Need help. Ceramic in cylinder.

[Gutie04]

STORY - I have a 89' 3vze, 9" lift, lockers, 5.29 gears, straight axel swap, the whole shebang. My brother did most of the work on it when I joined the Navy 9 years ago. Well I moved from CA to FL and lets just say the 4x4 community isn't what it was back home, so the Toy has been sitting for almost 2 years with only 1 start when I put fresh oil in last year. I've decided to get it running well and ship it back to my brother in CA. After a new battery and fluids she wouldn't crank, so I did knew distributor cap, wires and plugs,

PROBLEM -
Plug #6 came out just fine, but when I looked, the center tip was broken off. It's a Bosch platinum 2, so a mostly ceramic center with a small platinum wire in it. Broken piece is maybe 5mm x 5mm.

QUESTIONS -
Is there a way to get that piece out without taking the entire engine apart?
Will that piece cause cylinder damage?

thanks guys,

Jesse

 

[SV_Dude]

Put that cylinder to TDC and try to get some needle nose pliers in there.

I would be afraid of that piece scarring up the cylinder walls and causing the piston rings to be damaged.

BTW: I wish everyone posted their issues with your format... Story, Problem and Question... I like it!!

 

[Gutie04]

Good call on TDC I didn't think of that

I'm thinking I'm gonna go buy one of these
House Brand PU17 Pull the hard to reach wires easily and.
Hopefully that will work. Unfortunately with it in cylinder 6, it's a real pain in the arse to see and reach. I wish ceramic and platinum was magnetic.

 

[Clone of the Mean]

How did you manage to do that???

Maybe blow some air into the cylinder, but leave enough room for the debris to come out of the plug hole. Maybe a magnet, but I dunno if the magnet will pick up platinum? Those springy claw grabbers, they're pretty flexible.

Good luck, sounds like a good time!

 

[Clone of the Mean]

Shoulda read your whole post....

 

[v8stang289]

Do you have a shop vac? If so I would try to make a reducer for it to a small hose and put it into the plug hole while that cylinder is at top center, hopefully sucking the piece out. I would make a cone (out of cardboard or something) and use thin walled tubing and tape it together to be airtight.

Several years back I started my 91 22RE pickup and I could hear a loud fast knocking that went away after 2 or 3 seconds. A few weeks later I was changing the plugs and the ceramic was gone on the #4 plug. It apparently went out the exhaust valve as it wasn't in the cylinder anymore. A year or so after that I had the head off to replace valve seals and to do a valve job, and there was no apparent damage to the piston or cylinder wall from that ceramic piece.

Chances are it wont hurt anything but ceramic is pretty hard so I would definitely try to get it out.

Good luck with it.

-Matt