Glow plug "tip" didn't come out with the body

[sallystrothers]

Was removing the glow plugs today and got to the one closest to the driver and unscrewed relatively easy, but to my sad surprise only had the threaded body. The element or tip appears to be in the port where it sits, likely swollen. One thought I had was to crank the engine and see if the compression will blow it out. Been looking through other threads, not seeing a good option here.

On a related note, what would I have to do to modify the glow plug circuit to run it off 7 plugs?

 

[sue]

To run seven(7) normal, But!!!
have to obviously plug the hole.

 

[sallystrothers]

To run seven(7) normal, But!!!
have to obviously plug the hole.

Will it over volt on the other 7? I was planning to put the threaded end back in to seal up. I just need to drive it to my backyard.

 

[155mm]

You will need to pull injector and go fishing,

If you change 1, change 8. So it doesnt matter if you over volt the 7

dont thread The broken head in to move, maybe you can blow the broken part out

 

[Milcommoguy]

Not a big deal. Pull injector and go fishing. With injector out of the way, blow compressed air into glow plug port and cover injector port loosely with rag and with any luck will come FLYING out injector port. Have done a few and they will fly. Also it may bounce around in there and may snag it with needle nose / tweezers.

Here a trippy story, When doing a injector / glow plug change... seemed like a good idea to blow out all the cylinders. Some knuckle head left tip pieces in two of the cylinders. Nice work GI joe.

Do it right and sleep at night.

Been there done that, CAMO

 

[dependable]

If you don't get it out, it will disintegrate on top of piston. Then there is often a rap in the engine, this is caused by wrist pin hole in piston being elongated. This can be fixed by replacing piston, and might as well check the rod bearing while you're in there.

 

[MrMikey4026]

Aint that just great! When I was with a GM dealer working on those things, I made an adapter that screwed into the injector hole with an air connector on it and blew shop air into the cylinder. Then I drilled as much of the old glowplug out as I could get out. Sometimes I would remove the air hose from the injector, cap the air fitting and start the engine. Stand back, the remains sometimes came rocketing out. I did not like them much.
Mike

 

[fuzzytoaster]

I literally had this problem yesterday and indeed pulled the injector and pull it out with a forceps. Easy to do but a pain to get into.

 

[sallystrothers]

I literally had this problem yesterday and indeed pulled the injector and pull it out with a forceps. Easy to do but a pain to get into.

I pulled the injector tonight, tomorrow I will try to extract the glow plug tip.

 

[osteo16]

Not a big deal. Pull injector and go fishing. With injector out of the way, blow compressed air into glow plug port and cover injector port loosely with rag and with any luck will come FLYING out injector port. Have done a few and they will fly. Also it may bounce around in there and may snag it with needle nose / tweezers.

Here a trippy story, When doing a injector / glow plug change... seemed like a good idea to blow out all the cylinders. Some knuckle head left tip pieces in two of the cylinders. Nice work GI joe.

Do it right and sleep at night.

Been there done that, CAMO

Thanks Milcomm .. I just wanted to change my new to me glow plugs... Now i wanna pull my injectors to make sure the last lame ass didn't leave the tips in... Way to go

 

[sallystrothers]

I couldn't get the tip out. It is welded in with carbon chunks. I made a jig by drilling out another glow plug with a 3/16" bit and screwed it in, thinking I could drill the tip out without damaging the head. Unfortunately it is really hard to get leverage on a 90 degree drill given the location.

To get the vehicle into my backyard I put the injector back in, left the threaded portion of the glow plug off, hoping the element would blow itself out, and started it up. Weirdly it felt like all cylinders were firing and it was running normal. I'm guessing the tip didn't move. Might have to take it to a shop to get that piece out.

 

[sallystrothers]

For those who have successfully drilled out a glow plug element, what worked best? I'm wondering if a long shank 3/16" end mill might be most effective using the hollowed out glow plug jig I made.

 

[sallystrothers]

Plan A - regular drill bit. After about 3 minutes of actual drilling time I think I got 1/32 deep, not going so well.
Plan B - carbide end mill. Will try this next.
Plan C - diamond hole saw. I'm pretty sure this will eat through the glow plug tip (along with the cylinder head)

 

[fuzzytoaster]

Using a punch and heavy wrench (because flatter and still heavy) didn't do the trick? Cylinder #4 on mine was a SOB to extract as it broke off half way with the special extraction tool. I stuffed the injector hole with shop towels and used a needle nose to get it down in there solid. I had a glow plug collar from a previous failed extraction on #3 and threaded it in as a guide for the punch so you should be ok with that. A few loving taps and it budged. I kept at it unit it pushed against the shop towel loosely and kinda of back against me. I slowly removed the shop towel and used forceps to extract the tip.

That being said...carbide bit would be my suggestion as well. You could also get a bit that can bite into it spin the tip (with lube) force it into the chamber for extraction. If this thing is so expanded it wont be extracted the intended way it may damage threads on the way out. One of mine was warped like a wavy fry and if I had extracted it straight/normally it would have buggered the threads.

 

[frank8003]

Anybody try our special ATF Aceton mix and a carbide left hand drill?

 

[Milcommoguy]

Another tip for tips.

Once you have the threaded portion loose squirt some cutting oil in to find its way around the tip. NEVER put ANY side to side pressure as in wiggle - wobble it out force.

Tip is very thin wall metal tube filled with some ceramic sand and the nichrome heating element. Getting it off to the side and it will snap off... BUT ??

If it is spinning in the hole, I have been successful or lucky with vice grips, rotating slowly while pulling to drawing it (reshape to size of hole / bore) back thru hole (die).

It takes a bit of pull and may require one to pry or leverage against block while keeping perfectly true to bore while turning. Easy as you go... slow and steady taking time.

I have had them split wide open, swollen and have been able to get the little buggers out.

Then again... be prepared to go all the way with plan "B", CAMO

 

[TOBASH]

You will hate my answer:

IF ALL ELSE FAILS...…

Remove the exhaust manifold if you have a turbo.

Remove the valve cover.

Identify the exhaust valve and use a valve pushing device to open it.

Tape a screen to catch to stuff coming out of the exhaust port on the head (if you have a turbo), to make sure you don't miss the pieces coming out.

Blow air into the glow plug hole and look for what comes out.

Borescope at the end to ensure it all came out...If small pieces remain, then wash out with WD40 with a long straw sprayer. Get ALL the fragments!

This process is long and hard and SUCKS.

Best,

T

 

[sallystrothers]

Using a punch and heavy wrench (because flatter and still heavy) didn't do the trick? Cylinder #4 on mine was a SOB to extract as it broke off half way with the special extraction tool. I stuffed the injector hole with shop towels and used a needle nose to get it down in there solid. I had a glow plug collar from a previous failed extraction on #3 and threaded it in as a guide for the punch so you should be ok with that. A few loving taps and it budged. I kept at it unit it pushed against the shop towel loosely and kinda of back against me. I slowly removed the shop towel and used forceps to extract the tip.

That being said...carbide bit would be my suggestion as well. You could also get a bit that can bite into it spin the tip (with lube) force it into the chamber for extraction. If this thing is so expanded it wont be extracted the intended way it may damage threads on the way out. One of mine was warped like a wavy fry and if I had extracted it straight/normally it would have buggered the threads.

I'm afraid to punch it until I get more of it drilled out. Reading other threads, looks like the tip in its whole length won't clear the pre-combustion chamber without breaking it. I'd like to drill out 1/4" before breaking it loose. Here is a picture of the 3/16" jig (top), the 13/64" reamer that is jb-welded (middle).

 

[sallystrothers]

Thought I would give an update, maybe others can learn from my experiences. I got the tip out, the outcome was not ideal but I would say acceptable. Here was the process that did it.

1. Remove injector
2. Put a cotton ball through the injector port into the pre combustion chamber (read this from another thread) to prevent debris from going down to the cylinder
3. Clamp the tip of the stuck glow plug with hemostats through the injector port to make extraction easier when it breaks loose.
4. Remove the element from one of the old glow plugs and drill the threaded body with a 3/16" bit through the middle to make a "jig"
5. Thread the drilled out glow plug body jig into the normal glow plug threads.
5. Put a long-shank 3/16" carbide end mill (mine was so long I had to cut 1/2" off it) into the hole in the jig
6. Connect a compact 90 degree air drill to the bit
7. Begin drilling, try to keep as aligned as possible, I was getting about 1mm drill depth per minute of drilling
8. The element will eventually loosen (in my case was about 5mm of drilled depth), stop immediately when it does
9. Carefully pull out the tip with the hemostats, aren't you glad you clamped the tip ahead of time? I just wiggled it carefully until it aligned with the injector port.
10. Vacuum out the dust from the glow plug port and injector port
11. Remove cotton
12. Install injector and glow plug

Here is a picture of the tools what I used. The only downside of the end mill is it elongated the glow plug port in the head by about 1/64" during the drill process because I couldn't give it perfectly aligned pressure. Hope it doesn't cause any long-term problems.

 

[08hmmwv]

I just took off the injector and used a pair of 45 degree needle noses I had purchased from autozone. they were a bit fat and wide so I grinded the pliers down to make them thinner so I can actually open them up in the injector wide enough to grab the glow plug. it was a bit frustrating but not hard at all..