Guys, we have the bottom half of a broken plug that has dropped into the cylinder. What is the easiest way to extract it?


Can we pull the intake and bring it out through the intake valve opening or do we have to pull the head?


Anybody with any experience with this, feel free to chime in.


Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

I don't have experience myself, but did it completely fall down onto the piston?

 

Yes, the metal portion of the plug did.

 

Pull the head. It's your only option.

 

I was afraid of that wrvond. Have you had this happen before?


The initial process of crushing the porcelain to make room for the extractor actually shoved the electrode shaft down into the cylinder. We have never had that happen before.


Coincidently this is also the only cylinder that was showing a misfire prompting us to change plugs. Makes me wonder if something was amiss with this plug before hand.


All other plugs came out without breakage by warming up the truck to operating temp then removing no more than 2 plugs with a soft impact before rewarming the truck. This method has been working very well until this plug.


Mike

 

I've had them break off, but not fall down inside. I agree with you, it seems like the plug broke when it was installed, that's why there probably wasn't enough carbon to hold the tip in place when you tried to install the Lisle tool. It's a bit late to be any help to you, but I watched a youtube video where the guy drilled the porcelain and electrode out before installing the reverse threaded extractor. In your case, even that might not have worked, as even the lightest downward pressure could have been enough to push that one into the cylinder.

 

I wish we would have thought to drill it out.


We just did know what we were dealing with until it was too late.


Lesson learned.

 

Could also be that you used an impact gun to remove plugs. The impact broke up the carbon and when you tried to push the porcelain down the carbon was broke up enough to lose its grip on the sleeve. I've also seen the video of using an impact gun to remove plugs and in my opinion it's not a good idea. Pull the head to extract the sleeve. Trying to take shortcuts will lead to problems.