I posted earlier about finding an exhaust manifold, thinking I had cracked mine. Welp...I should be so lucky. It's not the manifold...the car broke a spark plug. Now the fun part of trying to extract the stupid thing. Of course it's on the side of the engine closest to the firewall. Access to it isn't optimal. The shop that has the car doesn't work on Fieros a lot. Any tips I can give them on accessing the rear plugs? Hoping the broken one can be pulled out without crumbling or boogering the thread and needing a helicoil.
The search function will turn up plenty of threads where a broken spark plug needed to be extracted.
When I had to deal with replacing the exhaust manifold (and drilling out broken manifold bolts) on the forward side of my 2.8, I removed the two rear cradle bolts and tipped the cradle down. This gave me a lot more room up front in which to work. This may not be necessary for your task. It's even possible that the broken plug can be accessed from below the engine.
Spray the spark plug down heavily in penetrating oil and allow it to soak--preferably in a puddle of penetrating oil in the plug well--for at least a few days.
The style of extractor shown below is proven effective on spark plug shells:
Not from a Fiero, but still applicable.
quote
Originally posted by Patrick:
When I had to deal with replacing the exhaust manifold (and drilling out broken manifold bolts) on the forward side of my 2.8, I removed the two rear cradle bolts and tipped the cradle down. This gave me a lot more room up front in which to work. This may not be necessary for your task. It's even possible that the broken plug can be accessed from below the engine.
This is also very effective for improving access. In addition to the rear cradle bolts, you'll need to disconnect the dogbone brace on top of the engine bay.
[This message has been edited by Will (edited 01-28-2022).]
Oh, yeah, that was fun. The good news was that the plug itself was intact, but the hex was rounded over.
Those Irwin deep extractors paid for themselves with the very first use.
OP: the front plugs are definitely a pain, but depending on how big your arms are, it can go from "okay, this isn't great" to "I can not physically put my arms in this space"
The shop got them out...it just wasn't something I was comfy tackling on my own due to the access issues on the firewall side. They said they got the broken one out with an extractor and it came out easily...thank heavens. The other two they hammered a socket down on top of to get a tight grip on it and they came out fairly easily as well. 6 new plugs later and I'm back on the road. Yes...I also am giving it cap/rotor/wires/air cleaner. Kinda wonder if those darn plugs were original to the car, LOL!
Kinda wonder if those darn plugs were original to the car
With the patina on exterior it would appear that way (if they are original there should be a colored dot on the very top where spark plug wire goes on), however the electrodes are hardly worn, how many miles on the car?
[This message has been edited by Skybax (edited 02-02-2022).]
Glad it all worked out! Backside is not as tight as other things, but not fun doing it blind, particularly from the top. Does this mean you are keeping the car?
------------------ 07 Vette 04 R32 09 CRV 05 Sun Voyager soon hopefully - Fiero GT
