Neon spark plug thread repair help
Long story short, Mrs. JOS51700 called me this morning from the side of the highway. Turns out the Neon spit out the #2 spark plug. I've always torqued these with a torque wrench; they're 14mmx1.25 gasketed plugs. When I pulled the rest, #3 was loose, and the thread-adapter caps on the center posts were loose (stuck in the boot) on 3 of the 4.
I'm looking at in-car thread repair options and hoping some of our more experienced members can offer some insight. I've found the following kit at O'reilly's. It cuts out ALL of the old threads, and then some.
My issue with it is that it majorly oversizes the hole for the new steel insert. On this head, that spark plug hole is very close to the intake valve seat as it is, and I'm concerned about the intake seats losing their press fit. You can see the diameter change in the shank. Dropping a valve on a good bottom end isn't worth it, and if this is possible/likely, I'd rather pull the head and replace it.
I tested the above thread tap on a junker Neon head I had, and it broke head material away near the intake seats:
My options are:
1. Try to find the wire-coil thread repair, so I'm not removing so much material
2. use a shorter insert and cut new threads only far enough to install it (Note the huge taper on the tap that removes material, though). If I did this, I'd have to turn off some threads of the spark plug so I could get it out again, and then...ugh.
3. Replace the head. I'm not opposed to this but that's expensive, and popping the head on Gen 2 Neons is fuuuuucccchhhh.
Machinists of FABO, tell me, what should I do?
Long story short, Mrs. JOS51700 called me this morning from the side of the highway. Turns out the Neon spit out the #2 spark plug. I've always torqued these with a torque wrench; they're 14mmx1.25 gasketed plugs. When I pulled the rest, #3 was loose, and the thread-adapter caps on the center posts were loose (stuck in the boot) on 3 of the 4.
I'm looking at in-car thread repair options and hoping some of our more experienced members can offer some insight. I've found the following kit at O'reilly's. It cuts out ALL of the old threads, and then some.
My issue with it is that it majorly oversizes the hole for the new steel insert. On this head, that spark plug hole is very close to the intake valve seat as it is, and I'm concerned about the intake seats losing their press fit. You can see the diameter change in the shank. Dropping a valve on a good bottom end isn't worth it, and if this is possible/likely, I'd rather pull the head and replace it.
I tested the above thread tap on a junker Neon head I had, and it broke head material away near the intake seats:
My options are:
1. Try to find the wire-coil thread repair, so I'm not removing so much material
2. use a shorter insert and cut new threads only far enough to install it (Note the huge taper on the tap that removes material, though). If I did this, I'd have to turn off some threads of the spark plug so I could get it out again, and then...ugh.
3. Replace the head. I'm not opposed to this but that's expensive, and popping the head on Gen 2 Neons is fuuuuucccchhhh.
Machinists of FABO, tell me, what should I do?