aah ok, nevermind then. Hafta keep thinking on this one

 

Ain't much touching that easy out except EDM ...

Might get lucky welding a nut, never done it on a gp, done it many times on other things some successful some not, careful, it could cost you a head!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

While working on my Stroke I found out Brake Cleaner does an excellent job cutting soot buildup.

The Power Stroke has a tube connected to the exhaust manifold that is about a foot long with a back pressure sensor on the other end.

That tube gets stopped up and then gives the computer bad information which sets a trouble code.

I pulled the sensor out, sprayed the tube full of brake cleaner and let it soak several times an hour over the course of a day while I was working on other things.

Last couple times I sprayed brake cleaner in it, I followed it with compressed air.

By the end of the day, the tube was open and no more codes.

With the head off, you could spray around the glow plug tip from both sides.

One question herre though, did all of the threaded portion of the glow plug come out on both plugs?

 

I busted about the last 1/2 off of one before. I tried many things to get it out. What I ended up doing was taking the exhaust manifold off, taking the valve keepers off the exhaust valve and then hammered the last of the glow plug tip down into the cylinder with a hammer and punch.

I attached a little piece of fuel hose to the end of my compressed air gun and kept pulsing blasts down in the glow plug hole and also shoved the hose up in and through the valve into the cylinder. I never saw it come out but realized I couldnt hear it clanging around anymore and sure enough there it was laying on the garage floor.

Whole process only took about 3 hrs. The actual dirty work of getting it out about 3 minutes. I got two more glow plugs I have stuck and if I ever get around to removing them I may have to do this again but wouldnt hesitate.

To get the valve keepers off just use a little piece of scrap steel with a wedge cut out on the end. Don't need an official tool.

 

I went to my mechanics shop yesterday. He had my head off and showed me the problems.

The glow plug with the easy out in it had busted off the tip. It was bent in half at a 90 degree angle and was in the pre-combustion cup. I had just finished a 3000 mile trip with that tip just bouncing around in there. I was lucky that it didn't fall into the hole and hit my piston.
The other plug is sheered off flat with nothing to grab onto.

Living on the ocean leads to a lot of corrosion. This glow plugs seemed like they were welded into place.

He looked into the cost of EDM and found that it would cost $200 an hour to cut them out.

Instead, he just got me another 7.3 head and will rebuild it and put it back on the engine.

I am having him install Motorcraft glow plugs. I am not sure what was in there to begin with. He will use anti-seizing stuff on the threads.

I also asked him to set up a manual override switch for my glow plugs. I still want to use the controller to fire the plugs since other people occasionally use my truck and it would show me when I have a potential problem in the system. I have tried to search the forum for the set-up but can't find the post I read about it. There are too many search results returned. Can one of you point me in the right direction?

You guys are great, thanks for all the help.

 

Sounds about right for EDM unfortunately, it is not a cheap process. There are variations of it that are faster and cheaper, but not common nor as accurate. (Increased chance of taking the threads out for example.) Regardless, I would tuck that head away in storage myself, you never know who you may get to know, or who might be desperate sometime and have them edm'd for themselves.

 

This is the glow plug controller on your 90 model.

The white wire goes to ground through the controller when the glow plugs are heating.

If you want automatic and manual control the best way would be with an (ON) OFF ON SPDT switch.
The (ON) would be a momentary action when you flipped the switch one way, ON would be a constant on position.

To wire this the white wire needs to be removed from the relay and extended into the cab and attached to the constant on terminal of the switch (usually the end opposite the constant on position)

The wire from the center terminal would run back out to the white wire terminal on the relay,

The wire from the momentary position of the switch would go to a good electrical ground.

When the switch is in the constant position, the glow plug timing would be controlled by the glow plug controller and operate normally.

When the switch was in the center off position, the glow plugs would not operate at all.

When you push the switch to the momentary position, the glow plugs would be manually controlled and stay on as long as you held the switch if the key was in the on position.
A momentary spring loaded switch position is recommended for that reason so you can not accidently put the switch in that position which would burn up the glow plugs.

Also with power to the ignition terminal of the relay being supplied through the ignition switch, the key must be on for the glow plugs to operate either manually or automatically.

If none of the screw part of the glow plug is left in the head, you should be able to drill out the tip and not mess up the threads.
The tip is much smaller then the threaded portion of the glow plug.

I know the easy out will be to hard to drill, but I would think you could drive it out with a punch from the inside.

 

It looks like the threaded portions of the glow plugs are rusted (welded) tight into the threads. I wish I had not forgotten my camera so I could share pictures.

My mechanic, BTW also named Dave, thinks replacing the head is going to be the cheapest and easiest way to go.

As for the manual glow plug setup, that is exactly what I was looking for and I will pass this along.

Once this gets done it will be another 3000 return trip home.

Thanks for all the help.