Just a heads up!

[Tim S]

If your every in a situation where you only have one car to drive, dont try to fix it. After getting in an accident and totaling my wifes car(not at fault) I figured I give the truck a tune up since it was running rather poorly and were trying to save some money on gas. Well I cleaned the intake, throttle body, maf and Seafoamed the valves. I got to changing the spark plugs, which I've done a bunch of times. I proceed to remove the first plug, no extreme torque or anything and pop, oh good its loose! Wrong! I managed to pop the wrench top of the plug loose and the inner ceramic leaving the thread and electrode in the spark plug hole. I take it to a shop and it'll cost $800-$1200 the trucks only worth, $500. But I'm told that it would have happened even if they tried to remove the plug. I'm now looking for a newer truck since I dont have the time, money or space to fixe it, and I'm now borrowing cars with family members. So, long story short, when your only left with one car for transportation dont mess with it. A lesson learned. Thank you for reading my rant!

 

[Blee1099]

Thats an easy fix. Get a drill bit & screw extractor and use it on the broken plug. Done it a few times most recently on the boss' ATV.

 

[410Fortune]

yeah you need a new shop, you could replace the engine with a rebuild for less than $1200

 

[Tim S]

They tried that and it wont budge. And they're afraid of pieces of metal falling into the cylinder, and its not worth the money to rip into the motor to clean the piston and cylinder. It was pretty neat when I tried to start the engine when it first broke. The ceramic wasnt fully out of the plug, so I put the wire back on and gave it a shot and a nice gas mist shot out from engine bay.

 

[Tim S]

Thats what I thought but the trucks got some many other problems and its in really rough condition, I could only get like $500 for it. So in the end its just not worth it. It got us from point A to B and thats about it.

 

[Lee S.]

Check out this thread:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121569

same problem; sucessfully fixed.

Lee

 

[Tim S]

If I get a chance and a spot to work I'll attempt it. I'm just afraid of getting junk inside the cylinder, metal shavings and such. Would it be a big deal if some got inside? The garage I took it to tried an easy out but no luck. The threads are bonded to one another. Its the front drivers side plug and theres lines and wires and the power steering in the way and even they were having a bit of trouble getting to it. However I dont see how drilling it out would help though its already a hole. Any more and I would damage the threads on the head. Thanks for the suggestions guys I appreciate it.