I’m doing a tune up. Needed it very badly as 3/4 plug holes are full of oil. The only dry plug was badly corroded/pited at the end.
Anyway, the leftmost plug didn’t seem tight and I tried to unscrew it but it just keeps turning with a little resistance.
Has anyone had a stripped plug threads before? Anything I can do short of taking the head out and working on it from the other side?
I have a feeling this is going to suck.
thanks,
js
Head removal?
Anyone?
It looks like the nut part of the plug has mechanically separated from the rest of the plug. So, I’m just spinning the one part. I made a mark on the tip of the plug to see if it turned at all and it doesn’t. Needle noses don’t get enough torque on the tip.
I left taht one in it and replaced a bunch of other stuff to fix the bad hesitation and stalling. Seems to be running great now but I’d really like to change out that plug at some point. Maybe have to wait until I do the head gasket?
How long would it take me to take the head out to get the plug removed and reinstalled for a first timer?
js
Sounds like you’ve got some problems. First off, if you had oil in the spark plug holes you need to replace the groment gaskets on the bottem of the valve cover. Now for the plug. Im assuming that you are using the proper sized spark plug socket?? If it is truning and the plug isn’t coming out then chances are the threads are stripped. You may try to grasp the plug by the edges of the nut part with a pair of long jawed vice grips and try pulling and turning on it. If that dont work then it would be my guess that you will have to remove the head to get the plug out. Once you get the plug out the spark plug hole can then be heli coiled.
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, the primary motivation for this work was bad hesitation, misfiring, etc. Plug gaskets got replaced along with the wires.
I put a mark on the very tip of the plug to see if it was moving at all, it isn’t. I’m going to guess that the plug was cross threaded or seized in the threads and someone busted the nut loose from the plug when trying to remove it or the nut just became unattached due to bad quality or heat damage or something crazy like that.
I may just have a local Honda shop see what they can do about it to save me the time and money on trying new and weird tools to get it out.
Of course, it runs great right now after the parts replacements but its going to have to come out at some point.
js
at least you were lucky… unlike me,
a few years back one of my soark plugs blew out on the highway stripped most of the thread out and i had to get a new hood. At least you checked the spark plug when you did or else bad things coulda happened