My friend has a recently purchased 1996 7.3L diesel truck. He's been having problems starting in the cold morning so I told him to check the glow plugs. One of them broke on him. He had no problem removing the glow plug body, but the element slipped out of the body and stayed in the head. He can grab the element with needle nosed pliers, but can't extract it. Is it because the area around the glow plug is packed with carbon? What's his next move?

Can he drive this way until it's properly fixed?

 

Do not drive or start it as it could do a lot of damage in the cylinder. The glow plug probably expanded at the tip and won't fit thru the hole. Unless someone else knows of a better way. The only way I know is to remove the head and remove the broken Glow plug.

 

Bring the piston to top dead center. Remove the injector. And push the tip back in the hole. Then you should be able to use mechanical fingers or a small pair of needle nose pliers and pull them out of the injector hole. With the piston being at TDC it wont fall throw the pre-chamber and it wont go down the cylinder. JMO

 

If it is indeed a 96 truck it is a Power Stroke, and the problem may be better answered on the PS forum. Good luck though

 

Kestas,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI diesel forum.


Moved your post to the 1994 thru 1997 Power Stroke forum.

You will get better help here.

Dave Sponaugle - IDI diesel moderator

 

Kestas-

You got moved to this forum but the advice you got so far was pretty much dead-on. A broken glow plug sucks, removing an injector sucks, but starting that engine and ruining a cylinder REALLY sucks. The only other thing I can add is that you may be able to use a telescoping magnet to help get the pieces out. I have often wondered about trying to fish one of those out through an open exhaust or intake valve, but I have never attempted it and I don't know if it would be possible.
Alot of guys here recommend the Beru glowplugs because they are less likely to swell up and get stuck or broken like this one did. Good luck with it.

 

I would suggest the same. piston at top and fish with a magnet through injector hole. Do not crank the engine !!!! Be patient. Good Luck

 

Dave, thanks for redirecting the thread.

And thanks to others for the advice. My buddy has Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

Plan A - Try to wiggle/force the element out of the glow plug hole. He can get some purchase on the element with needle nose pliers.

Plan B - Try to remove the element from the injector hole.

Plan C - Remove the head.

It's crazy cold and windy right now and he doesn't have a garage, so it'll be a while before he gets back to working on it.

 

while he waiting for time to work on it. You should hose the thing down with carb cleaner, sea foam or penatrating oil or a concocktion of all those. it could be carbon build up on the tip and some have had luck with soaking it every day for a few days and then being able to wiggle it out. if you do get it out that way just make sure you crank the engine over a few time to make sure that fluid is all out of the cylinder.

 

grab that bad boy with some needle nose vice grips and soak it with pb blaster for a while and pull it out.

 

I have a 95 psd, three weeks ago I had a thread about the same thing. I got mine out," i had two that left the tips in the head." What I did was soak mine with wd-40 for two days. After that I tokk a home-made punch and stuck it on the tip thru the glow-plug hole, Marked the punch with a marker off the rocker-arm so I could see how much I taped it down. Then I taped it lightly till I could tell it moved a little, Then I thru a couple of shop rags over it and started the engine and had to goose it a little and then shut the engine off and checked the tip with the punch again and was able to see that things were moving. I did this several times and finally it blew the old piece out of the glow-plug hole. It will be hot and it comes out in a hurry when it comes out dont be in the way. Then it was time to do the next one. This worked for me. Just dont drive it in to the cylinder. Just tap it enough to see that it has moved, then fire it up. If it doesn't come out repeat the process. It is better than removing the head. And if you drive it in to far then you will be removing the injector probaly to get the tip out.


tony

 

Great info Tony!! How far did that tip go after coming out?

 

I had a buddy that is a John Dere mechanic helping, he was the one that was standing in front of the pick-up when it dislodged. He said he felt stuff fly out like carbon and such. The tip flew out and missed the hood but got stuck in the insulation on my garage walls. I know you wouldn't want to get hit by it though. Compression ratio and rpm's had that sucker flying probably around 450-500 psi behind it.

 

How much of the hosing needs to be re-attached before starting the engine? I have the front probe stuck on the drivers side, so the intercooler hose and the air intake have both been removed. The air intake is removed all the way to the turbo. Another question on the turbo. I was looking at the fins and the tips of them are nicked. Is that a problem?

 

I did not hook-up any of my air tubes to the turbo. I left it open just to start it, All I did was put a shop rag over the glow-plug area to help slow the tip down when it came out. Maybe the rag would also catch the tip and help keep it from falling into the oil-return holes too. PRETTY UNLIKELY TO LAND IN JUST THAT SPOT BUT SOMETIMES MY LUCK GOES THAT WAY. That is what i did and it worked for me. Be carefull not to let the rag get sucked into the turbo.