Broken Spark Plug in head.

I had a look in the search and can't find any threads about broken spark plugs in the head, and i just unscrewed the front plug out of my pointy and only got half of it out!

So basically my weekend will be spent taking the front head off - wooo hoo!!

I've ordered all 3 gaskets and two new plugs, is there anything else i will need when putting it back together? I want to make sure i can get it done as quickly as possible.

Cheers

I have a K3 and had the front head off last summer. Be very careful when removing the front exhaust pipe bolts from the head. One of mine snapped off in the head.

Then an easy out snapped trying to get the broken bolt out. I then had to order some Cobalt drills to drill through the HSS steel of the easy out. Then another easy out snapped despite using loads of WD40 and heat from a blow torch.

Worse still when drilling the second easy out the Cobalt drill snapped. There was no way I could get that out myself, so head came off.

Engineering firm drilled 1mm hole overlapping head material and waste in the bolt hole. Then they centre drilled the waste in the bolt hole being careful not to go to far and damage the thread. Last of all they peeled the remaining waste away leaving the thread intact. They charged me £30 for this.

Bike shop in Chichester let me have 2 new exhaust bolts for nothing.

When I put it back together I coated the bolts in anti-seize paste.

Good luck

Tim

It's far easier to buy a set of left handed drill bits and use them in a reversible drill to remove broken bolts. 9 times out of 10 the heat build up beaks the corrosion and the bolt unwinds up the drill bit. Make sure you centre punch the broken bolt first.

Never ever use easi-outs, they always break.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

It's far easier to buy a set of left handed drill bits and use them in a reversible drill to remove broken bolts. 9 times out of 10 the heat build up beaks the corrosion and the bolt unwinds up the drill bit. Make sure you centre punch the broken bolt first.

Never ever use easi-outs, they always break.

Sounds a good suggestion. Just been surfing about these. Would a LH stub drill be better to use than the normal length? Have you got an economical source for these Lozzo?

Originally Posted by ejohnh

Sounds a good suggestion. Just been surfing about these. Would a LH stub drill be better to use than the normal length? Have you got an economical source for these Lozzo?

The ones on Ebay are ok, that's where my set came from. I've got a few broken bolts out with them. Mine are standard length.

[northwind]

The only problem with this is that any debris from the plug could end up in the combustion chamber when you remove it.

Originally Posted by northwind

The only problem with this is that any debris from the plug could end up in the combustion chamber when you remove it.

Nobody should attempt to drill a spark plug with the cylinder head in situ should they? I definitely wouldn't. Doesn't the ceramic extend right thru the length of the plug? If so then it's more or less a certainty that bits of it will fall into the combustion chamber.

[flymo]

thats a very good point. You may find that the peice comes out before your drill makes it all the way through in which case great. Even then though, dont forget to clean or hoover around the peice before you fully remove it.

Chunks of metal swarf hanging around in the cylinder will do damage for sure.

Failing that you might just have to remove the head anyway, if you plan to do this it will probably be easier to work on it on a bench too, rather than in the bike.

This happened to me on an FZR400, real pain in the ass as it needed a set of gaskets etc.

[northwind]

It can be done... I thought that was what Lozzo was suggesting but reading again, maybe not. The danger is more that the plug loosens faster than expected, in which case it'll come loose fast and drop its shards down the hole. If you're able to loosen it under control and stop before it unthreads, you can then clean out the hole by various means and finally remove the now loose plug afterwards. Or, there's an aero foam product designed to retain small fragments which you can buy, I think Frosts sell it.

But yeah, I'd have the head off myself. It's not all that hard to do on the SV. I suppose I'd probably do the other head at the same time and lose a layer of gasket too to bump the compression, but that's because I'm an idiot

we do this stuff at work its really not that big a a problem provided you do it properly and not rush it. if you dont go crazy the vibration and heat as lozzo said will undo the plug, i have dont this on a couple of things (cheap ass vauxhalls) and it worked