I have blown out a spark plug 3rd back from front on passengers side> crazy loud noise this morning on my way in to work thought it was an exhaust leak , but i was just out there looking and could see the coil pack blown out of the way and could see the plug laying in there, couldn't grab yet, so not 100% its totally stripped, but all indications are that it is. How do i go about fixing this? Is there a sleeve, or do i have to get a whole new head?
thanks for any tips.

 

Do a search for TIMESERT, this can be done without removing the head.

 

dont do anything! i had this happen twice. first time i was towing a camper 2 hrs from home. i got to a pepboys and got the plug back in... second time was a weeke ago. took the threads with it. you can but a "sleeve" kit that you rethread the hole and insert a steel collar. it cost me $100 at a garage. the kit retails for around $300. the only place i could find it was napa. but i did find it on line for like 250

 

nobody wants to sleeve it, my local mechanic wants to put an engine in, he wont even sleeve it? said it's not worth doing the head since he'll have to pull the engine anyway, but said a head would cost me 3500, and an engine used would run 5000, are you frickin kidding me? pulled the coilpack out of the way and cant find the plug... How far can i drive it this way? its 21 miles home. guess i should tow it?

 

ummmm i would drive it. your not goign to hurt anything. it just running on 5 cylinders. it is the same as if you had a bad coilpack. when i was lookign it up online. guys that build these motors to race mustangs upgrade there heads with the sleeves before they use the heads. so it is definatly an upgrade. i would call around a bit.

o by the way nice toy in your avatar.

 

I jut had one blow out and limped it 3 miles home. I think I would get it hauled home on a flat bed. I would not think it would be to good to be running fuel into the cylinder and not having it burned out for any distance. The shop that does my dyno and tuning has done alot of them and fixes them using a helicoil. As I do not have time right now I had them do it. It cost me about $400 including a new plug and a used coil they had.

 

I don't know where you are located but here in Omaha there seem to be people to the time sert. Infact a forum member took his mustang to a garage here in Millard and they fixed him up just fine.

 

Im in cincinnati ohio, guess i need to call around. killin me that i heard the plug drop and i cant find it> i unhooked the injector and i'm gonna unhook the coil pack, dont like it bein open though stuff could fall in the hole. guess ill go buy a plug and try to put it in never know maybe it isnt totally stripped, wish i had the plug then i would know.

 

Slightly off topic here but there is something about that number 3 cylinder. I did a plug change a few weeks ago and out of all of them, numbers 3 & 7 were the two that felt the "loosest" out of the 8 when removing. I remember thinking something on the lines of "glad I'm doing this now" even though it was outside and in the 30s when I was doing it.

My local machinist said you can do the job with the head on and try to vacuum out all the shavings. He also said the fortunate part is that since the heads are aluminum, if you were to miss a small shaving, hopefully it would melt and form on the head of the piston causing no problems. It is a common repair according to him.

 

wouldnt he be running on 7 cyl if just 1 is bad not 5.

 

o yeah 8 -1 = 7 not 5 lol


the helicoil is bad for 2 reasons.

1 it doesnt improve the number of threads that the plugs uses
2 the plug may not seat on to the helicoil causeing compression blow by.

the the sleeve there are realy no metal shavings. other then cutting the new threads. but at this point they are the lesser of 2 evils.

 

yeah it is the 5.4, but I got the point. just went and bought another plug and coil pack gonna see if their is any thread left, not going to put on the coil pack just yet though. I don't want to ruin another one those arent cheap.

 

o by the way nice toy in your avatar.

Thanks Its an '85 she's lots of fun and usually the one im wrenchin on, lots of room under that hood.

 

i have a 92 wrangler. 36's dual tcases waggy dana 44's 14" shocks, ect. even when they break its more fun to fix. i hate working on my dd's. unless ofcourse its to do exhaust or intakes....

 

Ok here's where I'm at. I went out at lunch and tried to replace the spark plug. First i found the old one it had fallen back down into the head(i forgot how deep they were) and the threads on it were fully intact with no remnance of aluminium on them. I expected to see the threads covered with the threads it ripped out? the end was smashed down to no spacing? I then tried to insert the new plug and thought i felt it threading even getting some resistance, but then loosened back up. I tried twisting the end of the extension by hand but couldn't get it to start. So since i am suposed to be working I have disconnected the coil pack and fuel injector and am going to attempt to drive it home where i have a nice big garage out of the rain where i can further diagnose. but please feel free to give me any tips or tricks you can think of, anything else i can try, and ultimately any suggestions on the sleaving process, my "mechanic" told me that if i effectively sleave it I should immediatly sell it, because in his words these are great engines until something goes wrong, then it snowballs... I hope not. I like my expedition....