The *&%$#% monkey before me x-threaded one of the spark plugs!!!! I got it out along with shreds of aluminum but what can I do now, if anything? I fear the worse.

 

Dunno hope one of these other guys can help, but I got 2 12A rotor housings in great shape...

 

Boy I'd really hate to have to pull this engine out and rebuild it at this point! That was my long-term plan if you know what I mean. I'm wondering if anyone has ever used a heli-coil type repair kit for the plugs? And can this be done "in place"? TIA

http://www.timesert.com/sprksert.htm

http://www.autopart.com/tools/file/part276.htm

 

Well, I'm ASSUMING that even if you could do the new thread type thing in place, I would be worried about the metal shards that would be falling into my engine on the other side of the hole...As far as I know, with all the heli-coil type repairs I think you have to drill or file or rethread or something, and with all of those there will be shavings. I would suggest that you hold a magnet or something on the tap when youre using it to try and catch some or at least get them to stick, but the shavings will be alluminum and non-magnetic . Maybe you could coat the tap with some kind of adhesive to try and get he shavings to stick...otherwise I'd say your SOL.

~T.J.

 

I just had another thought...if the shavings are small enough, they may not matter all that much, they are alluminum and most likely would just be blown out the exhaust...But I dont know. I think you definatly need more opinions...PLus I just remembered this stuff i used on some threads one time, its like JB weld on steroids. Its called "Form-a-Thread" and it's made by loctite. Its a two part ep[oxy you mix together and spread in the hole then you thread in the bolt, screw, sparkplug whatever and wait for it to dry. Then you take out the bolt, screw, sparkplug whatever and, voila! New threads, basically. But even with the epoxy, you still have the excess "goop" coming out the other end into the engine . I used the epoxy on the crankcase of my dirtbike to repair the oil drain plug hole, it worked great, but there was quite a bit of "goop" on the other side (I had the engine disassembled when I did it). Anyway, good luck, again

~T.J.

 

Well, heres another thought for you, if there are already shreds of alluminum in the engine, I say go for it...

~T.J.

 

Depends on how big they are There is no tolerance for anything ot be in the motor but air/fuel, it will screw up the apexs and/or the housings Sorry to say, but if you think theres metal in there then its days will significantly reduced

 

As a second thought, if you havent turned the motor, id stick a vacuum cleaner hose up there and hopefully suck something if anything out If its been turned them youve already grinded them into the apexs and/or rotor housing ....

 

Get a spark plug shaffer, kinda like a tap. They do wonders, believe me! I stripped a flywheel hole once and used a tap in it back and forth, and fixed it! New bolt and away I went!

You may be able to do the same, then put in some anti-siece on the threads! I allways do with spark plugs, exhuast bolts and nuts, anything that gets really hot and may siece.

 

when you go to rethread it or whatever, try putting some grease on the tap first, itll help the tap when its cutting, plus some of the shards might stick to it, then when your done (and before) do like Mike-P-28 said, and use some sort of vaccuum thingy to suck out as many of the shavings as you can. Good luck


~T.J.

 

damn aluminum housings. Thats one thing I always check before buying used motors is if the spark plugs are threaded correctly.
Who is the moron you bought the car from so we can go burn his trailer down?

 

Defenately vacuum the shards out. whatever's left in will be too small and wont matter. Try the tap. If it doesn't work, try the loctite, if it doesn't work ,you needed to rebuild the engine anyhow. Get a porting done.

Always put plugs in by had as far as they will go before getting the socket.

 

Delete this - Double posted.

Damn server too busy messages. I'm sick of having to cut n paste my posts into a text file or keep hitting F5... Crap like this happens.

 

This is gonna take some doing, and here's what I would do...

My idea is to go ahead and tap the thread and then flush out the rotor completely.

Get some kerosene, and a funnel and hose with which to get it into the chamber through the plug hole.

Raise the front and disconnect your exhaust from the engine. Disconnect the coils, and remove all the plugs. Move the rotor so that an apex seal is down under the leading plug hole but you can only feel it there if you stick your pinky down in there. The plug holes are recessed inside the chamber, so you want the apex down passed that recess to form a seal with the housing.

Have a bit of gear oil handy. Dip the tap in gear oil, let it drip off, and then tap, always backing the tap out every quarter turn. This will ensure that the shavings are kept small. And for Gods sake, take yer friggin time! Each time you remove the tap, the gear oil should have made the shaving stick so you can wipe them off.
You'll want to save them in an effort to quantify how much metal you might think has found its way into the chamber.

When you are done, put a catch basin under the plugs, and pour kerosene into the top hole letting it come out the bottom.

That may have taken some metal out, but the apex seal is down lower than the bottom hole, and there's still the issue of the recess where the plugs are located (which is why we left the apex down that far. You wanted to keep the shavings confined to just one rotor face, and not let any of them get by the apex via the plug recess).

Now put the basin under the exhaust. Move the rotor about 1/2 a crank turn, yank the bottom plug, and try to squirt kerosene inside in mannor that will get it to clean out all around the hole. If you're using a short piece of hose with a funnel, you could run a wire hanger through the hose so that you can bend the end in a curve. Just don't let the end of the hanger come out of the hose and scratch the engine.
Go ahead and fill her right up. When you're satisfied you've cleaned out around the plug holes, now you need to worry about the shavings that might be at the bottom of where that apex seal is. Kerosene is probably leaking out the exhaust. Don't worry.
It's time to continue the travel of the rotor so that all the kerosene comes pouring out of the exhaust port. Do this very slowly. Get the apex seal just at the top of that exhaust port so that you can see it still. Flush that port. Move the rotor some more and keep flushing.
Finally, the other seal will show itself, and you should flush aiming particularly at the corners, and let it all pour out. This is all a bit tricky with the engine still in the car, I'm sure.

I really think that's the best you can do. Maybe, if you really wanted to be extra extra sure, you could take off the carb, and run the engine without plugs via short burts from the starter while someone pours gas with a little oil mixed into the manifold. That would probably be not such a bad thing.

Trying to get it started afterwards is your problem! Someone might suggest something other than kerosene. Gas and oil mixed might be best, but that's basically what kerosene is.

...Or you could just say "Fuckit", and take your chances!
Hope someone else comes up with a better, easier solution. I cringe at the thought of cross threading my plugs! So I would like to hear anyone elses ideas, too....
...just in case!

 

somebody archive this thread!

 

Well, thanks to all of your suggestions I am please to announce that the operation was a success!!! My "7" runs better than ever with it's new NGK plugs! WooHoo!!!!!

To repair the cross-threaded munged up spark plug threads I purchased a "Sav-A-Thread" kit by HeliCoil from my local auto supply shop. HeliCoil part number 5334-14. It cost me 36 bucks but I have seen it on-line for about 20. The kit comes with three different length inserts, a piloted tapping tool and an impact expanding driver. The longest insert is the one to use. I also got a hold of some Loctite "red" and a jar of "Nickel anti-seize". My guess is that the spark plug and threads welded themselves to each other. The plugs that were in there were cheap AutoLite's that looked like they belonged in a freak'n lawnmower!

Anyway..... per RotorMotorDriver's suggestion I used grease on the tapping tool to keep the chips from going into the combustion chamber. I wasn't shy, I blobbed tons of it on and it worked great! I also made sure that the rotor was turned to give me the greatest clearance so that the tapping
tool wouldn't cause damage to it. A mirror and flashlight came in real handy to look into the hole and chamber. I'm very fortunate that the
damaged threads were on the leading plug instead of the trailing one. The trailing plug hole steps down to a very small hole at the chamber while the leading plug goes straight through. This "Sav-A'Thread" kit would definitiely NOT work on the trailing plug and quite frankly I'm not sure how trailing plugs could ieven be repaired. So be sure to use "anti-seize"!!! There is one slight modification I made to the kit. As I mentioned above, the kit comes with an inpact driver tool that
"sets" the insert in by expanding it's lip. All you have to do is tap the driver with a hammer to set it. Well, the driver is about 4 inches long which is a bit too long to get a good swing with a hammer. Remember, I did this while the engine was in the car. So I brought the tool down to a local machine shop and had 'em chop it in half. Problem solved!

The operation was quite straight forward. I worked the tap in very slowly and made my cuts incrementaly. I removed the tap often to clean the grease and chips out. I used a caliper to measure the depth of the threads and compared it to the length of the longest thread insert. I made the new threads just a tad deeper than required to make sure the insert would be just below
flush when inserted. When I was done cutting I cleaned the threads and inspected the combustion chamber for chips. I rotated the rotor up until I could see the apex seal, there was no sign of any chips in the chamber. To install the insert I took the compression ring off of a spark plug and threaded the insert onto the plug. I then coated the insert with Loctite and screwed it in. I let it set for a couple of minutes and then backed out the plug. After tapping the insert into place with
my shortened tool I inserted the plugs using the "anti-seize", torqued it down and I let the loctite set for about 3 hours. When I fired it up I let out the biggest freak'n sigh of relieve!

Again, thanks for all your help!

PS- I am now a firm believer in using "anti-seize" on all my plugs!