Removing Burned Out /Swelled Glow Plugs???

[painthorsman]

Anyone out there have any tips on removing glow plugs that are burned out and the tips swelled enough that I cant pull the glow plug all the way out of the hole?
I just got this engine built and bought new 11G's from Avant and it fired up almost right away and ran GREAT! once I got the controller (late model gray) operating properly. I shut it down and then tonight when I got home I went to start it and back it out of the shop... no start.. didnt even try...
It turns out that all four plugs on the passenger side are burnt out for some reason and the ones on the drivers side are ok... The passenger side ones will allmost come out but hang up. I took the front injector out and could see that the tip was swelled some.
I hope that someone has a neat trick for this problem... without taking the heads off please!!!
I'm used to working on Cummins and IH motors that don't have or need the danged things!I thought 11's wouldnt swell bad... I remember the old 9's were horrible for that!

[britannic]

eBay sometimes has a glow plug removal tool for the 6.2l/6.5L. To do it without the tool, remove the injector and stuff a rag into the pre-combustion chamber under the glow plug. Snap the end of the glow plug off inside the pre-combustion chamber with a suitable tool and then remove the pieces and unscrew the GP in the usual way.

[C.K. Piquup]

How does this tool work?Anyone try to improvise this?Next chance I get,I have some ideas to try.I`m just worried about missing broken bits.

[britannic]

Glow Plug Removal Tool (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=35625&item=2437146846)

I have no affiliation or connection with the above eBay vendor, this is purely an FYI

I would recommend removing the injector in any case and stuffing a rag in to stop pieces going into the cylinder.

[rumbler1]

I had a couple of those swelled tips a while ago and I was able to pull them out by putting plyers around the glow element, between the glow plug threaded section and the head, then pulling against the threaded section. They were very tight, but didn't break. I was told by a mechanic that's very good with the GM diesels that a broken glow plug tip will be quickly expelled by taking out the injector and cranking the engine a few turns. The compression is supposed to blow out the damaged tip through the injector hole.

[84 Convert]

Quite a while ago, I saw a post on this... if I remember correctly the person who had to deal with it said they used a piece of old inner tube through the injector hole and cupped toward the GP in order to catch the pieces. sounded like it worked well, but I don't remember who posted it and its long gone now :-( Such is life.

Gregg

[DmaxMaverick]

^ That was my reply to another stuck glow plug post.

I use a piece of innertube, but you can use any material that will plug the hole, such as a piece of dishwashing glove, etc. The idea is to plug the flash hole in the pre-cup, and DO NOT crank the engine. You will be more likely to suck in the pieces than blow them out. The power stroke will suck anything into the cylinder it can. Once the hole is plugged, break off the glow plug from the outside and push any remaining pieces back into the pre-cup through the glow plug hole. Then blow some shop air (or even canned air) into the glow plug hole. All the pieces should be blown out the injector hole. Another step that I add is cleaning the hole. Get a phoshpur/bronze bore brush (like used to clean gun barrels-common Walmart item) in about a .45 caliber and attach it to a drill motor. You could use a stainless steel brush, but I would not suggest taking a chance of losing a few strands in the cylinder. The phosphur-bronze strands, if they get inside, should just get chewed up and spit out without any damage. Use some Diesel fuel to clean the hole and brush it thoroughly with the brush. This will break up most of the soot that's settled in there, and clean up the threads. Makes future removals much easier.

That's pretty much it. Remove the flash hole plug and put everything back together with new a glow plug and go for it.

Good luck...

[Kennedy]

Here's what I use:

http://www.otctools.com/newcatalog/detail.php3?id=473

Haven't tried the one from Ebay, but it looks like it may be handy for some hard to reach plugs...

[Chevy4X4Van]

I've pulled out a few swollen glowplugs over the past years. This is my recepie:

Remove injector. Apply wice-grip tool on the glowplug. And now comes my invention: Use a small hose and connect to a vacume-cleaner. Put the end of the hose into the injector hole. Move the wice-grip up'n'down, until the pluwplug tip break off. The tip will breake off and be sucked into the wacume cleaner. Insert injector. Install new AC60G glowplug.

I've done it this way a lot of times, and never "lost" a broken glowplug-tip.

Trond L.
Norway

[SaintC]

The kit that Kennedy linked to is basically what I made for myself. Great minds think alike.

Anyway, the trick is to extend the threads so you can just keep unscrewing it. This allows the gp to stay straight, and it most cases, it compresses the tip as it comes up through the threads.

Take a nut the same thread size as the gp. I do not remember what it is (sorry), and either use a hack saw, or a small cut off wheel, cut the nut across one side, and into the internal side. It should look like the letter "C" with a little notch at the back of the throat. You can take a screwdriver and open it up, slide it down the gp, then use vice grips to clamp it around the gp threads...not too tight, as you need to be able to turn the gp. Then, just unscrew it.

Make sure you have something in place like everyone else has said, just in case the tip does break off. Once you make this removing nut, it should last you a pretty good while, and should take no more than a couple of minutes to make.

[dieselcrawler]

Ouch, I feel your pain... I had the same problem on my truck, and only a few weeks after I got it... Mannaged to get all the easy to reach GP's out, the one that gave me fits was #8 cyl. It broke off, with little to no warning. I was scared. I ended up with the injector out, laying on top of the air cleaner, hanging over the side of the motor with a mirror and a peice of wire, and managed to pull the offending GP out the injector hole... Hope I never have to do that again. Best of luck... the ideas mentioned so far are great.
Greg

[Coketruck]

You need to unscrew the plug while you pull or level out from it.
I did removed my swollen glow plugs,cutting a washer,on the way than it fits in glow plug neck.
Then you level up over the washer while you unscrew the glow plug with a racher.
It works fine.
My english is very bad.if i haven,t explain it fine i could send to you a picture of the tool.
Regards.