Well I went to the farm this weekend to replace my glow plugs (bought the last 8 Motorcrafts that O'rileys had!) and sure enough there is one that is stuck (AC Delco) - and sure enough its #4 burried under the fuel lines. Has anyone tried the removal tool from OTC? http://www.mytoolstore.com/otc/6005.html

From checking many diffetent postings, it seems like if it breaks off the best route is to have #4 at TDC and hook up a shop vac to form a suction through the injector hole. Maybe even attach a straw to the vac to be able to fish in the cavity. Just about anything is worth it to keep the heads on!

Any suggestions about removing/installing the fuel line and injectors?

Allen

 

I think I would just leave the old one in there, and run on 7 glowplugs.

 

I always wondered if it might be possible to clean out a broken tip that is stuck in the hole by putting that cylinder with the broken GP to TDC, then, using a slow drill and some LONG, skinny drill bits, starting with about 1/8" and working your way up to the full diameter of the GP barrel (7/32"?) drill it out and cut it up into tiny metal shavings.It would reduce the tip to little shavings, and when you are all done, you could disconnect the fuel shutoff valve wire from the IP (so it won't actually start) and spin it over with the starter for 20 seconds at a time, let the starter cool off, and repeat the 20 second cranking process. Do that a few times to blow the rest of the shavings out.

Or better yet, hook up an air hose to the injector hole and blow compressed air into the cylinder while you're drilling out the GP tip - that way it would blow the shavings out as the drill cut them.

Of course you'd have to be really careful to make sure you drilled straight down into the center of the tip. If you did it carefully enough when the center got drilled out enough for the shell of the GP tip to collapse the bit would probably "catch" in the GP tip shell and spin it free.

Anybody ever tried anything like that? Any thoughts on giving it a try? It would have to be worth a try before pulling a head....

 

I've been wondering about this problem also and did a search but didn't find much? Could a vacuum attachment be made to go in the injector hole and bend up to fit under the gp position so that the broken off gp part would fall into the vacuum attachment and be sucked out, a stocking sock or similar would be hung in the vac line to catch the debris to confirm the catch, the broken part would only have the option to fall into the vacuum attachment, the possibility of the broken part missing the vacuum attachment would be unacceptable, no thanks, don't want to go there, leave the crummy gp in there forever.

 

how stuck is it?? if you can get it to push back in, top out#4, then get a can of penetrating oil, and a reversible drill. chuck the glow plug into the drill, spray it with penetrating oil, and spin the plug while gently pulling up on the drill. this will shave off the swollen part of the g.p. tip, allowing it to pull out. when it gets tight, just push it back in, and spray it again.
once i get the plug out, i use a combination of blow gun through the g.p. hole, and shop vac in the injector hole to clean the cylinder out.
i have pulled a bunch of g.p.'s like this, and never had any problems.

just take your time. rushing it will only break the tip off.

 

Tom, your idea sounds good. It seems like working both the plug and the vacuum at the same time, especially if the cylander is at TDC, is the way to go. I will give it a shot in a couple of weeks when I am back at the farm.

 

The timing mark is found on a little plate that is on the front of the engine on the passenger side. The plate is mounted so it is very close to the main pulley on the lower front of the engine which is mounted on the vibration damper. On the side of the vibration damper, is a line, which when lined up with the line marked (O) on the plate, tells you that the #1 piston is at TDC(top dead center) You can see the line on the damper, and it points to the line on the plate with the (barely visible)O mark on it.You'll have to find a way to turn your engine over by hand (Crank/harmonic balancer bolt). Make sure you remove the power wire to the injection pump(so the engine won't start)and then rotate the engine until you can line up the marks.

The engine rotates in a clockwise direction as seen from the front of the truck, and for every 1/4 turn of the engine(crank) each next piston will arrive at TDC. So, When the line on the vibration damper is at the 2 oclock position, cylinders 2 and 5 will be at TDC. When the mark is at the 5 oclock position, cylinders 7 and 6 will be at TDC, 8 oclock has cylinders 3 and 8 at TDC, and back to 11oclock, 1 and 4 will be at TDC.

Cylinder numbers are assigned 1,3,5,7 on the left (passenger USA) bank from front of truck to back, and 2,4,6,8 on the driver's side (USA), front to back. Firing order is 1,2,7,3,4,5,6,8.

OK all the above is true...... to ensure the #1 piston is at TDC compression remove the inspection cover on the oil filler/gear cover. You will see a dowel pin from the IP if it is at 4 oclock that is TDC compression stroke, if it is at 11 oclock that is TDC exhaust stroke.......

 

my question is, how are you going to fit a vacuum anything down the injector hole. have you seen how tiny the holes are. i would leave it in there as well. 1 glowplug is not worth removeing IP,intake,exhaust manifold,head. if you try to drill it, i would use a reverse drill bit, those things are nice.

 

Actually I have to give it a shot because the blade to attach the glow wire broke off. How would it run with the plug in and one wire not attached??

 

you don't fit the vacuum into the injector hole, you make a doohickey that holds the hose as close to the injector hole as you can get it. i have a reducer pipe that fits in the injector hole and the other side goes into the vac hose. then i put the blow gun into the g.p. hole and let it rip. the high pressure air from the blow gun swirls around in the pre-cup and top of the piston area , causing the vacuum to suck everything in there out.

also, with one burnt out glow plug, you will be giving more voltage to the remaining 7, causing premature failure. the more plugs, bad, the faster the other ones will burn out.

 

this happened to me, i screwed it back in there and bent the wire down to prevent the core from falling into engine if it ever got unstuck. just don't plug it up, chances are that the plug has not been working for a while anyway. i have been driving like this for a long time and i recently tried to unscrew the threaded part and soak the plug in tranny fluid. then i ran the motor revving it and such to blow the plug out but id did not budge. a head gasket costs 50 bucks as does the intake gasket. the exhaust manifold may be hard to get to and the gasket probably costs between 10-20 bucks.

 

if you are using a push button, just depress it for only 3-5 seconds. plugs should last a while like this. i am in houston area though.

 

PLC7.3, Thanks for the timing write up, noted, labeled and I'll be digging into inspection plate to stare at things.

 

The hole into the precup at the bottom of the injector hole is not that much larger than the glow plug tip is.

The cordless drill in reverse and lots of PB Blaster and using lots of care to stay in line with the glow plug sounds like the best option.

If the top breaks off, then I would try a left hand drill bit and more PB Blaster.

On the bright side, the drivers side head is the easiest one to remove in the truck.

 

Back to how stuck is it did it screw out of the threads?
I had two that would not come out do to the carbon buildup on the tip. After a few beers blowing them out sounded like a good idea!
So I cranked it over with the starter it sounded like a 22 going off under the hood and no sign of the little rascals. It worked great!