Hey all,
The other day I was driving on the highway and had a major failure. The spark plug in cylinder #2 (3rd cylinder from the driver's side) was ejected from the head and apparently stripped out the threads on the head that fasten the spark plug in place. I had it towed to a shop and they looked at it and are convinced it will require a new head - reason being is there is not enough head material (Alum.) left to rethread for the spark plug, nor is there room to insert a helicoil. Is this truly the case, is the K20A3 engine that tightly toleranced? Is there anything else that can be done before resulting to having to install a new head?

I have not had any maintenance since almost a year ago when I bought the car. There was a engine code throw recently for a fault ELD (electronic load detector).

I didn't receive a repair estimate from the shop yet. What is a ballpark for replacing a head?

I am really surprised by this, I have had good reliability with Honda's. The car was not dogged for the last year I've had the car. This is a seemingly random failure. Thanks in advance for the assistance.

 

This car only has an intake and exhaust. No engine mods.

 

Sorry, but it's not Honda's fault someone overtightened that plug and damaged the threads sometime in the past.

Depending on the valve seat spacing, there may indeed not be enough room to drill and tap for the larger external thread size of the Helicoil or Timesert.

 

ok. Are any other K20A# engine heads interchangeable?

How much would this repair cost? (ballpark)

 

The K20a3 motor is cheap to replace, I'd just buy another longblock from the junkyard and grab the head from it.. That is not a common problem, unless you're talking about the 4.6l Ford motor..