Swarley

I bought a used 2007 BB S2000 with 33k and I wanted to get the general maintenance done for my peace of mind. Well my peace of mind got a nice scare today...

I had no trouble with 3 of the spark plugs they all came out quite easily and I replaced them and torqued them down to 20 ft lbs. When I tried getting the 4th out (the spark plug closest to the front bumper) it was quite tight, eventually with some liquid wrench it came out. However...

It looked like this


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When trying to put in the new plug it will not go more than a few turns before requiring me to use more than just figure tight force. I am assuming this is all because someone in the cars history cross threaded the spark plug and messed up the threads. What I am looking for is some guidance one where to go from here. I am military overseas in Germany so some of my options are somewhat limited but I would quite appreciate some help, thank you.

I found a thread here with Billman saying the following...

"None of the above.

Get a spark plug thread chaser, and re-thread it. cross threads are not stripped threds, meaning missing metal.

A thread chaser IS NOT A TAP. it is made to re-distrubute botched threads, not cut new ones.

If the car were here id do it in ten minutes. Its not hard. Get the proper tool, and be straight with it."

Would this be my best bet at fixing this problem?

RacerXI

1. Chase it
2. Helicoil
3. Timesert

I'd start in that order. I do not doubt the Billman. Good luck

dwight

I agree.

In addition, the spark plug closest to the front of the car should probably be called plug #1 because that's cylinder #1. They start the numbering at the cylinder closest to the crank pulley.

Good luck with your repair.

BBV S2K

that happened to me... but mines was worst... #1 & 2 and had to remove the head and take it to a machine shop....

Swarley

Any recommendations for what tool to use?

Looking on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-20200-Th...ref=pd_cp_hi_1 But theres also more expensive versions such as http://www.amazon.com/KD-Tools-Inter.../dp/B000J4K01G

dwight

I imagine that the back tap would be the better tool. Your bad threads are at the top, so you want to insert the tap all the way and then expand the tool and cut as you go upwards so the tap is held in place by good threads while it's fixing the damaged ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT9bbil4wuY