Broken off spark plug

Hey all, I'm helping this kid do a mini-me swap, and he just got the head on and did the timing belt and everything, and put in the spark plugs. The car wouldn't start, so he decided to pull the plugs and check them. Well, he tries to pull one out and it breaks off just at the top of the threads. Has this ever happened to any of you guys/gals? Is there any good way of getting this out without pulling the head back off and taking it to a machine shop? Any help would be great!

The best thing to do would probably be to just get it removed professionally...or i guess u could try to drill a hole in it and clean out the threads with a tap and die. Either way u would have to remove the head to avoid dropping junk into the cylinders. Whenever u change spark plugs its a good idea to use some anti-seize compound on the threads so u can take them out easily later on.

They do make kits where you can use a tap and die to re-thread spark plug holes. I used one on a 87 prelude I once had, but my plug wouldn't go in due to screwed threads. I think you may have to take off the head to safely get the plug out, you dont want that ceramic and metal crap getting into the engine.

yeah, i figured that it would require popping the head off, but hoped that there would be some miraculous way of getting around it. Anyway, I told the kid to pull the head, and I have a machine shop that is going to EDM the sucka out of there...

thats not that bad, i had the electrode or prong break off during driving(spraying nos) and is inside the cylinder. I have 130 000 miles on my D16A6 and now thinking about swapping it with a B16. I would never ever recomend a dry nos kit to anyone!!

take the head off and unscrew the spark plug form the bottom with pliers or something