this is bad...... any ideas?

[YpsiBob]

ther is my #2 spark plug, the "nut shaped" part broke off when i tryed taking it out, the other 3 came out really hard but did come out. is ther any way to get this out? am i going to have to take off my head?



ther is the hex part of the plug, its still in the socket.

[25Horseplay]

Wow! I have never seen that happen. I would soak the plug hole in PB blaster, then try to grab it some how and gently unthread it. If it breaks you might be able to break out the rest of the ceramic and use an easy out to remove the rest. I would be worried that stuff may go in the cylinder though.

[YpsiBob]

Wow! I have never seen that happen. I would soak the plug hole in PB blaster, then try to grab it some how and gently unthread it. If it breaks you might be able to break out the rest of the ceramic and use an easy out to remove the rest. I would be worried that stuff may go in the cylinder though.

i soaked the plugs in PB blaster over night, then when i woke up sprayed more in them and let them soak for a few hour hours. and that still happened. i got an aspire that will be scrapped soon and it has about half as many miles as the festiva so ill just swap on the head off it and scrap this head. :cry:


- just talked to my gramps and he said my aunts old festiva did this same thing, his cousin used a torch and an easy out and barely got the plug out.

[25Horseplay]

That's a though one, I have never even heard of that happening to anyone before.

[YpsiBob]

i have decided that for now i am going to replace the other 3 plugs and reuse that one, ill see how it runs.


EDIT: nevermind! the plug its self is broke in half too.

[packrat427]

That sucks , I can't imagine how you felt when that happened ,that sick feeling in the bottom of your gut .
Good luck , I really don't have anykind of a solution either .
You can't hurt it anymore , maybe trying to drill down thru the middle of the plug itself, and try using a big easyout .
Just don't drill all the way the way thru , then you would need to pull the head .

[htchbck]

man, sorry to see that happen to a fellow festy owner. According to my honda buddy that happens a lot to the guys that race, cause the high heat kinda seals it in there and it won't come out. He says the solution is almost always to remove the head. At least you got an extra head lying around though . I have a B3 and a B6 in my driveway... when something breaks, just go pull parts from the other motors :lol:

[mechanicaldj]

there are special exteracting tools for just the problem , but most likely you'll have to remove the head and either tap the threads or Heli-coil it

might as well use YpsiBob's head , it will be a whole lot easier

[mechanicaldj]

although i have seen it happen on #2, itr does happen sometimes usually on #3 and #4 cylinders on all Mazda engines

[slomoe]

I know just how you feel Bob, twice! The #1 & 2 both broke off the 1st time I tuned up my Festiva. I didn't fool with it. Pulled the head and took it to the machine shop. They removed the pieces and installed helicoils. It ain't that big a deal, just a head R&R plus a few bucks for the machine shop. Have fun. Mike

[5.0zone]

WOW that looks bad! Looks like the head will have to come off to get that fixed.

Someone probably didn't use any anti-seize on the threads. A must for aluminum heads.
Other wise the different metals will weld themselves together.

[bsirvine]

When this happened to me I had to remove the head. Might as well change the timing belt while you are at it too.

[miami man]

my #3 spark plug is really stuck so i have not replaced it in 2 years.

[oldgrezmonke]

use anti-seize compound when installing plugs. it happened to me too.

[bsirvine]

Plug #1 sheared off on me. The ceramic part of the plug came out with the hex shaped part of the plug. I could look down the bore hole and see the metal inside of the remaining part of the plug with the side electrode at the bottom. I tried using a large easy out but basically got no where.

I just removed the head and took it to a machine shop. It was a pain and it took me a lot longer to complete this job than it should have.

I don't know how much of a difference this makes, but the plug manufacturers and Ford itself says that the torque values given for tightening are with the nut, bolt, sparkplug DRY. If you are going to use antiseize on any fastener you are gonna have to adjust the torque up above what the manual says. I continue to be surprised to read how little torque is supposed to be used to tighten sparkplugs. For that reason I think the way these sparkplug shear problems happen is because some repair shop didn't use a torque wrench to tighten the plugs and put them in with serious torque. The plugs in a Festiva are supposed to be installed with torque well under 20 ft/lbs.