Any advice on getting spark plugs out of a 1952 flat head that has sat for 42 years? We have soaked them with several kinds of penetrating oil and they won't budge!
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Can you send a pic of 1 spark plug hole or all? Just to see what we are working with. What rust penetrant oil are you using?Comment
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Try some kroil. If that doesn't work use heat.Comment
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Tried PB blaster and Liquid wrench. I will pick some Krol up tomorrowComment
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Love the heat induction tool. Would probably be a good investment as I am sure these won’t be last stuck bolt.Comment
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PB blaster. Put it on and apply more a few days later and repeat this for a week or so.Comment
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Transmission fluid and acetone mixed 50/50
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Heat is your friend.Comment
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Get a small propane torch.Comment
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239 or 255 CI engine?Comment
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Heat itComment
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Your common PB Blaster, WD-40, Liquid Wrench, don't work for crap when it comes to steel pieces that are seized.
Break Free, is so far the best I have ever tried. I have heard Kroil is great, I plan on trying that stuff. LPS 3 work pretty dang good.
My trick for getting stuck bolts out, is to heat them till the bolt is glowing red, if I have that option, then then hammer on them with a decent amount of force, with about a 2 lb. hammer. You want to hit the bolt on the end, like you would be trying to drive it into the hole it's in. What this does, it break up the rust in the threads. I have found this process to work very good many times. With spark plugs you would need to break the porcelain off, so you can hammer on the body of the plug.
Now a bit of a warning on heating and spraying bolts with a oil, if you do so, you are going to harden the bolt, then make it much harder to drill out. I made that mistake multiple times years ago. I never heat bolts, then spray them with a penetrating oil. I realize you are not dealing with a bolt, bit different situation. But just some info, on what not to do.
An old machines shop trick that has worked for years, is to heat a stuck bolt, then put some wax to the bolt, where it threads into the part it is threaded into. The hot pieces melt the wax, making it thin enough to get down into the threads. Old machinists swear by that method. Machine shop supply companies sell wax for this purpose, but I have been told any ordinary candle will work. I know people use those decorative about 1" diameter, tall candles for this purpose.
Knowing a little about flat heads, knowing the spark plug hole is down in a recessed area, I can see that area holding water and dirt, resulting in a lot of rust. An idea you might try, is boric acid, if there is a lot of rust built up around the spark plug on the top of the head. Boric acid is used to eat rust. I used to know a guy who restored Mustangs years ago, he would buy 55 gallon drums of boric acid, then dip parts into the acid over night. The next day, those parts looked brand new, like they were freshly made. What he told me, was any aluminum, brass or copper, will get eaten up completely. Which he liked, he did not even have to remove bushings before putting the parts in the acid, but at the same time, if he needed a part that was made of aluminum and accidently put it in the acid, it was gone. It would eat up old bronze bushings. He said it would make a bronze or copper or silver colored film on the surface of the acid the next day, depending on what was in the parts you put in the acid. It does not eat steel or cast iron, but it eats rust, like a fat kid eats ice cream and then some. I also know the two stroke dirt bike guys and boat shop guys use boric acid to clean melted aluminum pistons out of two stroke engines, when someone does not put two stroke oil in them and it burns up the pistons. They wash the aluminum out of the bores, with boric acid, then hone the cylinders.
Last year, I was trying to find a way of cleaning out a barrel and came across using boric acid. I went looking for some boric acid. and found Home Depot sells it in gallon jugs. If you got a jug of acid, poured it around the spark plug, then let it sit for a few hours, to possibly over night. It should eat up the rust around the spark plug, and the top of the head. Likely the acid would be thin enough it would get down in the threads and eat the rust in the threads.
Good luck.Comment
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