I was working on my 94 Civic and decided to pull the plugs for replacement (they're way overdue). No problem getting them out except for the plug in cylinder #1...it was torqued in TIGHT. It broke loose, though and when I inspected it the first couple of turns of the threads were worn down. The threads in the block appear crossthreaded too, since neither the original spark plug or a spark plug from another cylinder would go in very far. The engine was cold when I tried all this.

I had the head gasket replaced not too long ago by a local shop (they're pretty good; all kinds of rave reviews, and I haven't had any problems with them at all up to this point). I'm wondering if they overtorqued the plug in cylinder #1, or if they damaged the threads at some point and bore down on the plug to get it to go in anyway.

Options? I know that the cylinder head will probably have to be pulled so that a helicoil insert can be put in the block for that plug. Is it unreasonable to assume that they should bear the entire cost for this procedure? Anyone else ever run into a situation like this?

 

Have you tried running a rethreading tap through it? If it's not torn up too bad, that might work.

 

They will deny it. I don't know if you have to pull the whole head for the helicoil, just make sure that anything that drops into the cylinder gets vacumed out.

 

Just get a plug retapper and put a thin coating of grease on the taps threads to catch any metal shavings that come off. It'll probably be ok, I crossthreaded plugs on my 86 prelude si and just retapped the threads and they were ok.

 

my boy just ended up buying a new head when that happned.....haveing it done right isent worth it for the cost