Has this ever happened to anyone...

[NEKO]

I was driving from Allentown to Philadelphia a few weeks ago and all of a sudden I was running on three cylinders. This buggeg me out so I pulled over at this Gas station a few hundred feet ahead of me on Kelly drive. I opened up the hood and the cover for the spark plugs/ignitionwires was off and one of my ignitionwires was out and resting on top of the head. I tried to plug it back in but the spark plug was gone. It was late and I didn't have a flashlight so I parked the car and returned the following morning. Now that I had light to see I got some new spark plugs and tried to screw one in with the hole in the head was stripped. I had to use a helacoil to fix the problem. It's been working fine but I now I'm paranoid its going to happen again. I looked into a new cylinder hear but that runs about $1900.00 and I can't afford that. I would like to take the head off and take it to a machinist to re-thread the hole.

Has this ever happened to anyone? Any suggestions?

[NEKO]

Does anyone know where I can get a used complete cylinder head?
I really feel uncomfortable driving my car with this problem. Though I have to fix the clutch too. But thats much easier and cheaper.

[RAiMA]

Try searching for another head at the wreckers.

Good luck

[NEKO]

Say that I found a used/rebuilt cylinder head for my car would I have to replace the valves, valve springs and the camshaft?

If I can find a used one I was thinking anout having it ported and polished before replacing the original one.

[e30fiend]

Whoa, wtf? You're saying the the spark plug was ripped out of its socket? That sounds mighty suspicious. To answer your question generally speaking you can replace identical heads without having to replace anything else. Well, except the head gasket obviously. If you pick up a used one get it checked out before you install. But yeah, you definitely need to figure out what happened in the first place.

*shrug* just my $.02.

[NEKO]

I called Bavarian Engine Exchange yesterday to see about a rebuilt head. They have a Performance Cylinder Head kit, the head is ported and hand polished with performance camshaft for 2240.00. It adds 20% more horse power, that's pretty sweet. Thats not bad considering Bavarian Autosports wants 1900.00 just for a new head and nothing is included. I wish I could afford that rite now.

[tborr2]

hmmm.... in like a month my M42 engine will be ripped out of my car to make room for the m50. I was gonna sell the whole engine with all the accessories for like $400. if your interested let me know. it has about 180k miles on it but, if your gonna rebuild it and get the head done that should be no problem. it still runs perfect.
but yeah just let me know. I was going to sell it to a guy on bimmerforums but he hasnt answered my pm's

Greg

[NEKO]

I don't think the head from an m42 would fit on my m44. Would it? My engine has 135,000 miles on it.

[TiPerformance]

No a M42 head will not fit a M44, unless you want to do some custom modifications.

[GDB]

The helicoil should hold just fine. I had a person come in the other day, and the same thing happened to their S10. It probably happened the last time your plugs were changed. Some one probably overtorqued the plug and stripped the threads, then the plug backed out over time.

[NEKO]

The upsetting thing about the spark plug thing is that my dad changed my spark plugs for me. I haven't placed the blame on him but in the back of my mind I think he might be partly at fault. Though the previous owner of the car might have had the plugs replaced and the problem could have started there.

The fix wasn't actually a helacoil it was a threaded sleeve that goes over the spark plug then you screw the spark plug back into the stripped hole after you use the thread expander tool to rethread the hole. Im not sure how permanent this is.

[maurolin]

re tap the Head./

[GDB]

Originally Posted by maurolin

re tap the Head./

you can't retap stripped threads, you have to use a helacoil.