Lest there be any doubt, the moron was me. I cracked a spark plug while attempting removal, and a ceramic chip fell into the engine. The plug was not stuck *that* badly -- I was not paying attention and tightened instead of loosening. I tried to vacuum it out unsuccessfully, and had to tow the car to a mechanic. There a combination of borescope, pressurized air, and strong vacuum did the trick. The mechanic charged $140 labor, and towing was $125. One detail that surprised me: I thought gaining access to the engine head where the valves are would help me gain access which is not true, but I found a not-small amount of oil in that area. Is this a separate problem ? All is well that ends well, and I don't have to buy a car. The only intelligent thing I did in the whole debacle was to avoid turning on the ICE. Ceramic is hard, and would likely have caused extensive piston chamber if not valve damage.
Are you referring to removal of the engine valve cover? If so, that would not help as you had learned. If it were not possible to remove the debris via the spark plug hole, then a costly alternative would be to remove the cylinder head to expose the pistons and whatever debris had fallen into the combustion chamber. Where did you find this "not-small" quantity of oil? Might it have resulted from spillage when engine oil was added at some point in the past? Perhaps a photo might help.
Yes Pat, after removal of the engine valve cover. Unfortunately I did not take a picture before I reassembled.
You're surprised you found oil under the valve cover? What do you think lubricates the camshaft the cams and the value guides etc. That's all part of the engines pumped lubrication system. Oil is continually pumped up there when the engine is running so of course some also hangs around after the engine is stopped.
heh. There's a bazillion perfectly good used engines in salvage yards for just a few hundred bucks. $1,000 is not too far off having a mechanic install a salvage engine for you. Pretty good mechanic to get that out without pulling the head off.
How many miles on the odometer? As was previously pointed out by uart, there's plenty of engine oil flowing around under the valve cover, because that is what keeps the valvetrain lubricated. So, if that was what prompted your comment, then no worries. While you had the valve cover off, did you notice any oil sludge on the valvetrain? That would be a bad sign, showing that the engine oil had not been changed at sufficiently frequent intervals. When replacing the valve cover, you are supposed to use a new valve cover gasket and also apply sealant at a couple of places where the valve cover meets up with the timing chain cover and the cylinder head. If you did not do that, then you'll probably notice engine oil leaks as you continue to operate the car. Had you previously replaced the PCV valve? If not, it would be good to replace it should you decide to remove the valve cover again. In the future, if you should notice that a spark plug is falling apart as you are removing it, it would be good at that time to immediately use a vacuum to remove loose debris, prior to fully removing the spark plug from the hole. Perhaps that practice would prevent a future episode where you have to obtain professional assistance. Also, it would be good not to tighten the spark plug when you mean to loosen, since the cylinder head is made of aluminum and it is not hard to strip the spark plug hole threads, which would then require professional intervention to repair. Good luck.
Oops. Thanks for the warning, I'll look for leaks. No deposits by the way. Uart: I'm glad I was looking at something expected. I thought to ask because I have seen pictures from others (Patrick Wong comes to mind) where that area looked pretty oil free.
Well you were smart enough to find resolution without doing further damage after an honest and unpredictable event... I'd say against most of the population that makes you near a genius... You realize a lot of people would of fired the engine up, thinking they could use the engine like a blender and simply puree the problem away....
