Snapped glow plug, stem still in cyl. head

Not exactly cars, as this relates to a 1969 Nuffield 4/25 tractor fitted with 1.5L BMC diesel, but I hope this isn't too far OT. Gave the old girl a thorough service last weekend which included changing the glow (heater) plugs as 1 was not working.

3 came out fine. The 4th, which was the one not working, has broken and left 1/2 inch of the stem in the cylinder head. I left the remains of the plug out and ran the engine for 30 minutes, with the radiator muffled, in the hope that compression might just spit it out. No such luck. The broken bit of the glow plug is about 1/8th inch dia. and is buried about 2 inches within the head.

Am I stuck with having to remove the head? Don't really want to do this if I can avoid it, but little tractor is a bad starter with only 3 working glowplugs. For now I have squirted penetrating oil into the orifice and replaced the remains of the broken plug. This only finger tight in the hope that the broken stem may yet be spat out under compression. Any thoughts or advice please?

Many thanks

Nick.

Reply to
Nick
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Give the penetrating oil a few days to soak in, then remove the threaded bit and try running the engine under load. The extra pressure running under load might just be enough to spit the broken bit out. If that doesn't work, you'll have to take the head off. Good thing is, the head gasket can be reused (after giving it a fresh coat off paint/ thin instant gasket).

Reply to
Moray Cuthill

Nick ( snipped-for-privacy@farfromhome.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Umm, what happens if the penetrating oil frees it off a bit - and it drops down while the engine's not running? Into the combustion chamber...?

Reply to
Adrian

In news:Xns95F0ED959FFB2adrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4, Adrian decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

One less diesel on the road.. can't see the problem myself.

Reply to
Pete M

with

Other than diesels emit 30 to 40% less carbon dioxide and biodeisel even less.

Reply to
ivan

Unlikely, I hope! If this should happen then I will have to be removing the head and perhaps replacing valves etc. Maybe I should just take the head off and do job right.

Reply to
Nick

Yep, that almost says it Try an optician. There may still be one just down the road if his lights haven't been put out yet.

Reply to
Nick

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Nick decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Um, I've driven most of the diesel engined cars on the road, and out of all of them I've liked two. The Mercedes E270CDI and the Xantia Turbodiesel.

The rest are, in my opinion, a total waste of time. Even the 530d BMW.

I just don't like diesels. I like my cars to be responsive. Diesels aren't.

Reply to
Pete M

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, ivan decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

So? I couldn't care less.

They're horrible, nasty, unresponsive lumps that ruin a cars handling, have a very narrow powerband, aren't nice to drive, sound awful and appear to attract the kind of people who only appear to be able to say one thing about their car ever "It's awfully good on fuel - 500 miles to a tank".

I don't particularly care what my car does to the gallon, not to the extent that I'd buy something just because it's good on fuel.

As for the emissions argument, that's seriously flawed nowadays. One drop of petrol spilled on a petrol station forecourt produces more "harmful" emissions than driving a Porsche 911 Turbo from London to Edinburgh.

Trees reduce Carbon Dioxide. Drive one of those instead.

Reply to
Pete M

driven an Audi A3 2.0tdi or the golf gtdi ? damn fast, almost scary if your not expecting it.

Reply to
Angus McCoatup

pre combustion chamber, won't be a di will it?

Reply to
Angus McCoatup

The message from "Pete M" contains these words:

That's me! I don't particularly care about "responsiveness" or "handling" - I just drive the thing sensibly and don't get affected by such considerations.

Reply to
Guy King

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Umm, Pete, while I'm more-or-less with you on preferring cars to use petrol than diseasel, this is a 1960s tractor we're talking about... I don't think "nice to drive", handling and powerband are massive factors.

Reply to
Adrian

In news:Xns95F1585CFA1E9adrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4, Adrian decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Heh, you know I'd not even noticed that bit.. I saw diesel and began my rant :-)

Tractor owners are exempt :-)

Reply to
Pete M

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Angus McCoatup decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Yup, tried them both, even tried a Golf GT TDi which was producing around

180 bhp... didn't like it.
Reply to
Pete M

with

Lamborghini didnt take that advice tho

Reply to
Julian 'Penny for the guy' Hales

I've seen this happen a few times on these engines. Each time I've always managed to get the broken part out by gently drilling into it. I used a drill the same size as the outer diameter of new plug. After a few turns, the drill 'caught' and released the broken part which came out stuck to the drill. YMMV

On these engines it's recommended that the 'bore' for the plugs should be cleaned regularly with the correct size drill - larger than the plug tip. These plugs are quite feeble and when 'carboned' to the head, some of their heating effect is lost, also it helps them break when trying to change them!

Good luck. Roj

Reply to
Roger Glover

I think I'd have more fun driving a 1960s tractor than yet another fleet car VW Passat dullsmobile-alike.

Reply to
RichGK

RichGK ( snipped-for-privacy@rrr.rr) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I don't think there's a lot of doubt about that!

Reply to
Adrian

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