Spark plug thread damage

[jimboyss2]

Anyone out there, if your spark plugs have come loose and damaged the thread in the head or you have damaged it yourself, all is not lost!!! cut a long story short, my spark plugs keep coming loose, on day one came loose and ripped out the thread from the head!! Not good, I had it ready stripped down (everything but the head off) to take it to a garage to get it re-threaded when a college of mine told me you could re-thread it in the car without removing anything. I took his spark plug insert tool and it worked a treat..... ticks over loverly again. Bit scary doing it though... any questions or advice on the subject dont hesitate to ask!

[Graham]

Tell us more, what sort of tool is it, and how is it done without getting metal fragments in the bore. Mine are ok, no problems but info like this is always usefull to know.

[mcandmar]

Was it a heli coil used to replace the threads? How did you manage to do that without taking the head off?

[jimboyss2]

Its called a spark plug insert tool, It taps out where the spark plug normally goes to a bigger size. then using some thread lock you screw the insert into the oversized hole which is now the correct size again for the plug. I coted the spark plug insert tool (Basically a tap) with vasaline so most of the metal cuttings stuck to it.. only a few small bits fell inside so i used a hoover with a homemade attachment on the end so it fits down in the cylinder to hoover it out... Im sure there were bits in there i didnt get but it ticks over loverly again, untill the next problem!

[jimboyss2]

Oh yeah, make sure you turn the engine over so the piston is down and out of the way.

[pixsaudisex2]

well i got home last night engine making tappet noises from hell dont get me wrong every vw ive ever owned ive brought brand new tappets all 8 of them but thinking about paying for the 20 totally of putting so ive always left them// but last night i was like either a tappet was totally gone west or blocked up so do i put an engine flush through it hope it cleans out the tappet ( although im totally against engine flushing) but desprate times mean desprate mesaures right.. so up came the bonnet and i started to listen to the noise horrible hum i thought is it a cracked manifold then i thought if i didnt know better id say it was coming from inside the head so took of the spark plug cover put in my socket and well the plugs were all so so lose did them up and hey bingo noise had gone so just thought id say dont ever forget to check your plugs