How important is it to torque spark plugs? Can I just put them in and tighten them up or is it important to torque?
Thanks

 

its important because if you tighten them down too much it will sqwash the sqash washers too much which will put the plug further down in the cylinder (bad thing, could hit piston, etc). plus it would be a pain to get out. everything ive ever seen is to use wrench arc method. hand tighten, then turn one quarter turn with a socket wrech and you should be good. dont forget a bit of antiseize.

 

Ya you really want to torque them to spec.

 

a wise man once told me, just tighten them until you cant tighten them anymore without thinking your going to break it, then give it one more 1/4 turn

 

That's cold.

To the OP...Make sure you use some anti-seize on the threads. Thread the plugs in by hand with the socket as far as you can. When you can't finger-tighten them anymore, wiggle the extension a little to see if you can go a little further by hand. Then apply the ratchet and carefully tighten to contact. After contact, tighten about another 1/8-1/4 turn. Most sparkplug packages should tell you exactly how much to tighten.

You don't want to crossthread or overtighten plugs because you can easily strip the threads in the cylinder head. If you don't tighten them enough they could blow out. This could also damage the threads.