Re: (Praise Audi gods, pox on Bosch) HELP!!! somthing very bad happened to a spark plug

["Fred Munro" <munrof@isys.ca>]

-----Original Message-----
From: jjs3rd@ix.netcom.com <jjs3rd@ix.netcom.com>
To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>
Date: Saturday, April 04, 1998 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: (Praise Audi gods, pox on Bosch) HELP!!! somthing very bad
happened to a spark plug


>Well it all turned out not to be a non disaster.  Put some penetrating oil
on for the afternoon and used a screw extractor.  It came right out.  Dont
think I even need the oil.  On closer examination both plugs were corroded
3/4 of the way around.  No matter how they were unscrewed they would have
parted.  Question is, how can this be.  Anyone else had this happen to a
plug?
<snip>

    Yes, I have had this happen but for a different reason. The engine was a
Chevy 454 in my brothers pick-up. His tune up mechanic had put the plugs in
with an air wrench and I was removing them with a 2' Johnson bar augmented
with a 3' length of pipe ( I figure about 200 lbs.ft or so - good thing they
were cast iron heads!). One of the plugs snapped off in the head but it was
metal failure, not rust. I removed it with an antique screw extractor I had
laying around; I don't know who made it, but they used darn good metal - I
had to repeat the Johnson bar/pipe arrangement on the screw extractor. When
the plug remenant broke loose, I fell out of the engine compartment, the
pipe went one way, and the bar another. Thought I'd broken the extractor,
but it wasn't even twisted.

Fred Munro
'91 200q  248k km