Ford KA Snapped Spark Plug :(

Well try it with something that won't f*ck your engine up, it works, it's not difficult, & I don't suggest trying it if you've knocked 2/3 of a spark plug into the head o f your E type, but you can see what you've got out.

It'll be full of grease from the edges, exactly the same as if you helicoil with the head insitu. Stick a rag over the top & spin it over a couple of times & enough grease comes out that you can start the engine.

Well the answer is don't let the plugs go rusty, trying to vacuum things out of a small hole with a big voids really rather tricky & the bits that drop in tend not to be magnetic. If it doesn't come up then take the head off, but it's worked for me.

Years ago when you had to decoke your engine regularly, someone said you could do it by dropping a ball bearing through the plughole and then startine the engine.the ball rattling round would knock of the carbon and then it was just a case of taking out the plug and again starting up to blow out the crap. Someone I know (not me)actually tried it!

:-)

I do know someone that removed a head, hit each valve with a hammer to reseat it and refitted the head, it ran quite well !! I would have to guess that the valves were being held open a little by valve seat recession, during the rebuild the valve clearances were reset, hence it ran better.

It must be true because i read it on the Internet.

some mothers do ave em

Broken rings don't damage valves they seem to get blown out. so if the balls were an intermediate size between valve opening and combustion chamber height they would rattle around and work - on a side valve engine

Once had a car breakdown and called the recovery service. Anyway, it turned out to be the dreaded ignition coil. As the recovery 'engineer' went about his business, he checked the sparkplugs which I had recently fitted. To my horror, he gave them an extra whack, claiming that they were not seated firm enough.

He may have been right !!! If plugs are not fitted tightly enough, especially taper seat ones, the combustion can get blown up the threads, and water and or dirt can travel down the threads, the effect can be like a glue on the threads and make them very difficult to remove. I have also seen a vehicle where the plug undid and blew itself out of the engine and dented the bonnet.

So its a fine balance between two dangers. As far as I was concerned, the sparkplugs were already properly seated.

I know of someone that used to pour Vim (that white powder cleaner you cant get now) into the engine air intake while revving the engine up and down. Used to clear out the crap and the engine would run better for long enough to sell it and scarper over the hills and far away. This was in the late 70's. Don't think it would work now.

What gets me ford don't take any responsibility for a well know problem it' s always the mechanic gets the stick back when this head was designed plugs where changed every 10.000 miles now the poor mechanics are trying get the m out at 60.000 plus it's not the customers fault it's not mechanics or gar ages fault it's ford

Why the post?

The mechanic can choose which cars he services. What's the issue with that?

It's a reply to a long lost post.

I've got a mechanic friend who'd wildly disagree with that statement.

The plugs should have been changed at 10,000 miles but haven't at

He means the service interval has changed from 10k to 60k but with the same old design. Although I can't see how things have changed so much that it's a problem.