12mm bolts.

for instance, the first time, i thought i had to pull the windshield wipers to get all the plastic off. you don't, there's just a method to sliding the rain tray out from underneath the arms. also the first time, i broke some plastic plugs, so i used my trim tool the next time and it never happened again. you have to yank on the cowl piece in the engine bay pretty hard to get it out the first time due to corrosion/dirt/paint sticking and what not...after the first big yank its never hard to get out again. took me about 40 minutes, putzing around.

in reality its just 2 big parts, a spark plug cover, and fasteners. and of course the actual spark plug socket for the plugs, which take all of 3 minutes to take out once you get all the cowl stuff out of the way. but i'd be lying if i said that i haven't been putting this job off because...dammit i just don't wanna take all that stuff aparrrrrt....