Broken glow plug - anyone in Michigan?

[campionc]

I have a broken off #7 glow plug. It looks like it could be original but I'm not sure. It's not something that my mechanic friend or I am willing to try to tackle because we probably don't have the right equipment, or we'd end up making it worse. The way we see it is, there's a reason it broke off, and an EZ-out probably won't do it if a wrench didn't. We also don't want to take the head off or try to weld anything to the plug either. So the question is, does anyone know anybody in Michigan who can get this thing out without charging a fortune? I've seen others just say to leave it there and not worry about it, but after all the other work, money, and upgrades this engine and truck are getting, it would drive me nuts to have this loose end.

I'm in the Jackson, Michigan area, so anybody near there would be great, but I'll consider anywhere in the lower peninsula, or even in northern Ohio.

I've attached a picture of what we're dealing with, in case anybody has any suggestions. The broken one is on the right, just under the injector. Thanks! Chris

[DmaxMaverick]

EZ-Out is out, if you aren't willing/wanting to remove the head. Once the core is drilled, the engine is dead until repaired. It's also not advisable to drill on the installed head, risking cylinder contamination. You could pressurize it while drilling, but it isn't 100% reliable. If the EZ-Out fails, the head comes off, in any case.

If the core is intact (still sealed), as much as it pains you, just leave it. It won't hurt anything. It is very likely, on many/most older engines, they are running/starting with at least one bad plug, in any case. In almost every case, it will go unnoticed. A healthy engine will start on as few as 2-3 plugs in moderate temps. 6 plugs will start a healthy engine in sub-zero temps.

[rapidoxidationman]

Original glow plug? Not likely, unless the engine has VERY few miles on it. When I had a 6.5 I had to replace the plugs on a regular basis, like every 2 years or 50K miles. I knew when the time to do the job was near when the truck struggled to start, and like DMax said: more than just a couple were out.

Regarding your issue: Leave it or be prepared to pull the head. One out of 8 plugs gone bad isn't a showstopper.

And: Use some permatex antiseize compound on the new ones before they get seized up too.

[phantom309]

You don;t want to weld,.
you don't want to drill,.
you don't want to pull the head,.

Close the hood,..drive on,...it"ll start on 7

as for cylinder contamination drilling into the glow plug,. not to worry,.its in the precup,.after you drill it out,.spin the motor with the glow plug out still,. it'll blow all those little filings right out first puff,.

[Robyn]

LEAVE IT BE

I had a 94 6.5 that only had 4 good ones scattered through the 8 and it did fine.

Took good care of the skeeters on a cold start up, but far better than ripping the head off.

In warm weather she will likely start pretty darned good, and when real cold it's gonna smoke a tad til it picks that one up.

Missy

[DmaxMaverick]

......as for cylinder contamination drilling into the glow plug,. not to worry,.its in the precup,.after you drill it out,.spin the motor with the glow plug out still,. it'll blow all those little filings right out first puff,.

Maybe they work that way in Canada, eh. The first closed-valve stroke is intake. Meaning, it sucks first, then it blows (really).

If there's any contamination to worry about, you do it with the injector out, and flash hole plugged, first. A simple blast of shop air will eject what gets into the pre-cup. The same method works for removing swelled plugs. If it must be drilled and you don't want to remove the injector, you can pressurize the cylinder (open exhaust valve, reversed Shop-Vac at the tailpipe - duct tape recommended). Any shavings get blown outward as you drill (wear eye protection!). But still, if it fails, the head will need to come off.

[arveetek]

Original glow plug? Not likely, unless the engine has VERY few miles on it. When I had a 6.5 I had to replace the plugs on a regular basis, like every 2 years or 50K miles. I knew when the time to do the job was near when the truck struggled to start, and like DMax said: more than just a couple were out.


Wanna hear something funny? My Tahoe now has 290K miles. I've owned it almost 10 years and for 100K miles. I've never touched the glow plugs. She still starts right up on the coldest of mornings.

My old 6.2L was another story: I was constantly burning out plugs. Never could figure out why.

Casey

[phantom309]

Maybe they work that way in Canada, eh. The first closed-valve stroke is intake. Meaning, it sucks first, then it blows (really).



Thanks for the suck push bang blow update,.
guess things are a little more delicate in CA than canada eh?,.

I,ve seen a lot of debris pass thru many different combustion chambers over the years,.on many different engines,.
In my opinion very small drill fillings would make little to no difference to anything,.especially when then are offered an easy escape route,.

Just my personal opinion of course,.

OH,. and ASSuming that the motor stopped on tdc exhaust,.,.
you'd be correct,.

[rustyk]

One trick I've used is to rapidly cool the offender (dry ice or expanding gas, but not specifically on glow plugs) hoping the contraction will allow removal.

Another tool I've used is the light-duty cordless impact wrench (Ryobi P234G, 18V 3,100 ipm). You can vibrate the plug repeatedly, but the low torque won't break the plug - that may be enough to break it loose.

OTOH, I'd just leave it alone unless I were bored. #1 cyl on my'87 Ford diesel is awful to get at, so the OEM glow plug is still in there.

[campionc]

Well, we left it alone. No sense in risking damage if it won't make any difference anyway.

We did a lot of work to this engine with all sorts of cooling upgrades, exhaust, glow plugs, injectors, etc. Next comes a Heath computer.

We got it started just a couple of days ago. It literally sat all winter while we worked on it, so I wasn't really surprised that it knocked like a $%&!@ and turned the air in the immediate area (and the vicinity about the size of a city block) completely blue and turned our visibility factor to meer inches in front of us. Of course, somebody forgot to put coolant in the new radiator, so we only let it run for literally 2 seconds or less.

Assuming that everything smoothes back out to normal, I might even consider getting a water/meth injection kit for when I'm towing my 5 ton fifth wheel.

Anyway, thanks for all the help and opinions.

[rapidoxidationman]

Hopefully, being run dry didn't hurt the water pump seal...:(