Glow plug snapped off in my hand and I almost cried

I was working on a 2008 F-250 in my buddy's shop outside of Columbus last Thursday. Got the valve cover off and went to pull the glow plug on cylinder 5. It broke off flush with the head without any warning. Spent 3 hours with a extractor kit and a lot of swearing before I gave up and called a machine shop. They charged me $150 to pull it out with a welder. Has anyone else had a glow plug snap on them and found a faster way to deal with it?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel_cooper346d ago

Dude, that SUCKS. I feel your pain. But here's the thing nobody ever talks about - you might have saved yourself that $150 and 3 hours if you had just hit it with a heat gun first. I mean a REAL heat gun, not a hairdryer. Get the area around the glow plug up to like 300 degrees for a few minutes before you even touch it. The thermal expansion breaks the carbon seal that's holding it in. I learned that the hard way after snapping THREE on a 6.0L Powerstroke. Now I always heat the head first and they come out like butter. Also, never use an extractor on a glow plug, just weld a nut onto what's left and back it out. Way less chance of breaking it deeper.

jenny1986d ago

Take that same idea and apply it to almost any stuck bolt or rusted part. So many people go straight to brute force and cringe when something snaps, when a little heat beforehand would have saved the headache. It's usually the cheap fix or the few minutes of patience that make the whole job go smooth.