Porcelain in cylinder

G

GRWeldon

6th Gear Poster
Joined
Oct 5, 2023
Messages
535
Location
Alabama
Country flag
Removed this plug yesterday and a piece of porcelain chipped off. I saw it deep inside the plug tube, just about to fall in the hole. My best efforts to retrieve it failed and it fell in.

Any ideas on how to get it out?

I just finished installing a water pump/timing chain on my Taurus 3.5L. I was feeling triumphant and while the plugs were so accessible I figured they needed replacing at 140K miles.

Now I'm not sure what to do. I really don't want to pull the head if there might be another way. I don't even have the timing chain cover on yet. Figured I'd wait to hear from somebody who has had this happen and how they fixed it, or anybody with a good idea before proceeding farther. :-(
 

Attachments

  • 20251029_113009.jpg
    20251029_113009.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 6
Wondering if I should crank it and see if it shoots out? Intake or valve covers are off so it won't start. Supossably this is an interference engine. Might cause some damage, eh?
 
That's a pretty large chuck. Did it break off in one piece?

I would connect a small enough translucent hose to a vacuum cleaner and attempt to suck it out. But I'm not speaking from experience; it's just an idea.

I would not crank it. Very unlikely it would be blown out. If anything, it would be smashed into smaller pieces. Again, just my best guesses.
 
I once had a stubborn injector on an LS engine. After much wiggling and wriggling, the injector finally came out. Unfortunately the end cap came off and fell into the port in the head. Of course the intake valve was wide open and it dropped into the cylinder. It took a few tries, but I was able to get it out with a shop vac (I had the intake off so I had unfettered access to the intake port on the head). If you do that, make sure you clean the vacuum out first so you can check to see if you got it. I was highly dubious that it would work, but it did. 25 minutes with a shop vac was much easier than pulling the head. Of course I had to pull the head later for a complete rebuild, but that is another story.
 
The piece came off in 1 chunk.

Tried the vacuum with a small hose. Not enough suction but its only a 5-gal shop vac.

Also tried a stiff wire with grease on the end but I don't even know if I'm touching the piece.

Not done with the vacuum route yet, but I'm going to harbor freight to get a borescope and a claw retrieval tool. I've been wanting one for years but could never justify it. Now is the time! Woohoo...new tool.

I'll keep y'all posted.
 
If the valve isn't wide open, it might help to turn the engine over a little more to get it at max lift. I was fighting trying to get the injector part to go the wrong way through the intake valve. I also found that moving the vacuum around to vary the amount of vacuum in the cylinder helped to move the part around rather than just applying constant vacuum to the port.
 
Not sure if this is applicable to your situation but anyhow; I dropped something on the "valley" of my bird's engine a while ago. How I got it out was that I rolled some double-sided tape to the sharp end of a (thin, somewhat flexible) metal barbeque stick. The object I wanted to remove attached to the sticky tape pretty well, and with care I was able to squeeze it out.

I had some visual to the unwanted object, which probably made it significantly easier to locate the "removal tool" nearby it.
 
that has to come out. best case, it bends a valve; worst case, it spews jagged fragments all thru the other cylinders, and breaks rings. If you have to remove the head, do it. Cometic mls are the best head gaskets..
If the insulators are breaking, it's running too lean, and knocking.
 
I definitely would get that out before firing the engine up. I had the same thing happen one time, and thought it would just blow out the exhaust and be OK. Well it did blow out the exhaust, after chewing up the combustion chamber, then it sat on the cat, and any time I was off the gas decelerating, it would suck it back in, crush the tip of the new plug, and cause a misfire.

As for how to get it out, I think the claw tool is your best bet. If that doesn’t work, maybe some chewing gum on the end of a long screwdriver. If you make sure both valves are closed with the boroscope, then blowing some compressed air in the cylinder might move it around to hopefully get it right at the center of the piston so you can easily get it with the gum on the screwdriver.
 
I have used 3/8 rubber fuel line taped into the 5 hp shop vac with duct sealing tape. I have had many times to suck the crud out of my engines. One was lower chunk of cop boot on 5.4 in excursion, most others is oily dirt. I would cut a v notch on 2 sides of rubber hose going into plug hole to encourage some velocity of suction once it makes contact. If vacuum doesn't work then the head must come off. Porcelain is almost like diamonds in cylinder meaning any movement is cutting the crap out of whatever it touches.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top