stripped spark plug threads!

[XGamesJ6]

ok i have a 1993 olds cutlass supreme, with the 3.1L engine, and i changed the spark plugs, but i stripped one of the threads, i found a kit that you can use to tap new threads and put a sleve in for the spark plug to fit and seal, but the thing im afraid of is all the metal shavings making their way down into the engine, any ideas on how to keep them out, without taking off the head?

[leeshannon]

Its a long shot, but if you get a smal rare earth magnet that will fit in the hole.Go ahead and tap the hole.When you're done wrap a light wire around magnet so it wont get stuck,drop it in and it should pick up alot of the shavings.If you could find a magnet with a hole in it, that would allow you to use a stiff wire to give you more control.That magnet is going to want to stick to everything ya know.Get out as much as you can that way.Take an air hose and shoot low to moderate pressure into the hole,cover your eyes though.And last but not least get a plastic squeeze bottle with a small tip,kind of like you would cut in the top of your gasket maker tip,(follow me)?Get a piece of clear hose that will fit over and snug up to you're plastic tip.The relief hose on you fuel pressure gage checker might work,just cut about a foot off of that or go buy a piece.Snug it up good and tight to the tip of your squeeze bottle.Pour oil or gas into the chamber enough to cover the piston head good.Squeeze the bottle to get as much air out as possible,stick the clear tube into the cylinder head(try to get to where gravity would send the metal to first) then release the squeeze bottle.It will act like a vacuum and pull the oil or gas out with the remainig metal shavings.Keep doing this until you are comfy that you got all the metal out.Also if you had a small electric pump you could get alot better results.Just keep bending that hose around in there to get in all the cracks.Past that......Take the head off.lol.Good luck,thats all I can think of.....Marshall

[XGamesJ6]

i dont think the magnet will work, im pretty sure the heads are aluminum, and i dont think that sticks to magnets, i was thinking about using an air hose and try to blow as much out as possible, and that oil thing i cant see myself doing effectively. what about if i coat my tap in grease, so then as i cut, the shavings stick to the grease...could that work, and then maybe try the air hose one afterwards?

[leeshannon]

Duh....The heads are aluminum lol I knew that. I think the grease would work good.Might take a bit of it though.As you turn the tap its going deeper and the grease wont follow,It will stick on top.But thats what you want.Every couple of turns or so you'll have to clean it off and repeat.But that does sound like you're best bet.Before my injury I was a wood worker and cad operator and we always used "set-up" pieces to make sure complicated pieces would go together.My point is if you could find a thick piece of aluminum set it up on your work table and tap it.Put a piece of clean paper or something under it and see what falls on it as you tap.Of course pre-drill the original hole size first that way you are only tapping what you would be doing on the head itself.Good luck.

[XGamesJ6]

thanks for the advice, thing is this is a cylinder in the back of the engine, something impossible to get to, i was thinking just using a thread chaser that i got, because i dont think i stripped it out, i think i just crossed some of the threads at the beginning, im going to try later in the week when im not working, and try to see if i can clean it up

[maxwedge]

Spin it over with the plug out, you could even let it run a few seconds that should clear the cylinder.

[XGamesJ6]

i was thinkin about doing that, after shooting some air in there to try and blow crud out

[XGamesJ6]

ok so heres the deal, i went through all the plugs, and they were fine, except for two, the last one, and the one with bad threads, i took the one with bad threads out and used a chaser to try and clean it up, new spark plug went in, no problem, nice and tight, and everything is fine, but it still ran bad, checked the last plugged, craked porclein, like a chunk of it came off, replaced it, put everything back, car runs fine now, NO PROBLEM,

thanks a lot to everyone for their help!