90 4cyl DX automatic Camry
 

Ok I'm new to Camry's as I normally deal with Saturns. A friend of mine brought his 90 Camry DX to me the other day saying that he had a hose break and the car ran super hot and cut itself off. My question is how do i get the plug wires off so I can check compression in the motor. I've worked on a lot of vehicles in my day but these wires make me feel like a complete idiot. Any help will be appreciated. I'm pretty sure the head is warped or cracked but I need to check compression to be sure before I start tearing into it. Thanks in advance.

The plugs are buried at the end of a long spark plug tube. The tube extends from the head through the valve cover then extends out. The protruding part of the tube is threaded to allow a large nut to be installed which holds the valve cover on.

The plug connector run from the plug up the tube to what you see at the end of the plug wire coming from the distributor. About 4-6 inches long.

There connector has a rectangle boot at the top to keep out dirt and oil.

Grab what looks like a nob on top of the boot, carefully pry the boot edges back then gently pull up on the knob.