My mechanic broke off a sparkplug trying to remove it from the engine on my 4runner and I am trying to research possible solutions. It broke off halfway down the threads, so that half of the bottom metal part is still in the engine head. I was thinking using and easyoff extractor but worry about metal pieces includint the electrode tip falling into the cylinder. Anyone have ideas or experience with this? thanks, rick
why are you worrying about it if your mechanic broke the sparkplug. let him figure it out and deal with it.
": P" wrote: why are you worrying about it if your mechanic broke the sparkplug. let him figure it out and deal with it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It's not really the mechanic's fault, so I think he would be justified in charging to remove the head and take the plug out at the bench, using an easy-out, a drill, or whatever means he has available.
I assume you are trying to reduce the labor. I would go ahead and use an Easy-out, and then, before running the engine, turn it over with the starter for a minute or so, to pump air in and out the spark-plug hole. This will most likely blow out any small stuff that may have fallen in. In addition, you could position the piston at bottom-dead-center, and then shove a vacuum hose in and wiggle it around a lot. You could also dump in some oil, and then turn the engine by hand, pumping the oil out the spark-plug hole, which will also help flush out things that could have fallen in.
If any really little stuff remains, I would expect it to be blown out the exhaust valve when the engine is started, causing no harm.
If the threads in the spark-plug hole are damaged in the process of removing the plug, it's very easy to Helicoil it. A Helicoil is actually stronger than cast iron or aluminum, so the results are better than new.
Slightly OT: I once had a mechanic Helicoil the spark plug hole in the number 3 cylinder of my VW, using a mirror. There was someone with real mechanics hands.
semidemiurge wrote in article ...
I would worry LESS about the chips and metal pieces falling inside the cylinder and MORE about how I would remove the hardened piece of easy-out that breaks off in the head.......................
They SHOULD be called "hole-pluggers"..........
If he doesn't already, your mechanic will!
He broke it. STAY AWAY, let him fix it. What happens if your suggestion goes arwy?
Man, you can say that again! I've used "easy"-outs a bunch of times and most turned into, as you say, hole pluggers. Then you really have a problem: How do you drill out that hardenen steel? Interestingly enough, apparently I never learn the lesson. Each time I have a broken bolt, I look at my collection of easy-outs and think, maybe this time... jor
'Never hear of a "left-hand drill"? For many extraction jobs, that's the ticket. If sized appropriately, it doesn't tend to expand the item in the hole, rather, it "grips" from the top.
LLoyd
If he managed to break a sparkplug off down into the threads, you have a lot more to worry about than a few metal flakes getting into the engine. That plug must be welded in. I've NEVER, in all my years of working on cars and trucks, seen the metal part of a plug break. The ceramic, yes, the metal, no. If you have to get crazy with it, an oil soaked rag in the top of the cylinder, with the piston at TDC should take care of most particles. After you get the remains of the plug out, carefully remove the oil soaked cloth. The metal shavings, for the most part, should come out with it. If all else fails, he will have to remove the head and drill it out and retap the head.
Jim Chandler
Don't be TOO sure....
About a year ago my daughter had her Olds tuned up, which included a new set of plugs. A week later the engine started running rough and the shop which did the job found that the ground electrode on one plug had disappeared, and installed a new plug at no cost. The car seemed to be running fine after that.
Nearly a year later when she went to get the car through state inspection it failed because its computer "said" one cylinder had been firing "weakly" too often.
A leakdown test at my favorite mechanic's shop showed that the cylinder with the failed sparkplug was in trouble. When the cylinder head was pulled there was a "dent" in it's exhaust valve's head just about the right size to have been made by the valve banging against that buted off spark plug electrode.
The shop which did the original tuneup had closed, so her daddy got tapped for a $750 valve job so the car would make it through state inspection. He's still cursing whoever screwed up welding the electrode onto that original spark plug's body.
Jeff
"Jeff Wisnia" wrote: Don't be TOO sure....(clip) the shop which did the job found that the ground electrode on one plug had disappeared, and installed a new plug at no cost. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ My suggestions were: 1.) Crank the engine to blow air in and out of the spark plug hole. 2.) Blow it out with compressed air. 3.) Clean it out with a vacuum hose. 4.) Fill cylinder with oil and expell the oil by hand cranking.
From what you say, I would NOT do step 1.), because that's where the valve could opened against a piece of debris, trapping it against the inside of the head. (Kind of like what happens when the timing belt breaks on an interference engine.)
I would be very leery about just letting chips blow out the spark plug hole. It may work and it may not. I had a spark plug insulator crack while I was driving the car once, and the chip got caught between the exhaust valve face, and the valve seat. Put a nice big chip in the valve and I had to pull the head to replace the valve. I realize this is a different scenario, but it shows what can happen with a small piece of loose insulator.
You will most likely get all the big pieces out by vacuuming, etc., so you probably won't have anything like this happen. But even small amounts of debris MIGHT get caught on the valve face and COULD result in the valve not sealing properly when closed. Not only that, but some small pieces MIGHT get caught between the piston and the cylinder wall which could yield some nice scratches in your cylinder wall with resulting loss of compression and oil seepage into the combustion chamber.
But if it comes down to a few hundred dollars to pull the head to remove the plug, or just a few dollars to try something else . . .your call. Is the car worth enough to do the job properly, or is it an old beater that you just need to get running for a while?
Just my $.02
Wayne
Sorry, but I've seen this. And yes, the blasted thing was hard to get out.
I've used vacuum to get things out of plug holes too.
And that would be the *correct* way to fix it...
Something is wrong with that story.
Put a old plug in your bench vise and try to do that with a hammer and chisel to see what I mean. Drilling or even beating out the center of a plug when it's installed would be a good trick. Even in a vice its real tuff.
GL Dan
You have two threads going...
The only safe way to do it is to remove the head, but you already knew that right. ;-)
If there is still a core in the plug, it can only fall 'in' when messed with so....
Did 'all' of the plug come out except the last bit of thread? If so then the easy out might be a first option.
'If' you try the easy out, I personally wouldn't recommend it, but, you should spray the piece down with a 'good' penetrating oil like PB Blaster several times before you start.
I would also have the cylinder on the intake or exhaust stroke so there would maybe be a chance of a shopvac sucking out any crumbs that fell in because the open valve would allow air flow with the suction on the plug hole.
Good luck!
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile... Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06"Mike Romain" wrote: (clip) I would also have the cylinder on the intake or exhaust stroke so there would maybe be a chance of a shopvac sucking out any crumbs that fell in because the open valve would allow air flow with the suction on the plug hole. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I think it might be better to be near bottom-dead-center on the power stroke or the compression stroke, so both valves are closed, and the debris is well below the spark plug hole. That gives you a good angle for picking up any debris. Use a suction tube that is smaller than the park plug hole, so air can flow in.
I assume you're talking about an EasyOut. An EasyOut probably won't work. You need quite a bit of metal in order to use an EasyOut. You need to drill a pilot-hole about 1/4" to 1/2" deep but not all the way through. Then the EasyOut threads into the pilot-hole using left-hand threads and bottoms out in the hole. You keep tightening it up until it breaks the bolt loose. You won't have enough metal in a sparkplug to do this.
However if you are talking about an easyoff, I don't know what that is or if it will work.
Jack
That's oven cleaner.... don't think it'll work either. :-)
Not to be a smart-a-- here but how will he get the oil soaked cloth into the cylinder?
Not to be a smart ass, but what is a smart-a--? You can say ass here.
In the old days, my father used to grind crankshafts and bore cylinders in the chassis. It created a bit of a cleanup problem, I am sure.
Jeff
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.