Emergency!! Bit of spark plug dropped

identiti66

in to the engine..

Small bit of the ceramic part was chipped off and it dropped down the hole (small.. about 6mm by about 3mm)

Not got any way of retrieving it.

Any ideas?

It's a bit of a crisis chaps.....
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evocarlos

vacuum and a bit of pipe taped in the end then put down the hole and fingers crossed

identiti66

We cranked the engine (not a full cycle, just to raise the piston) and I think the large piece broke.. or there's more than 1 bit..

The wife is currently using a grease tipped drinking straw and has retrieved a couple of bits....

Never had such a freaking 'mare changing a set of plugs!!! They were super-tight too..

evocarlos

sounds like you needed a bigger bar 🙂

identiti66

She used a foot and a half bar.. the one we keep in the car as a wheel brace.

Got more out.. including the big bit.. could be the end of the world (engine) if there's some teeny bits left in there?

evocarlos

na just crank it with the plug out it will blow them out the hole

identiti66

Thanks man...

identiti66

Ok.. we cranked it, a couple of small, really small, bits came out, we fished some more, nowt... cranked it a bit more, had another rummage and look, repeated 2 more times.

Fired it up, ran like a bag of spanners. 'orrible. Then settled down (p'raps half a tub of grease down the bore might be a factor?)..

Took it for a spin and it feels as per normal (well, a tad better imo, it now has 4 sparkly new (GM) plugs and a fresh clean (GM) air filter)

Oil and coolant change in the morning..

Just 1 last question on this matter.. IF something were to go horribly wrong, would it make itself known pretty sharpish?

evocarlos

the fact its running would indicate its ok
if it continued to run like a bag o wank then there may have been more in there

identiti66

Seems it's ok then.. thanks for your input Carl.. greatly appreciated..

Dunno how long these had been in there..

evocarlos

them plugs are platinum tips and ive personally ran them for 55,000-60,000 miles 🙂
there better than the standard gm 10k plugs

identiti66

I change plugs annually anyway - and we only do about 4k miles.. dunno about this engine, never had one before, but in the C25XE, C30NE and C30SE genuine plugs were pretty unbeatable.

Them in the pic looked a bit old but not in terrible condition.. whaddya reckon?

I'll definitely take the experienced advice and consider the platinums again next year.. ta 🙂

evocarlos

here are said plugs vs a new set they were in the car from all most new when i had it 🙂

identiti66

Got some longevity about them then 😉

If these tri-prong GM ones don't work out I know what I'll switch to 🙂

identiti66

So.. it was ok last night, apart from that initial glitch.
Took it on a longer run today and, about 10miles in it sounded like full choke (from when engines had carbs and choke cables) had been applied. Not good.
Had a look, all seemed well, parked up for 5 mins and got going again. Happened once more, shortly after setting off again, and was ok for the remaining 30miles of our trip.

Not sure whether to stress out or not :confused:

identiti66

Seems 'not' is the answer.. it had another 40mile run today with the Wife - she reported all was well, followed by a 40mile round trip with me, didn't miss a beat.

Phew.