Yesterday after work, my father asked me to do a tune-up on his car, a 1988 Olds Cutlass Supreme with a 2.8L V6. Any mechanics in the bunch will know that the back plugs on this engine are extremely difficult to reach, and nearly impossible to see. The Braille method is about the only way to work on them.
Everything was going fine with the job until we got to the last plug, on the back driver’s side of the motor. It wouldn’t budge. Finally it turned about half a turn, then stopped again. We tried turning it back in a bit, then out again and started making a little progress. Then the worst happened, the plug twisted off in the head. The porcelain and the part that the socket grips came out, but the threaded part of the plug was still in the engine
Tonight I tried a shade tree mechanics’ trick that worked
Using an air hammer because of the tight space (couldn’t even start to swing a normal hammer back there
) I was able to drive a T50 Torx bit into the threaded piece still in the head and turn it out. The car is now running again
And I’m back out of the doghouse
Here’s the offending piece, still attached to the removal tool
BTW - Is 40,000+ miles between tune-ups too long?
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