Marc Zeitlin
Exalted Grand Poobah
Folks:
Once again, tapping into the hive mind of folks that know Lycoming engines.
I've got a Velocity with an IO-360 200 HP engine that's got two LSE Plasma II ignitions that were installed approximately 30 years ago. Apparently, at least SOME of the spark plug adapters are the original steel ones that LSE made back in the old days.
And a few of them have decided that they're not interested in coming out of the spark plug holes, but would rather commit suicide:
which this one has done and which at least one more is going to do if I try to torque it out.
I've tried soaking them in Aero-Kroil (which in the past, has loosened stuff that looked to be welded together) and also tried a square screw extractor, at the suggestion of my engine guy (Juan, at Exodus at KWJF). No joy - all the extractor does is shave off the threads. Juan thought that in order to get these out, we'd have to pull the jugs so that any crap that fell into the cylinder from drilling/whatever could be cleaned out. Removing the jugs on this Velocity requires removing the wings.
If I didn't care about crap falling in the cylinders, I'd drill out the adapter, pull out the helicoil, re-tap and install a new helicoil. But I do care (at least I THINK I do).
I'm trying to minimize the work, time and cost to the customer, to determine if I can remove the adapters in place without destroying the cylinder.
Has anyone done this before, and if so, how? Or if not, do you have any suggestions on how we might go about doing this in the least intrusive manner?
Thanks.
Once again, tapping into the hive mind of folks that know Lycoming engines.
I've got a Velocity with an IO-360 200 HP engine that's got two LSE Plasma II ignitions that were installed approximately 30 years ago. Apparently, at least SOME of the spark plug adapters are the original steel ones that LSE made back in the old days.
And a few of them have decided that they're not interested in coming out of the spark plug holes, but would rather commit suicide:
which this one has done and which at least one more is going to do if I try to torque it out.
I've tried soaking them in Aero-Kroil (which in the past, has loosened stuff that looked to be welded together) and also tried a square screw extractor, at the suggestion of my engine guy (Juan, at Exodus at KWJF). No joy - all the extractor does is shave off the threads. Juan thought that in order to get these out, we'd have to pull the jugs so that any crap that fell into the cylinder from drilling/whatever could be cleaned out. Removing the jugs on this Velocity requires removing the wings.
If I didn't care about crap falling in the cylinders, I'd drill out the adapter, pull out the helicoil, re-tap and install a new helicoil. But I do care (at least I THINK I do).
I'm trying to minimize the work, time and cost to the customer, to determine if I can remove the adapters in place without destroying the cylinder.
Has anyone done this before, and if so, how? Or if not, do you have any suggestions on how we might go about doing this in the least intrusive manner?
Thanks.
