Hey guys, Newbie here. Was referred to this site from another site. Heard there might be a new tool for removing glow plug breakoffs. Had a "#4 Glow Plug bad" error code, took the valve cover off (careful on that expensive valve cover gasket), unscrewed the glow plug, and the tip stayed in the head. Understand they may implode sometimes when they short out, expanding and making them impossible to remove. Friend said he thought he heard of a new tool to remove this without removing head, though I can't imagine what it would be like. Anyone heard of anything like this. I would really rather not take the head off, but don't want to try the "heavy grease" on a drill bit scenario, and take chances with the rest of the motor. Truck runs great now (85,000 miles), great gas mileage, no other problems. Thanks for any feedback.......Tom

 

Hey, welcome to FTE. You came to the right place for your answer. I personaly havent ever heard of this tool but someone might know and they will be along shortly.

 

Here's some info that might help you out.

You may be able to remove the glow plug probe by removing the adjancent rocker arm and push rod to gain enough room to get ahold of the probe with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Have someone hold the pliers to prevent the probe from falling into the cylinder and use a long punch to loosen the probe by tapping it down. Once the probe is broken loose, work it up and down in the hole until it can be pulled out--some WD 40 or other solvent may help to loosen any carbon on the probe once it can moved, just remember not to use too much and to remove any residual by cranking over the engine with the glow plug out. You may be able to dislodge the seize probe by cranking over the engine, just remember to reinstall the rocker and pushrod if removed, and place a blanket or fender cover over the glow plug to keep it from shooting out. If the probe falls into the cylinder or cannot be loosened, the head will have to be removed to extract the probe. To prevent damage, remove all the glow plugs on the head to be removed and install them after the head has been reinstalled.

Sometimes glow plugs can ruin your day. I've had some glow plug nightmares in the past on other vehicles, but so far I've been fortunate with this one. The only two brands of glow plugs you ever want to buy are the Motorcraft (made by Beru in Germany) and Bosch. Champion and Autolites are notorious for swelling and losing probe tips.

Good luck and keep us posted,

Austin

 

Here is some more posts from previous broken glow plug....

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...g+removal+tool

 

Wow! I didn't even know that this was a potential problem. I'm awfully sorry you're having the problem, ibldhomes, but I'm equally glad to have learned about this issue.

 

I'm like you Pete, I wonder if those are the original glow plugs.

 

the cheap brands do this a lot..thats why most use Motorcraft

 

I want to thank everyone for the feedback. Some very helpful advice....think I might try disconnecting the power to the glowplugs, spray a little WD40 around #4, and crank the truck over once or twice to see if the tip will pop out. Sounds like that might be the only way it's coming out without removing the head. Again, thanks for all the helpful advice. I'll let you know how it turns out. Tom

 

OTC makes a glow plug removal tool. http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6005-Glow-.../dp/B0002SRGUM. It seems to work alright.

 

Yep, my first instinct would be to spray some penetrant into the GP hole, and then bump the starter and listen for it to put a dent in the bottom of your hood

 

You have two options. You can try to blow it out by cranking. . . but I don't think that will work. You will probably have to pull the head. I had this happen on a 97 and I think the plug broke from the top. . . or it got stripped. Something terrible. I believe it got stripped. we just left it in there and ran on 7 glowplugs for about a year. When we pulled the heads to do gaskets. . . that thing was ballooned up nice. . . absolutely no way of comeing out through the whole upwards. We had to break the tip off and then remove it. You could try the through the vavle trick. . . that could be kinda fun Sorry for the bad luck. Let us know how it goes.
Tim