My 99 f250 blew a plug about a year and a half ago and i fixed it myself with a helicoil(or thought I fixed it). It seemed to run well right after, but soon started miss firing. I had it to quite a few different mechanics and none of them pointed to the helicoil as the problem. The miss firing got worse and it started cutting power pretty bad so I decided to have the local ford dealership look at it since there was a recall on the throttle position sensor and it would be in there anyway. They found that the helicoil was too far down in the head and the piston was hittng the spark plug. Long story short, I am trying to get the helicoil out so I can replace it with an oversized time sert(I have been told that the time sert sits much better and will not go too far down). I have only tried removing it by putting red loctite on a plug and letting it set overnite. This morning I tried to remove the helicoil, but the plug was the only thing that came out.

Does anyone know if JB weld or something similar will hold better than loctite? Or any other method of getting the helicoil out? How about a bolt extractor?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't find a mechanic that will try to get it out(bad sign I know).

 

the helicoil's I removed in the past,you could get a hold of the end & spiral the thing out like pulling a wire out of a hole.

 

Most of the Ford helicoils I deal with are self ejecting LOL

The Time Sert is the winner here so you've got the right idea. I've replaced quite a few helicoiled set ups with the bigsert.

You may try some sort of epoxy, and an old plug, but be careful, if you put too much on and it makes it to the seat you may jb weld the plug seat to the head also. Which cylinder is it? Is it possible to get a punch to it, possibly to crack the the helicoil? Have you dropped an inspection camera in to make sure the piston isn't damaged? If so removing the helicoil all the sudden moves down on the priority list!

 

Tried to get a hold of it with some long needle nose pliers but cant grab it. Hole is just too small and tge helicoil is too far down. Thanks for the idea

 

Ya. I wish it would blow. But my luck this one is solid just down a hair too far. Thinking of jb weld epoxy or something similar. Got a bore scope down there and couldn't see any damage except a lil mark. It wasn't hitting much but just enough. Hopefully I can get it out. If not, I'm probably gonna have to replace the engine. Ive been told it isnt worth replacing heads on this old of a motor.

 

If you cant get under it with a seal pick or something,then I run out of ideas.

 

Thanks for the advice. Now that I know I can get the plug out with red loctite on it, I'm gonna put a new plug in and back it off a qtr turn. It took more than 20 ft lbs to break the plug loose with the loctite. Maybe that will solve the problem. Thanks again for all the advice

 

Have you tried an easy out? The spiral kind might be better to try. Don't force it too tight, it makes the helicoil dig in.

 

That will be my next step. I made a mock up of the repair with a 1/2 inch piece of aluminum. Threadlocked a spare helicoil and then used JB weld on an old plug. I was careful not to get too much on it as to spill over onto the aluminum. After both the threadlock and the JB had cured for 24 hrs, it worked like a charm. So I put JB weld on another old plug and put it into the head. I will be checking it today at 24 hrs cure time. Im pretty optimistic about the JB weld working.