Howdy men,
Put this one in the "try to blow the cheap a** Autolite broke off glow plug tip out via engine compression before you pull the head" folder. I bought a 96 5sp from a college kid a couple years ago to use as a run around work rig when I don't need the hoist on the 97 SuperDuty. Finally got to needing a UVCH and all that implies, the last cylinder was unplugged on the GP when I got to it, and I thought uh-oh, sure enough a sawed off Autolite GP was in the hole above a broke off tip.
I tapped it down about 1/8", fired it up and ran it up to op temp, then shut it off and measured it, it had come back up the 1/8" or so. So I tapped it back down 1/8" or so, started it again, this time held it for a few minutes at about 12-1500 rpm, then shut it down, measured it and it came a little further up. I went to the porch and had a beer, mulling over what to do if it won't blow out (pull engine/ pull heads/ find another 96 beater to replace it in the downtime, etc)
I went back over and fired it and SPOOOF, shoo,shoo,shoo,shoo got the hole back! It put a good dent in a cedar 2x4 chunk I had laying over the valve there, like you shot it point blank with a large cal pellet gun I guess. I finished it up with my last Beru and she's purring like a kitten.
I'd read that before various places about blowing an old tip out and was very skeptical, I'm here to say it works! That's about a 7,000.00 win for me considering the pinch I would be in without that cylinder! Jay

 

glad to hear that method worked for you! sometimes you get lucky, huh?

 

Good job!!

 

Awesome story! Hopefully I'll never have to use that trick though.

 

Nice story. I had the same problem with one of my glow plugs. I stayed pb blaster in the gp hole for a couple of days and spun it over by hand and Pop it came out

 

Are the threads screwed up on the head?

 

The threads were fine, I moved the heater hose and wiring that was running through there so it wouldn't get shot.(#1 hole it was) I never, ever expected it to work, There was nothing for me left to do but try it. When I gauged the hole (between starts),and could tell that it was moving slightly, it actually made me more nervous. I pictured me freeing up the top part of the tip, and that the interior was too swollen to ever make it through. And then , KAKK, shoo,shoo,shoo,shoo, thar she blew. It just goes to show that good things can happen to just ok guys! Jay

 

Lol. The electrode is smaller than the threads. There's no direct reason why it would mess them ip