On the road, stripped plug hole calls game over

N

NuMex00

New member
First post and I have to admit I am more of an american motor kinda guy, but I have owned several Japanese cars... problem is I have never needed to do major work on them (not that I am complaining... my old ford pickup needs more maintenance than I care to admit).

So I have had this '00 4runner 5VZ-FE 4wd for 5+ years (has always been in the family) but I have to admit I have never done any real maintenance other than fluids and filters cause it ran so well!

So I am moving from New Mexico to New York, and after 1700 miles pulling a trailer I hear this sudden, but regular, screeching/slapping sound and pull over immediately. Check belts and start the motor again to find out where the noise is coming from. Well one of the coils is wobbling with every fire, so I shut her down and pull the coil off, but the spark plug comes right out with the coil boot. So I have to admit, the first thing I do is get a new coil, boot and plug (on the side of the highway, get whatever you might need and take back what you dont once its fixed), but when I go to thread the new plug in no bite.

I took a look inside with a light and my heart sinks. the aluminum is soft as a baby's bottom. So after getting a new moving van and a tow dolly I am back on the road but wondering about my options.

This is the sole reason I do not trust any mechanic work. I found a regular old autolite there that I am not even sure is for the truck. Regardless, it was probably crossthreaded or over/under torqued and is really my fault for not checking this out for the last 60k.

So I am considering just replacing the heads (they have 230k on em), but does anyone have a suggestion other than a helicoil that could be a simpler/less expensive fix?

Could use some input on this one. this noob appreciates it.
 
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Hello and welcome :)

Can you explain this better? I'm sure some here will know what you are tlaking about but I don't get it. BTW pics help a lot in these type of posts.

Do you mean you completely stripped out the COIL threads and now you are wondering if you need a new head?


So I have to admit, the first thing I do is get a new coil, boot and plug (.....), but when I go to thread the new plug in no bite.

I took a look inside with a light and my heart sinks. the aluminum is soft as a baby's bottom. So after getting a new moving van and a tow dolly I am back on the road but wondering about my options.
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Man that sucks, sorry to hear about your troubles. Seriously, finding a good mechanic is like swimming to Mars.
Just rethread it man, pulling the heads is a big job.
 
Sorry to hear your troubles. Just so you know I've seen some heads locally in my area for around $200-300... not that I need them, I just see em pop up on Craigslist every now and again while searching 4runner parts.
 
To clarify, the threads that hold the spark plug are completely stripped out... I cant post pics right now, cause I am still on the road but I guess I can when we finally get to NY.

Guess I will try the time-sert approach. Ill let yall know how it goes.

I will also post the spark plug number, if I can find it (in my frustration it may have gone... missing)

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else had this happen? I mean, had I just changed them, and I made a mistake I would understand how this could have happened. But I have put some 80k on the motor and who knows how long it had been since the plugs were replace before I bought it. AND it ran perfect the whole time right up until the catastrophic failure... just seems odd it would work just fine, without any reduction in power, right up until the last moment.
 
sucks man, it really sucks cause helicoiling that might not be such a good idea, as you will have to re-thread that hole to allow the helicoil to grab and that means you will probably end up dumping aluminum shavings down in your cylinder -not good you will want to try to get a shop vac on that as you tap the new threads to suck as much of the shavings as you possibly can, up to keep it from going in your motor, other wise you could be looking at a full rebuild cause you have a damaged cylinder or messed up bearings.... but yeah id try the helicoil before id go replacing heads, infact at 230k mi i might rather replace the motor with a lower mileage one before id replace heads, you can pick up motors for $800 on craigslist and when you are paying $2-300 for heads why not just buy a motor, it would probably be the same amount of work to swap the motor as the heads, maybe even less work.

as far as moving back east, dont let the salt eat your runner man, get a fresh coat of pain all over everything under your rig, get some good quality chassis pain, like an epoxy paint and paint all your frame and axles and crossmembers and suspension ect, get a good coat all over it, the salt up/back there they use on the roads will eat your rig alive
 
What did the pulled threads look like on the plug that got spit out? I'm wondering if it was helicoiled previously. If not it most likely was overtorqued. You should change the rest out as well and get rid of those autolite plugs. Whoever changed them before obviously didn't care about what they were doing.

Shouldn't be surprised that it ran fine up until it happened. That's the way it shoud be. Kind of like throwing a rod, one minute everything is together and the next, boom!
 
I've done the time-sert process on a 2000ish mustang cobra (dohc head, and expensive). Worked flawlessly. Incredibly nerve wrecking, but worked fine.
 
Just out of curiosity, has anyone else had this happen? I mean, had I just changed them, and I made a mistake I would understand how this could have happened. But I have put some 80k on the motor and who knows how long it had been since the plugs were replace before I bought it. AND it ran perfect the whole time right up until the catastrophic failure... just seems odd it would work just fine, without any reduction in power, right up until the last moment.
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i have had this happen. I bought my 1998 4runner in december 2011. I had a box full of toyota spark plugs laying around and about 5 weeks after I bought the truck I decided I should replace the plugs. One of the plugs came out with a nasty helicoil glued to the threads and there was a gaping hole left in the head.

My mechanic thought he could time-cert it and get it fixed, but found that the hole was huge and the helicoil that was on the plug was actually a bigger than it should have been.

So it took 10 days and $1900 to replace the passenger side head. A head replacement is a 10 hour job so its gonna cost a lot.

The only thing I was happy about is that it didnt happen in the situation that it happened to you in. Mine also ran totally fine until i removed the spark plugs....
 
A friend of my sons blew a spark plug out of a chevy s10. Rethreaded the whole, put in a bigger plug, truck is still on the road w/over 300K.

Totally different beasts, but I would give it a try.
 
I just had this happen in my 74 Beetle, if you coat the tap in thick grease it should hold most of the shavings on to the tap, then use the time-sert or another type of solid insert.
 
Sounds like somebody cross-threaded it or over tightened it. I always use a torque wrench and tighten to factory specs - too loose can cause the same problem with aluminum heads.

I'd try the timesert. I used helicoil years ago and it worked but I was always afraid to take the plug out, but as long as they last on newer cars, you probably won't have it long enough to change the plugs again (but the next owner might curse you). Replacing the heads is a big job - I spent about 3 days changing head gaskets on my 95. Hopefully the 3rd gen is better engineered and takes less time. If you do have to change the head, I'd do a compression check and if the compression is good on the other side, I'd only change the one head. No need to spend the extra money. But I WOULD pull the plugs from the other head to make sure you don't have a similar problem waiting to happen on that side. If it looks iffy, I'd do both.
 
Ok got to NY (Ithaca) and finally have internet. With moving I havnt had time to look into this too much until today.

I believe I need the time sert 4412E kit (M14x1.25) with the 44129 insert (15mm). Does that sound right for a 5VZ-FE? I want to make sure before buying.

And good lord the tool kit is expensive... but only $3 for the insert ;)
 
Another thing...

Any suggestions on spark plugs? I was gonna throw NGK BKR5E-11 to replace the autolite 3924, but should I go for a higher end spark plug? I know these motors use a weird polarity system for the plugs (I think one side of the motor sends current the normal way and the other three cylinders on the other side run backwards, does that sound right?) so does that warrant the need for iridium or other fancy type plugs? I hope to never do this again so I dont mind spending a little extra.
 
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here is the spark plug it shot out. Looks like the steel plugs threads just ate through the aluminum slowly over time..
 

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