the whole point of pulling the plugs was to try and go through the list of elimination to try and find out why i'm having sputtering issues at WOT... so we started with the plugs...
well... me and a buddy went ahead and manned up... we started pulling the plugs today since it was my first day outa the house after being sick all week. We did what everyone said or suggested... Got the engine nice and hot, used some liquid wrench, and even got more leverage on the plugs to "break" them loose...
Well, at first, everything went pretty well on the driver side head... all the plugs came out and didn't seem to look too bad... here's a couple of them, the lightest and darkest out of the 4
so after that, we started pulling the plugs on the passenger side head... well, this is where things started going wrong
just to make the story short, I'll cut to the chase and say #2 and #4 plugs snapped off in my AFR's which is exactly what I was afraid of happening... at that point we didn't even try pulling #6 and #8 out. Figured we would have to pull the head no matter what at this point, and we'd pull them out once we got the head out...
We got the head removed in about 4-5 hours start to finish... good news is, it gave me a chance to look over my internals for the first time, and everything looked great... Since I wasn't the original builder of my engine I was never able to see first hand how a lot of these upgraded internals looked. Let me just say, those AFR springs/retainers are purdy!
sorry, trying to keep my head up about the whole ordeal...
anyways, once we got the Passenger head out, we went ahead and successfully pulled #'s 6 and 8 with no issues... let me just say, all those spark plugs that were in there were TIGHT as fuck!!!
So, tomorrow (well, it's like 1:50am now, so I guess today ) I'm gonna make some calls, see if I can find a machine shop to help get the bases out of my heads, order new parts, and hopefully we'll get a lot done...
without further ado... here's the money shot pics.... for those of you that said the spark plugs couldn't break off in the heads......
well, I beg to differ.....
the top 4 in a row are the driver side plugs... the bottom 2 are of course the passenger side....
I will be taking more pics during the daylight for you guys too... so stay tuned!
3/12/09 - UPDATE:
Here's pics of the spark plug bases broke off in my AFR's with only about 3k miles on them
That sucks man, I have had that happen a couple times with iron heads. Reuse your header gasket, but GM MLS headgaskets are cheap so def replace them. I would run TR6 plugs if your compression ratio has been raised from stock.
the arp head bolts/studs are reuseable. if your heads aren't milled now would be a great time for alittle more scr/dcr with some milling while you're getting then checked out at the machine shop.
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tsp 408,katech heads,244/248 110 +1,fast 90/90,blah,blah,blah.538 rwhp,486 rwtq with cutout open .
11.11 @ 125 1.63 60' with alittle less hp.
Soul, your plugs look like they are in pretty good shape externally - rusted shell is typically what snaps them off.
It's too late now, but I'm certain your problem is a combination of:
1) no thread lubrication on initial install.
2) overtorqued.
3) removing them from a hot engine. Never remove plugs out of a hot aluminum cylinder head. As the heads heat up, they expand making the spark plug hole SMALLER.
Hey Steven.... John from austin with the C5 Z06 told me to tell you wazzzuuupppp! He's sitting right here... said to give him a call "douchebag" he's got the same number...
Soul, your plugs look like they are in pretty good shape externally - rusted shell is typically what snaps them off.
It's too late now, but I'm certain your problem is a combination of:
1) no thread lubrication on initial install.
2) overtorqued.
3) removing them from a hot engine. Never remove plugs out of a hot aluminum cylinder head. As the heads heat up, they expand making the spark plug hole SMALLER.
Hope you get her together o.k.
Yea.... the prior thread, everyone was saying to heat it up and it would help... so who knows, it was a 50/50 shot... it really was irrelavant if I heated it up or not, it barely took any pressure for it to snap making me feel like it was weakened prior to trying to pull them out...
I have never seen that before. The reason the driver side came out without breaking is likely because they are easier to get to and you were applying even pressure, The passenger side was probably seeing pressure at an angle.
that was the side you tried pulling them cold that one day and it just didnt want to go also correct?
no Jeff... the side I tried pulling them out that one day when you were there was my driver side... they ended up coming out fine... they were in there tight as hell, but broke loose without breaking off... the front two passenger side ones are the ones that broke
I have never seen that before. The reason the driver side came out without breaking is likely because they are easier to get to and you were applying even pressure, The passenger side was probably seeing pressure at an angle.
could be... but I honestly doubt it... we made sure to have even pressure at a decent angle. I feel it was a combination of things who knows... at least from now on, i'll be making precautions that this won't happen again...
just a pain in the ass that I gotta go through this time
Soul, your plugs look like they are in pretty good shape externally - rusted shell is typically what snaps them off.
It's too late now, but I'm certain your problem is a combination of:
1) no thread lubrication on initial install.
2) overtorqued. 3) removing them from a hot engine. Never remove plugs out of a hot aluminum cylinder head. As the heads heat up, they expand making the spark plug hole SMALLER.
Hope you get her together o.k.
Thats not even remotely close to true and this goes for all metals. Of course different metals have different expsansion rates, but that does not mean the spark plug hole is going to shrink. Not sure where you got that info from.
Lets see a pic of you head with the spark plug threads in them. When you bring your head into a machine shop tell them you would like 2 more heli-coils installed lol!
^^yea... i was hoping to get some pics during the day today, but had to make a 2 hour drive each way to help a buddy sell his Z06 today. I have school tomorrow in the middle of the day of course, but I'm still gonna try and get pics tomorrow... if not, I'm off Wednesday and will totally get some more pics then... it's at my buddies house, so it's not like I can just go outside and snap a few lol
SPARK PLUGS OUT!!! Well.... Sort of.... ****PICS**** 
which is exactly what I was afraid of happening... at that point we didn't even try pulling #6 and #8 out. Figured we would have to pull the head no matter what at this point, and we'd pull them out once we got the head out...
