cleaning out the spark plug holes?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 1:22 PM -0700 8/21/00, John Larson wrote:
>Years of P car wrenching have led me to conclude that a good soaking
>with a quality penetrating oil (Kroil, Blast Off, PB Blaster, etc.), and
>getting the engine good and hot before attempting to remove the plug
>work about as well as can be expected. I'm sure there are good products
>like those I listed in the UK as well. You should plan on reconditioning
>the plug hole, either with a cleanout tap (or thread chaser) or an
>insert like a helicoil or timesert. WD 40 and liquid wrench are probably
>a waste of time. Good luck, John

Actually, this begs the question...I had to clean out oil that had 
accumulated in the plug holes on my 200q20v.  The spark plug holes on 
the 200q20v, for those that don't know, are dead center of the head, 
buried several inches in*; none of the on-side-side business as in 
the 10v :-)  I easily cleaned out the stuff outside the engine+plug; 
sprayed some engine degreaser in the hole, waited a minute or two, 
scrubbed around inside with one of those CVS-kiddie-type 
paintbrushes, washed out with water, then blew out each hole with 
compressed air, all with the plugs still in place.  Worked great, no 
more oil, and I'll be able to see any new oil if it gathers.

Now, my problem is..I know there is oil in the threads, and probably 
a lot of other crap in there too.  It makes getting the plugs out, 
despite the anti-seize, well, interesting(particularly since the 
anti-seize seems to get partially blown out over the course of the 
life of the plugs, much to my annoyance.)

How the #$@! do you get all that crap out?  I'd love nothing more 
than to clean out the threads completely and put fresh anti-seize on 
them, but I can't see any way that doesn't involve getting that crap 
into the cylinders.

Is one possible way to use the top-cylinder cleaner/decarbonizer that 
you can buy at various american car dealer parts counters, and just 
scrub the threads with a toothbrush as you spray the foamy cleaner 
in?  My only concern is scratching the cylinder walls, since the 
cleaner would be rather violently forced out the exhaust(and the plug 
holes) when you turned over the engine to clear the stuff out...


Brett

*Always fun to show off my audi-supplied tire wrench at 
t-belt-a-thons.  The straight handle is the only thing that will get 
down in there.  It's even got a rubber bushing to hold the plug.  The 
10v guys are totally blown away: "Your tire iron is how you get the 
plugs out?" :-)
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Brett Dikeman				Systems Engineer
CFN(formerly iClick, Inc)			914-872-8043
120 Bloomingdale Rd.			914-872-8100(fax)
White Plains, NY 10605			http://www.iclick.com
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