Completed my first spark plug change this past weekend.
Followed the guidlines above and it went smoothly. Thank you for the great post guys.
I also got a chance to clean the throttle body too.
Ended up taking the valve cover off when I found a little oil in cylinder # 4. The leak was quite small and had no puddling, but I was worried and had the gasket on hand, plus I was almost all the way there anyways.
All in all I got to do something I had never done before and with possitive results.
My rig is running a whole lot smoother and is seeing a gain in milage. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Just done my plugs and valve cover gasket, all 4 plugs were submerged under about 20mm of oil...

Have rotted c.o.p. boots (really?! Think the oil mighta caused that?!), in chasing them up I get 2 part numbers.

NGK 58932 and/or CPB K002 .

Now just gotta find a supplier who charges less than $60 to post it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

I just changed the coil on plug boots and luckily they were about $11 each from OReilly <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />

I hate the valve cover gasket on these Sportages. Always ends up leaking. I used some RTV on that [censored] this time. I know it will be harder to redo later if I have to do it again. Hopefully by the time that gasket goes bad again, the truck will have died from other causes anyway <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" />

Well...S#!&, I'm in the middle of getting down to the coils and plugs, and disconnected the harness from the IAC to better hose it out with carb cleaner.

What's going to happen when I put it all back together, and how do I fix it?

Pics from my progress so far:

http://imgur.com/a/pZxTI

They sold me the wrong gasket. Make sure they give you the one with 3 bolt holes and one small rectangle, not 4 bolt holes.

The connectors on the ignition wiring harness (Kia part # 27310-2Y052) are garbage, and crack and fall apart if you look at them wrong. Unfortunately that looks like something I can't get locally.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-2004-Kia-Sp...fde&vxp=mtr