rethreading a spark plug cylinder

carnagelan said:
Hi Guy,

Are there companies out there that can re thread a spark plug Cylinder.

MY 3rd spark plug does not go in all the way and you can see the threading is not 100 percent in the cylinder
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you can see the threading is not 100 percent in the cylinder

My advice is to take the car to a profesional to have a look at. Fiddeling around with what you describe here may cost you a lot more than the cost a a helicoil.
 
WAslayer said:
Being the spark plug thread, it's a little bit more involved, as the very last thing you want is shavings of any kind ending up in your cylinder.. bye bye engine, hello very expensive repair bill..

Best left to professionals, this specific job.. if it were anywhere else, I would go for it myself, no problem..
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Agreed but i did chance this on my own car once, was years ago, thread was an issue on a plug, waited for the engine to cool down, put some prestik in the cyl, through the plug hole, re thread, all/most shavings was caught by it and removed it, used a scope to check for any remains, saw 1 tiny piece and fiddled with more prestik till i got it, (then disconnected fuel and spark and cranked the engine without plugs) new plug went in completely and started up, was a risk i took but i was already prepared to remove my head if i couldn't get it all out, i guess i got lucky?
 
Frankenstein51 said:
Agreed but i did chance this on my own car once, was years ago, thread was an issue on a plug, waited for the engine to cool down, put some prestik in the cyl, through the plug hole, re thread, all/most shavings was caught by it and removed it, used a scope to check for any remains, saw 1 tiny piece and fiddled with more prestik till i got it, (then disconnected fuel and spark and cranked the engine without plugs) new plug went in completely and started up, was a risk i took but i was already prepared to remove my head if i couldn't get it all out, i guess i got lucky?
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Not something I would chance myself.. that one shaving you found in the cylinder, just imagine if it managed to sneak it's way in between the piston and cylinder and you didn't see it with the scope as a result.. might have turned out differently then..
 
WAslayer said:
Not something I would chance myself.. that one shaving you found in the cylinder, just imagine if it managed to sneak it's way in between the piston and cylinder and you didn't see it with the scope as a result.. might have turned out differently then..
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Definitely as was the case when my lazy ass brother had his buddy remove his spark plugs (note my brother also a mechanic) biddy broke the plug whilst removing it, the ceramic bits fell into the cylinder and he didn't tell my brother, they put in new plugs and started up, within 2 minutes the engine started smoke cylinder wall was messed up, had to remove the engine and re-sleeve with new pistons, told him, that's what you get for not doing your own work, now you have to overhaul your engine lol
 
Frankenstein51 said:
Definitely as was the case when my lazy ass brother had his buddy remove his spark plugs (note my brother also a mechanic) biddy broke the plug whilst removing it, the ceramic bits fell into the cylinder and he didn't tell my brother, they put in new plugs and started up, within 2 minutes the engine started smoke cylinder wall was messed up, had to remove the engine and re-sleeve with new pistons, told him, that's what you get for not doing your own work, now you have to overhaul your engine lol
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Most expensive spark plugs your brother ever bought, I reckon..
 
WAslayer said:
Most expensive spark plugs your brother ever bought, I reckon..
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Luckily we do our own engines, only costs were parts and engineering, cost him a couple grand to repair, yeah expensive plug replacement plus the inconvenience of not having that car available lol.
 
WAslayer said:
Being the spark plug thread, it's a little bit more involved, as the very last thing you want is shavings of any kind ending up in your cylinder.. bye bye engine, hello very expensive repair bill..

Best left to professionals, this specific job.. if it were anywhere else, I would go for it myself, no problem..
Click to expand...

Engines give off metal shavings all the time. It’s why the sump plugs are magnetised.

Would be my last concern. I’m sure a little bit of vacuuming would solve 90% of that concern anyway.

Doing the job right would be my biggest worry.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Engines give off metal shavings all the time. It’s why the sump plugs are magnetised.

Would be my last concern.

Doing the job right would be my biggest worry.
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Engines give off metal shavings that are fat far far smaller than the chunks you would be getting drilling a larger hole to fit a helicoil or threaded insert.. it should most definitely be your first concern..
 
WAslayer said:
Engines give off metal shavings that are fat far far smaller than the chunks you would be getting drilling a larger hole to fit a helicoil or threaded insert.. it should most definitely be your first concern..
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Sorry edited that after the fact.

I’m sure you could get rid of most if not all of those shavings without much effort before trying to run it.

Also having ridden an engine that was literally filled with large pieces of copper for many more thousand kilometres than anyone though was possible I tend to not panic too much about shavings.

Do the best you can to get it out obviously, but I don’t think a single or even a few are going to destroy an engine that easily.

They aren’t that fragile. Oil starvation killed my engine eventually, not so much the shavings.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Sorry edited that after the fact.

I’m sure you could get rid of most if not all of those shavings without much effort before trying to run it.

Also having ridden an engine that was literally filled with large pieces of copper for many more thousand kilometres than anyone though was possible I tend to not panic too much about shavings.

Do the best you can to get it out obviously, but I don’t think a single or even a few are going to destroy an engine that easily.

They aren’t that fragile.
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Yeah, no doubt there are ways and means and why I initially said this specific job is best left to professionals after it was suggestes OP try it himself..
 
WAslayer said:
Yeah, no doubt there are ways and means and why I initially said this specific job is best left to professionals after it was suggestes OP try it himself..
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That I do fully agree with.

Considering someone managed to mangle this thread in the first place by installing the plug wrong it’s probably not a great idea to let the same person try to fix it.
 
WAslayer said:
Engines give off metal shavings that are fat far far smaller than the chunks you would be getting drilling a larger hole to fit a helicoil or threaded insert.. it should most definitely be your first concern..
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And the shavings/filings are not commonly found in the cylinder themselves, unless a piston kisses a valve, you have piston ring failure, etc. and then you are dealing with metal chunks.
 
Magnum said:
Stay the Hell away from Heli Coils. Drill out and insert and tap. Everytime you remove a heli coil thread you risk pulling the whole coil out. and then you are stuffed when doing it on a weekend and everything is closed.
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Good point, a heli coil is probably no ta good idea for something like a spark plug that needs to be changed at least once a year.
 
WAslayer said:
Being the spark plug thread, it's a little bit more involved, as the very last thing you want is shavings of any kind ending up in your cylinder.. bye bye engine, hello very expensive repair bill..

Best left to professionals, this specific job.. if it were anywhere else, I would go for it myself, no problem..
Click to expand...
Some pro told me, you just let the engine run for a second, shavings will just go out, while no spark plug.
 
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