I did a really stupid thing today. I have a 2000 RamVan 1500, with a conversion package. I bought it used last year but haven't driven it much. Today I had to pull the dog house off to check out a part and realized that it had never been pulled off before.Everything was stillglued shut.Rightaway, I knew Iwas headed into trouble. The vehicle has 50,000 miles on it! (This also meansthat the air cleaner I paid for last year didn't get installed - creeps).

Okay, so after pullingglue away and getting to the dog house hardware, I finally got the thing off.I did what I wanted to do, including an air filter, and decided to pull a spark plug to see how bad the situation was. It was past dinner time, and getting dark, so stupidly, I did not warm up the car. Somehow Ithought I could get that puppy out. I had trouble - the terminal tipbroke off, with some insulator ribs. Dumb,dumb, dumb.

I don't know how to proceed to give myself the best chance of success. I still have the hex metal and a large portion of the outside insulator. The terminal actually snapped off. I sprayed a little WD40 on it before I buttoned up (only thing I had and no vehicle to get to the store).

Should I warm the vehicle up before I try to get the rest of the plug out?

If so, do I pull the fuel injector for that cylinder? The only times I have run on 7 cylinderswas in a carbureted vehicle. This is new to me and I want to make sure I can do this.

Should I pull off the spark plug shield, or leave it on hoping it will keep me from breaking off more of this puppy?

If the God's are with me and I get it out, is there a product I can use, or something I can do, to make removing the other 7 less stressful?

Obviously, thisvan was not maintained very well, although I was told differently. I can't imagine having spark plugs in for that many miles. I assumed they had been changed out at 30,000. Live and learn!

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give me.

Take Care, Sharon

 

Spark plugs are supposed to be removed when the engine is cool. When the engine is warm/hot the plugs bind andare even harder to get out. So you can cut yourself some slack, it wasn't your fault.

You biggest concern is making sure you get the porcelain fragments out from around the spark plug hole so they don't fall into the cylinder after you get the rest of the plug out. That stuff is pretty hard and can scratch your cylinder wall, forever costing you valuable compression. Forget the WD-40 because it will never get into the threads, all your doing with it is making a mess and giving your socket a better chance of slipping off the hex. Take a vacuum and duct tape a piece of narrow rubber hose to the end (the best you can) and stick it down by the plug to clean it out. If you have access to compressed air blow out the area as well after the vacuuming. Once you've done that, get a socket back on the hex with a long ratchet and break it free. Put a new plug in and you'll be good to go.

BTW, why do you want to remove the fuel injector?

 

I bought a 2001 this summer and found out that the dog house had never been off it either. Bought new plugs & wires. When I got to the third plug it broke the porcelain and the hex head off. I had to use an easy-out and torches to get the rest of the plug out. I stopped there and am trying to find a way to remove the rest of them safely without having to tear the engine apart.

 

I don't have my breaker bar here. The reason the terminal broke off is because I was 'horsing it' to try and get the spark plug out. It is REALLY in there. I have read several posts over the web that say the same things this one does:
--> Seized Plugs

Thanks for your reply. Take Care, Sharon

 

I have been known to use an impact gun once or twice to remove some stubborn plugs.[sm=yikesomg.gif]Not something for the faint of heart, but if you're careful it does the job.

 

Which brings up my question about warming up the vehicle before trying to unthread the plug. I know that heat expand and cold contracts, but if the problem is a carbon build up on the threads, will warmth help?

 

So, I don't flood that chamber with gas.

 

Using torches is different than running the engine. With torches you can heat the area surrounding the plug, which causes the hole to expand and eases the grip on the plug threads. But if you run the engine, the plug also heats up, and due to the type of metal the plug is made of, it expands more than the surrounding metal resulting in a binding of the threads.

If the issue is carbon build up, what you have to do is break the plug loose, back it out two turns, go back in one turn, then out two, etc. and keep doing that until the plug is out. This is the point where you can start using the WD-40 because it will work into the threads as you're running the plug in and out. The reason you go back in is so that the threads clean out (carbon falls off) and you don't drag/force the carbon into the threads, making them tighter yet.

 

Just unplug the injector and it won't inject any fuel into the cylinder, no need to actually remove it.
FYI, I believe you will get a check engine light with it disconnected.

 

If I do not have the wire on that plug (terminal is broken) and I disconnect the fuel injector for that plug, then will that chamber heat up or will the surrounding chambers heat up and give me the same effect as using a torch? (No torch - most tools in NY)

Thanks and take care, Sharon