Hi all, I have a 2005 Screw. I had the original plugs changed at the dealership at around 80,000. Over the past year the truck has been running a little rough and would hesitate upon acceleration. The symptoms became very bad while on a cross country trip from Florida to California. I could not keep up my speed while climbing hills and the truck was missing pretty bad.

When I arrived at my destination in Palm Springs, CA I took the truck to a local repair shop. They "troubleshooted" the problem. $300 dollars later, they said they couldn't find anything wrong.

I limped home to the Florida Panhandle where I took it to a local shop. They pulled the #4 spark plug and discovered that the bottom 1/2" was burned off. They replaced the plug and the truck definitely worked better, but still missed on acceleration. They expressed reluctance to remove any of the other plugs because they were worried they would break off.

So now that I am at 175,000 miles I thought I better tackle a spark plug change. I watched all the youtube videos, picked up all the required parts, including the Lisle tool.

I started out by removing spark plugs 5,6 and 7. When I pulled the cop off of number 8, there was NO spark plug. There is part of a plug in the hole but the top part is missing. I suspect that one of the technicians broke the plug, didn't know what to do about it, and then didn't tell me about it. Well, now I have to deal with it.

Anyway, I have attached a picture of what the remaining part of the plug looks like and I am wondering how to get it out. The Lisle tool has nothing to screw into. Any ideas??

 

What a mess! I think you're going to HAVE to pull the head. After that (assuming that the threads go ALL of the way into the head) maybe you can use some kind of end mill that fits in the hole and grind the sides off so that it's only sharp on the end. Insert it into the hole and see if it will grip the remains of the spark plug and drive it (screw it) out the bottom of the head. If it won't then you're going to have to use it to use it to cut the remains of the plug out and then you'll have to dig the remains of the SP threads out of the threads in the head. If that doesn't go well, then you'll have to drill out the threads in the head and put a helicoil in it.

PS look at the crud in that spark plug hole. Even under normal circumstances, all of that would have ended up inside you engine. You really should clean all of that out of the SP holes before removing the plugs. I know, even so call professional mechanics don't bother to either.

PSS from the relatively clean look of the ring where that SP was seated as compared to the aluminium around it, I don't think that plug has been missing very long. My guess is that your last mechanic broke it and didn't want to deal with the problem and THAT is why they returned the truck to you and didn't finish the job!

 

Hello and thanks for the quick response! I have a lot of other items on my plate right now so I don't want to get bogged down pulling the head.

I wonder if a dealer isn't my best bet. Maybe they have a couple of tricks up their sleeve to fix this. I liked my local mechanic, but now I'm not sure if he left me this mess or the mechanic before him.

 

My guess is that if it was the mechanic before him that he would have at least alerted you to the problem.

 

In the old days, we use to use something called an "Easy-Out". I still have a set of my dads, downstairs. My dad used them on everything. It is a set of reverse turning bits (I think there are five in this set), that are tapered to fit into a hole drilled into the center of a busted bolt, etc.. First you would drill a small appropriately sized hole for the Easy-out you are using, then put the easy out in the hole and turn it in reverse. It bites into the busted bolt/screw and pulls it out. I see something advertised on TV that is similar. It is a tool that goes in a drill, it has a bit on one end to drill a tapered hole into the bolt, then you reverse it in the drill and pull the busted bolt/screw out. Can't remember what it's called. I see them in Happy Harry's etc.. Again, don' know if it will do this job....

 

I have about four sets of easy outs but I don't think that they'd work in this case. For one thing you have to drill a hole in the broken off bolt (spark plug in this case) and that would mean that all the debris would fall into the cylinder head. I wouldn't try it with the head on the engine. Besides, I don't think he'd be able to drill through the ceramic part of the SP.

As I said, I think the FIRST thing to do is to pull the head. Then figure out how to get the SP out (or replace the head). But I rather suspect that he's going to find other damage once he opens the engine up.

 

are you sure the spark plug well isnt just full of sand? Its known that they fill up with sand.

its really hard to tell by the pic whats going on.....

 

I agree with @Patman. You can see NO semblance of the 'hex' nut on the plug. The hex part can screw out with the ceramic remaining, but in that case you just break off and remove that part and use the Lisle tool.


I would clean / scrape / and blow out that spark plug well. Then reassess.