How hard is it to strip the spark plug hole in a set of stock heads? One of the plugs was giving me a hard time last night and it made a lot of noise when I was breaking it loose and now I can't seem to get the new plug started. I dunno if I am just being impatient or whatever but its pretty hard. Also there was anitseize on the old plug and no apparent signs of any metal shavings or whatnot.

Any input is appreciated. I just wanna get these damn plugs done so I can do the cam swap, if anyone in the albany area wants to help let me know

 

It's easy to cross thread a plug in an aluminum head. You should always start them by hand.

 

Look the threads ver of the old plug and see if any alum came with it.

As shoebox said you should never never start a plug in an aluminum head by force or wrench.

Get a thread chaser and clean up the threads, then put a dab of anti seise on the plugs threads before you put it back in, will make it much easier next time.

 

Ok, well thanks for the input guys, I never said I tried starting it with the ratchet though. I have been trying to start it by hand and I am still having difficulties.

There didn't appear to be any metal shavings at all in the old plug, just antisieze so I am hoping that I didn't strip anything....

Thanks again

 

I cross threaded a plug in my head. Fortunately it was the #1 plug and it was easily remedied by helicoiling it. Its real easy to do and I always start the plugs by hand.

 

Yea this is the #2 cylinder and I haven't cross threaded it yet because I can't get it started. Its just a pain to get to because of my stupid headers. Really really bad design if you ask me, at least my headers are.

 

I had trouble with the same one, even with stock exhaust and because of tha AIR pipe. I ended up having to take the manifold off just so I could see and get to it, then used a thread chaser on it. Worked ok. When I was rebuilding my engine, I put a thread insert in it to permanently repair it.

 

Thanks for the help cause but I finally got it....took me a while but I finally got it to thread.

Now on to the #6 cylinder....would it be easier for me to remove the starter or the dipstick? If I remove the dipstick I may be able to get at it from the top, otherwise I may have to try and get at it from underneath with the starter unbolted.

Thanks again guys