Spark Plug change gone wrong :(

[brandonwh64]

Just want to post my bad luck ive had today! well i went and wanted to change the spark plugs in my 98 3.0 2WD ranger, i went and got some good spark plugs and wires and got home and started to change them. right off the bat i notice that the spark plugs in it are the factory ones!!!! i was like WTF!!! they were rusted pretty bad but i continued anyway. well i got the first two on the driver side off with no issue. now im on the back plug on the drivers side and i started to take it out and it snapped and broke plug and nut off!! only thing left in the cylinder was the bottom half of the spark plug! well after some cussing and such i decided to skip it and finish the rest of the plugs. well i came back to it and i went and bought an EASE OUT kit. I started by drilling some one the ceramic core out and using a shop vac to maintain the debris in the engine. Well got the ease out in there and after some play i got the rest of the plug out EXCEPT some of the core had fallen into the cylinder after i thought i had gotten it all out! i put a new spark plug in it and had a rude awakening when i attempted to crank the truck to hear a loud knocking noise . now i went and got a magnet on a antenna from ace hardware and i also tried to use a shop vac but cannot get the piece out of the cylinder i haven't attempted to crank the truck again but i fear i will have to take it and have someone take the intake and head off to get the debris out I FEEL LIKE CRAP!! a simple plug change turns into open motor surgery.

THANKS TRS for listening to my bad day LOL

 

[GoodOld85BlueBalls]

Sorry you have to pull the head. Don't be tempted to just run it with it in there. It may bend a valve or break something. Sucks and I hate days like that. Somebody elses bad care came on to bite you. Sucks.

 

[brandonwh64]

Sorry you have to pull the head. Don't be tempted to just run it with it in there. It may bend a valve or break something. Sucks and I hate days like that. Somebody elses bad care came on to bite you. Sucks.

Yea i told my wife, if they would have just changed the spark plugs on a scheduled time and used anti seize then i wouldn't be in this boat, now i gotta pay someone to pull the head

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Wow, what a bummer! Sorry to hear it. Hopefully you don't get bent over too bad for the labor.

 

[brandonwh64]

Ouch man No way to fix it? With the money you'd save, could take the intake and heads in to a shop for cleaning/checking/reworking, then you'd only need to worry about removing gasket off the block. Then get the head/intake gaskets, head bolts, etc, bet you could rent a torque wrench if needed.

Nope no way to fix it on my own. I tried a telescopical magnet which didnt work and i also tried a shop vac with a VERY small hose that would fit inside the spark plug hole. i got out most of the ceramic but the small metal end is still in the cylinder

 

[wakingtowinter]

that sucks. the same thing happened to my friend on his ranger a few months ago. he ended up getting a head gasket job done on it.

 

[yyc_tbird_sc]

I had this happen when I got asked to change the plugs on an ex's car. He bf (now husband) had done the plugs once, but didn't use anti-seize...(he actually believed that it was not needed and would wreck the plugs faster).

Same thing, busted off the plug. After knocking out as much of the ceramic as I could, I used an easy out (a good quality square style Snap-On one) and about a 2' snipe to twist the broken part out. I then used the shop-vac to vacuum out the the cylinder by using a funnel taped to the hose, with a small plastic hose on the funnel that would fit into the spark plug hole. I actually managed to vacuum out alot of crap from the cylinder this way. I was lucky and the car started up with no knocking or anything. What should have been a short afternoon of maintenance, turned into an all night wrench fest to get this fixed, and he's not allowed to ever touch a vehicle again.

I wish you all the luck with this.

 

[Doofy]

How about bringing the cylinder with the debris in it up to top dead center and trying to blow it out with compressed air??? or try vacuuming again???

 

[jovibuilt]

Same thing happened to me.I used this and didn't have to pull the head.Good luck.
http://www.amazon.com/OEM-25291-Four-Claw-Pick/dp/B000CMFK0Q/?tag=959media-20

 

[adsm08]

Same thing happened to me.I used this and didn't have to pull the head.Good luck.
http://www.amazon.com/OEM-25291-Four-Claw-Pick/dp/B000CMFK0Q/?tag=959media-20

I was thinking something along those lines.

My biggest concern with that would be now that you have fired the engine, what damage did you do to the valves? May be nothing, may be something bad. You don't know yet.

 

[Psychopete]

I am wondering about the piston

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It's really not that scary or difficult to tear the head off. I've done it a couple times with a 2.9L. The only special tool required is a torque wrench and sometimes auto parts stores like Autozone will loan them out. And the best part is that the head bolts are found under the valve cover - thus they get an oil bath all the time.

Sucks to hear about the problems with changing plugs man. I think part of the problem comes from auto manufactuers telling people that they can go 100k miles on a set of plugs. At 100k your plugs will likely be burned to a crisp and practically welded to the heads. IIRC, my 00 Ranger said it could go 100k on a set of plugs. About 25k I pulled them, checked the gap, never siezed the crap out of them, and stuck them back in. At 50k they were replaced. Of course, I was a bit more diligent than the average person with keeping up the maintenence on that truck.

 

[feellnfroggy]

I ran a 4 cyl mustang with a broke plug( unknowingly) itll spit the plug out the exhaust eventually, problem is when it did it broke not bent, broke my valve I was missing a pie shaped section. I recommend a paperclip or other such stiff piece of wire and a good light, try to get it through the end of the plug. Otherwise forget the magnet get one of the little squezzy things with teh 3 or 4 little claws on the end. as you push the end out it expands and grabs whatever its touching kinda thing. It should be red and about 9 bux and auto parts store.

 

[robmedina]

I wonder if you had gone to a shop to have the plugs changed would it have been on them if they broke the plug and had to take the head off, or would they charge for extra labor of doing so?
I am asking cause I wonder if I should attempt to do the plugs myself or just take it into a shop. I have a 2.3L (97 ranger) and from what I have read the 2 back plugs on the drivers side area bear to get out as it is.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I wonder if you had gone to a shop to have the plugs changed would it have been on them if they broke the plug and had to take the head off, or would they charge for extra labor of doing so?
I am asking cause I wonder if I should attempt to do the plugs myself or just take it into a shop. I have a 2.3L (97 ranger) and from what I have read the 2 back plugs on the drivers side area bear to get out as it is.

Hard to say. In theory it would be on the shop to fix the problem, but a lot of shops would probably come back and say that there is a problem that will cost more to resolve.

I'd take a shot at getting them out on my own first. I typically use a long handled 3/8" drive ratchet and if they don't want to budge with that, then I start to worry because I know if I go to the 1/2" drive and it's stuck in there good, I may snap it off.

Oddly enough, I got an '89 bronco II from a junkyard a couple years back. Near as I could tell the motor had between 170k and 250k miles (someone changed the gauge cluster at some point) and the plugs I pulled out were motorcraft. And the gap had eroded to about a .060 on most of them. All six plugs came out without breaking, some were a little tougher to get out than others though. Did plug wires too (they were rusty inside), cap, rotor, fuel filter, oil change and filter, transmission filter and fluid change, replaced the battery terminals, and put a new air filter on it. When I started it up again, it sat coughing and sputtering for better than 5 minutes before it evened out. Once it evened out, that was the nicest running 2.9 I've heard. Kinda wish I wouldn't have sold that truck...