Chaos on the drive - Looks like I spoke too soon DH. PICS!

[SoundillusioN]

Good to see you again Mr

And there were more on their way.  All of them bar the Vectra got my hands dirty, including the Golf which is hidden plus later, a focus.  Packed up an hour ago! 

[VW BUSH]

Love that old 3, cant see if it has another exhaust....

[JC]

Glad I left when I did then 

[Diamond Hell]

Someone appears to have abandoned an Escort estate on your drive.

You should give your local council a call - they can normally get nuisance items like that removed.

[AudiA8Quattro]

Someone appears to have abandoned an Escort estate on your drive.

You should give your local council a call - they can normally get nuisance items like that removed.

 

[SoundillusioN]

Glad I left when I did then 

 

Someone appears to have abandoned an Escort estate on your drive.

You should give your local council a call - they can normally get nuisance items like that removed.

Ah hush now, it's been far from it until yesterday.  Other half's dog wagon for the last 11 years, serves it's purpose well and despite being a rot box it's very reliable.

Love that old 3, cant see if it has another exhaust....

Recently restored E21.  Only one exhaust as it's only an 1800 but it's a lovely looker.

[SoundillusioN]

Some have already seen the fun I was having on FB.

So while I defended the lady of house's daily I was aware of a slight miss-fire. Last night the dog wagon decided it was only going to fire on 3, I take a look and I find this.



Where's the rest of it!?

Rest of spark plug without nut, flush in the hole.... Now what!?



Its getting messy.



On the fly home made tools FTW!  One of my biggest screwdrivers with the handle cut off to reveal the flat spot underneath that the plastic moulds to for the mole grips to grab on to. 



After lot's of swearing it was out, feck you Motorcraft!



Thought it was best to remove the others, seems like the knackered one wasn't alone.    This one still had half the ceramic and electrode in there so couldn't smack a tool in it.  Didn't have a long enough drill bit so had to dig out as much of it as I could.





Needed a different tool, time to ruin part of my bit set.





Also made flat sides the other end for the mole grips.



Fecking monkey metal and icing sugar ceramic.



Last one was a biatch and after an hour I thought it was game over. Look at it!. How lucky was I with that electrode not dropping into the cylinder!



Cleaned up all the mess, replaced with some Germaness.



5 hours later it was back on the road to fight another day.

[Bellend]

Did you copper grease the threads?

Pretty damned lucky I'd say to get even the first one out like that! A lot of the time it's a head off job.

Pretty solid engines though, don't worry about the swarf it'll just bore itself out to 1.7 litre (or 1.9 or whatever engine dependant).

[SoundillusioN]

Did you copper grease the threads?

Pretty damned lucky I'd say to get even the first one out like that! A lot of the time it's a head off job.

Pretty solid engines though, don't worry about the swarf it'll just bore itself out to 1.7 litre (or 1.9 or whatever engine dependant).

Yep, I was prepping myself for a head off job.

No copper grease, never have and probably never will.  Never had a problem like this with plugs I've fitted and I didn't fit the ones I had to remove.  I'm not convinced copper grease is any good long term in a super hot area like this.

I'm pretty sure I did well to prevent any sh*t falling into the cylinders.  Motors not bad, its an early 1600 Zetec.  Only issue its given us before now was a sticking valve which was an easy fix.

[Diamond Hell]

You do realise that other far superior cars are available to purchase easily, surely?