sparkplug

Just for s**ts and grins, how many of you have ever encountered one of the early Champion spark plugs which comes apart for cleaning?

Mine was pretty beat up when I found it at an antique store in Minnesota.

Jeff

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 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

"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?

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:13:09 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Carl Byrns" quickly quoth:

I had a few of those, too (got out in '86), but those were simply hard to get out. Loosen a titch, squirt some penetrating oil in, let it sit until you do the 8th, and start over. They all came out and the new ones went in with the anti-seize compound smeared all over the threads and tapered seats. I saw nary a problem after that.

The machinists who supplied me in several different companies all said that the only problems they'd seen along that line were from some idiot running out of brains, crossthreading the plug, and continuing to tighten it until he also ran out of brawn. The plugs'd freeze in there sideways. I've heard a couple going down the road that way, kinda like the VW heads popping all the way down the street as they lifted 1/4" off the jugs from each compression stroke. I laugh every time I hear one of those POS engines running if I'm not running the other way from the high-pitched scream the whistling mufflers put out. GAWD, I hate those things.

- Metaphors Be With You -

RCM only

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:06:29 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Leo Lichtman" quickly quoth:

while you score the cylinder with the piece of ceramic or steel which accidentally got caught between the piston crown/rings/bore. Pulling the head is the cheapest route around that, plus you have access to clean up the plug hole in head.

2.) Blow it out with compressed air. 3.) Clean it out

Where the pieces would stay put in their crevice next to the crown.

There is no better, safer way than poppin' the head, Leo. I wouldn't bring my vehicle to you for repair if that's the method you use.

Right, fun stuff like bent valves happen there.

- Metaphors Be With You -

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

Please, no difficult questions--this is a group dedicated to 4x4 people!

PULL THE HEAD. And put antiseize on the plugs when you put them back in (just a WEE bit)

Hey Jeff,

Never had seen what you have, but some aircraft engine plugs come apart too.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

Long reach plug, threaded only half way COULD break off part way down

- wrong plug for the application - Only seen it on AC plugs.

TDC on overlap - both valves open to allow LOTS of air flow and keep the chips close to the hole so the airflow can pull them out.

Grease whatever tools you use so chips stick to them. If drilling, drill SLOW and "peck" so you pull all the chips out of the hole with the greased bit.

But to be SAFE, pull the head.

I've seem a fair number of tapered seat plugs (specifically FORD, but also a few others) snap off at the top of the threads. Some AC 14mm long thread plugs were threaded ONLY on the bottom half. I've seen these snap off low in the hole as well. In over 38 years of wrenching I've broken a few plugs off - but VERY few. I learned early to take it easy, use lots of good penetrant, and take my time. It ALWAYS takes longer to take out a broken plug than to finesse it out in the first place (possible exception is an air cooled flathead)

Many aircraft plugs were made that way.

You use a strip of cloth about two inches wide. Soak it in motor oil and insert it through what hole there is. I assume that there is a hole since spark plugs are usually hollow down by the threads and that is where he said the plug broke off, midway down the threads. The assumption here is that the center core of the plug came out and he just has the metal threads in the plug hole. Otherwise this trick won't work. I used it one time and it worked quite well.

Jim

According to PeterD :

[ ... ]

Actually -- it is cross-posted to three newsgroups:

rec.crafts.metalworking rec.autos.4x4 alt.autos.toyota

if you look at the "Newgroups: " header.

And in at least some of the newsgroups, difficult questions are standard.

Enjoy, DoN.

Last time I saw plugs like that, they were in a 1929 Durant coupe that I should have bought for $50.00 (1956) Sure wish I had that sitting in the driveway now! Gerry :-)} London, Canada