Today car flooded badly and i needed to pull the plugs to put some oil in there to get compression back up. I go pull the spark plug boots off and my front rotors leading plug looks to be jammed in there at quite an angle, i pulled it out and, yep, some dumb *** got it cross threaded, but didn't stop, just jammed it in until it stopped. So i have no idea wtf to do... i added a picture of whats going on, sorry for the size, i couldn't get it any smaller without wrecking the quality. i also noticed the rust in there... What would be the best course of action for me to take?

 

well that picture turned out horrible...

 

I would tell you to rethread it but....all the small metal peices are going to go into the chamber, and that is bad.

 

There isn't much you can do other than ^, and even then, you might want to replace the housing anyways.

 

Yeh that's the problem... i was gonna try hooking an air hose to the trailing plug hole and try and get some of the crap out. just using the air pressure to keep stuff from getting inside, and use a dental pick or something to get the loose stuff out. The threads in behind seem to still be good, so it seems to be just a matter of cleaning up the outer portion of the threads.
maybe its time to start that turbo swap...

 

As long as it ran okay before, I'd just jam it back in how it was. There's really not much you can do without having the engine apart.

 

If you have a swap planned then i guess its time to do it... I wouldn't rethread it because of the metal pieces that will come out.

 

who the **** does that?
I guess thats the mark of pure stupidity.

 

non-rotary mechanic or the previous owner, im not to sure.

 

yeah, obviously someone who dropped out of school... doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that plug wasnt in their right.

But yeah I agree with everyone here, you're pretty much hosed for that. Now would be the time to do that swap.

Good luck

 

i found a tool that you put in the hole and then tighten and it expands, so im going to try getting it on the good threads and then backing it out while running air in through the top plug hole, in an attempt to blow everything that may come loose out instead of it falling in. I gather i dont really have alot of options here...

 

could always try a heli-coil...

 

Run a tap through it to clean the threads... If that fails. ^^^ Helicoil.

 

I seemed to be able to fix it, torqued up to specs and seems to be sealing. Hooray, looks like the turbo swap is on the backburner for a while now.

 

Just a note... if you ever do run a tap through it, and want to keep the metal chips from going in the engine, coat the tap in vaseline, which will keep most of the chips from going where they shouldn't.

Also works with drill bits.

 

I actually experimented with this. When rebuilding my motor, I took a rotor housing from the disassembled engine which had somewhat messed up spark plug threads. I ran one of those spark plug thread repairer taps all the way into the threaded portion of the spark plug hole until it bottomed out. And honestly, I don't remember threads going into the actual rotor housing at all. I used cutting fluid on the tap but I did not use the vaseline trick mentioned above.

The holes on the inside of the housings are not very big, especially the trailing holes. I think if you could extract the burrs from the the hold you'd be fine.

 

There is nothing "rotary specific" about installing a spark plug.
It's hard to do this sort of damage if the plug is started by hand, so I expect yours was started with a ratchet- or even more heinously, an air ratchet- which tends to mask the crossthread till it's too late.

 

For some reason this story of stupidity reminds me of one time I helped my buddy rebuild his 65 mustang. We had assembled the entire engine and the last piece was going on, the air cleaner, and he drops the wing nut down the carb.

I told him "well, let's take it back apart" and he insisted it was okay to turn the motor over. We argued for a while and finally I threw my hands up and said "I am not helping you rebuild it again dumbass" and let him start it.

It ran of course, but not for long.

That wing nut melted to the top of one of the pistons and ruined an intake valve.

 

^Reminded me of a time when I dropped a nut into the intake runners on my motor. Spent almost an hour fishing it out with a magnet. Never again!

 

yep i used lots of grease on an expanding tap and pulled it out backwards, vacuumed it out real good and started right up. after seeing how little of the spark plug threads where actually contacting the housing I was surprised it hadn't blown out.

 

again, based on my testing with a rotor housing from a disassembled engine, the odds of metal shavings getting inside the housing is pretty low--especially if you use some kind of lubricant on the tap.

 

http://www.amazon.com/KD-Tools-Back-...2218554&sr=8-2

I just discovered these recently also. I thought they were a good idea but have never used one. I am not sure this one is the right size but I am just using it as an example. Which tool did you use? Share that info to help others out.

 

Yep thats the one i used, 14 mm tho, wasnt cheap where i live, 150 bucks regular, discounted for me to 70. but worth it id say.