NO, do NOT remove the spark plug washers on drool tube heads!!

So, I started noticing oil down the passenger side of my '68's engine. Nothing unusual there because there are 3 leak points...valve cover gasket, spark plug tube seals and steel shim head gasket. This engine no longer has the steel head gasket and the valve cover gasket isn't very old, so I got a set of tube seals and got busy.

I was concerned and curious why the spark plugs were only finger-tight, considering I replaced them a couple thousand miles ago. I examined the plugs closely and that's when I remembered that I had been brainwashed into removing the crush washer/sealing rings from the plugs due to the ridiculous information contained in this thread:

Remove the spark plug washers or not?

Before anyone helpfully posts "spark plug torque 30lbs try that it'll solve ur problem", I know that and have known it since 1990, thanks. They were torqued. The reason they loosened up was due to those missing crush rings. Do you guys actually understand what the function of those rings is?? Not only do they help seal the plug to the head(or tube in this case, they also help transfer heat and ALSO they help maintain torque on the plug when the washer crushes.

Just to make sure that I didn't miss something in the last 30 years, I checked several FSM's and they all call for the same plug....a Champion N14Y, WITH sealing rings. To further make sure I wasn't going soft, I read through all the TSB's I could find and I sure couldn't find one stating that Chrysler advocated taking washers off of non-tapered plugs.

Not only that, but there is some hooey contained in this thread regarding a "partial taper" in early heads. NO...ok? They call for the exact same plug as the later engines, period. I used my borescope to look at the sparkplug mating surface on my cylinder head and it is as flat as flat gets

To add even more to this train wreck, on another forum this same subject came up and some genius said to remove the washers on drool-tube and leave the on the plugs that go in later "peanut" heads. Are you crazy?? The later heads USE TAPERED PLUGS WITH NO WASHERS PROVIDED OR NEEDED.

Back on the original thread up top, someone also said to make sure the tubes weren't chewed up at the bottom from "someone not removing the washers". That's not a lockwasher with a raised end, genius. It's a perfectly smooth washer that would have to be removed and reinstalled many times before it would cause significant wear.

I think the genesis of the idea to take the washers off was to get the plug in further and allegedly improve combustion and power by .00001% of 1 horsepower. These are 100hp engines with low compression...not an alcohol-burning funny car. I have the FSM's for each car I own and I maintain them by the book and never have problems...until I tried something like this. Leave the washers on the plugs.