Last night while throwing in new 60g's I twisted off the third glowplug back on the driver's side. (I'm a dumb a$$, I know.:exactly: )

Now what me do? Does the head have to come off, or can you somehow drill that turd outta there?

Wade,

Either here or on the page someone just had this problem and I remember there were several suggestions. Most involved taking out the injector and seeing if the broken off end was still in the precup, then either using compressed air or a small tool to try to fish it out the injector hole.

But it's not broken off inside the motor. The threads are stuck. My glow plug snapped off just under the hex head nut of the plug. I have that head and the tab you hook the wire to in the garbage. The rest of the plug is still in the block, and it snapped off just about flush with the outside of the block.

I turned that glow plug out less than a full turn and it got hard to turn any more. Then I tried a little too hard to get it to come out further and snapped it off. So there's nothing broken inside the block.

Do you own screw extractors or a backout tool? You could tap the remenents of the GP and back it out like that or pull the head to get it.

I don't know if a screw extractor will work, being that I snapped the glow plug off while trying to loosen it (same direction the screw extractor will try to turn it). I think I'd have to take the steering wheel shaft apart to get a drill in there for the screw extractor pilot hole, but that's still a whole lot easier than pulling the heads.

What would cause a glow plug to sieze in the hole like that in the first place? Is this a case of the famous mushroomed heads or something different? Remember, I barely got one full ccw rotation of the glow plug before it became unmoveable.

They're red hot the whole time the engine's running. If it gets white hot it can fuse with the pre-cup, 9G's are the worst.

Here's what I'm thinking.

Soak the little stub of a glow plug with PB Blaster. Then drill a hole in it for a screw extractor. First turn in a regular screw to try and move the glow plug clockwise a little, to help the pb blaster get into the threads (remember, I got it to turn ccw a little before it snapped off). Then use a screw extractor and hope for the best.

At this point, this seems like my easiest option. And when this doesn't work, I'll have to resign myself to learning how to pull a head off. I suppose the whole intake has to come off too. Jeeze!...it'll cost me $40 in gaskets alone to pull the head, and it'll probably also take me a week to do it since I'll be learning on the fly. Censored :(

Can you tell I'm excited about it?

If the pb blaster method doesn't work, the head pulling is going to have to wait till after fishing season is over (after the end of may) cuz I don't want to be without my boat puller for a week.

Since you only have to remove the oneside, you can just remove the lower intake bolts to the head and loosen the otherside, then the head will slip out from under the intake with it still in place. You have to remove the accessories/brackets at the front, release the fuel lines, vc, rockers/lifters and find an extension for a breaker bar and 17 headbolts later you can remove it, no sweat maybe 2 hours for just to pull the one.
Get a single head gasket for ~$16 ea. at rockauto.com, TTY bolts are ~$25 per side.

Putting it back is the reverse of taking it off, Clean the mating surfaces, place the gasket, head insert TTY and follow the GM pattern. Maybe ~6-8 hours total depending on how many problems you encounter.

When I changed my glow plugs many were swelled(hard to get out) but they worked (11G's) and one had a hole burned in it that one was dead. The burned one had been that way for who know's how long but it always started. You might just want to run with 7 for a while until your ready to pull the head. From my experience if it was tight enough to break the head off in the first place you won't get it out with an extractor. If you drill it to tap it you'll be past "the point of no return" and you will probably be forced to pull the head if you want to get back on the road.

An intelligent person on another forum suggested drilling a 5/16" hole about 1/4" deep into the glow plug remains and using a slightly larger diameter high quality allen wrench tapped into the hole to try and wiggle it loose.

Doing this to try and work some Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster into the threads wouldn't cause me any downtime if it doesn't work, would it?

I would turn it back in 1/2 to 3/4 of what it was turned out before going trying to turn it out, back and fourth many times with lots of lube may get it free with your suggested method.

I would use the allen wrench method but I would saturate a rag with loosening fluid of your choice, (I use Lloyd's MOOVIT) jam rag around glowplug with a screwdriver. Leave overnite, pray to your god... And hopefully the next morning you will be able to work it free. If it does not come out warm up the engine to operating temp and try it. If still no luck try it at various stages of cooldown as the head should stay warmer longer than the glowplug. I ran mine with 6 for about 4 months... till I manage to get them out. Good luck!

Wade, where in the world did you buy a screw extractor set that doesn't have left hand threads? Better than the allen idea, is a tapered square extractor, just tap it in with a hammer and it will come eventually, I've had to do this one before. The inside of the GP is basically hollow, mostly just ceramic inside.

Gee, I wonder if it would still start okay, on seven out of eight glows? Just a wittle bitz of electric tape, and blam baby, forget that stinker till you rebuild her.:joke:

I got the truck put back together last night (hooked the downpipe back up, installed the right wheel well) and fired it up. Runs fine, but starting was definitely was affected by the swap to 60g's and the fact that one glow isn't working.

I think what I'm going to try (after softball starts and I'm not towing my boat all over the place anymore) is to soak it with penetrating oil every day for a week or so, and then drill it and use either an allen wrench or a multispline screw extractor to try and back it out. After drilling I'll let the engine idle to warm up a little, and then I'll shoot the glow plug with an up-side-down can of canned air (used for cleaning key boards, COLD COLD COLD) right before trying to back it out too. Hopefully the temperature differential between the block and the glow will help.

Before beginning to soak it with penetrating oil, I'm going to saw the hex head off of one of the old removed glows and drill it out to make sure this drilling/tapping method is going to work when I start trying it under the hood. If not, I may just have to live with a snapped off glow plug. I think I'll have enough room on the driver's side of the motor for a normal drill if I remove the wheel well and disconnect the steering wheel shaft.

I appreciate everyone's advice and suggestions! Thanks!

When Its hot take an candle (unlit) and hold it to the broken plug the heat will draw the candle wax into the threads. After it has cooled down try loosing it. I doubt you can turn it in to help break it loose because of the glowplugs tapered seat (note turning a bolt clockwise does work to help break it free).

I would pull the injector and stuff a rag in the hole completely blocking the precups opening to the cylinder then drill all the though the plug (can you very very carefully in my best Elmer Fud voice :D ). Then use a shop vac to to clean everything out of the the precup.

When you put the new one. in you used lots of high temp anti-sieze on the threads correct. ;)

Carey