I promise the tale will be a first...may have just cracked a cylinder

[AlphaMale]

To begin: I am an absolute idiot. I have taken care of pretty much all of my own maintenance of my 2005 1.8t and have had it running strong and incident free for 120k so far. Today may have just been the end of the car.

Changed my vc gasket today with absolutely no incidents or hiccups. Replaced all the one-time clamps around the pcv at the same time. Here's where things start to fall apart (literally). Was changing out my spark plugs and when installing the new plugs I over-tightened number 1 to such an extreme that I literally snapped the spark plug in half with the gapped end still inside the head. At this point I kind of lost my mind and proceeded to make poor decision after poor decision.

With the autoparts store only a few miles away (and my obvious limited knowledge of combustion engines) I put everything back together and actually dropped the broken half of the spark plug i had in hand into the well and installed the coil pack, connected the wiring harness and thought I could limp there on three cylinders (sounded alright in my head).

The second I turned the ignition there was the loudest pop followed by the coilpack literally ejecting from the cylinder followed by plumes and plumes of smoke coming from every direction possible. How screwed am I here? Obviously, I'm looking at damaged threads in spark plug well. In addition to that, what kind of catastrophe did I just create in the engine by firing it up with a busted spark plug (that I knew was broken in the first place).

My flame suit is on. Fire away, but if anyone can either confirm or assuage my greatest fear that would also be appreciated.

[old guy]

If you are lucky and you blew out all the broken spark plug bits you may get by with a simple stripped plug repair. Clicky click®

[userbob0001]

Mostly guessing, but because the coil pack ejected, I'm thinking the arc acted differently without cylinder pressure on it and that was your pop that ejected the coil. Where was the smoke coming from? If you let the smoke out of your coil pack, you'll need a new one.

[old guy]

The pop was the cylinder compression blowing out the coil pack and lose plug components. The smoke was the cylinder vapors (highly explosive gas/air mixture) blowing out.

I had a plug blow out on my 914-6 while I was driving. It broke above the threads and only the threaded portion stayed in the block. It made one hell of a racket. I thought for sure I had blown the engine.

All I had to do to fix it was use an Easy-Out to remove the threads and install a new plug. Hopefully yours will be as simple.

[Gin+]

The pop was the cylinder compression blowing out the coil pack and lose plug components. The smoke was the cylinder vapors (highly explosive gas/air mixture) blowing out.

I had a plug blow out on my 914-6 while I was driving. It broke above the threads and only the threaded portion stayed in the block. It made one hell of a racket. I thought for sure I had blown the engine.

All I had to do to fix it was use an Easy-Out to remove the threads and install a new plug. Hopefully yours will be as simple.

This.

[16vCorey]

Honestly, you probably could limp it to the parts store on three cylinders, but you'd want to remove the coil pack completely and unplug the fuel injector to that cylinder to keep from spaying atomized fuel into the engine compartment. That being said, I highly doubt you damaged much at all. As the piston came up for the compression stroke, the compressed air in the cylinder escaped through the broken spark plug and blew the coil out of the hole. That's all that happened. Get an extractor, remove the broken plug, install new plug, install coil, and you're golden. Well, as long as your coil wiring didn't get damaged when the coil blew out.

[MurkyRivers_A4]

My question is why the hell you would feel the need to put apply so much torque on the spark plug that it snapped.

[userbob0001]

It broke above the threads and only the threaded portion stayed in the block.

As in the insulator blew out of the threads? Sorry if this is obvious, but it's so far out of the realm of my experience that I would never have considered it.

[old guy]

Actually not all that uncommon. As long as Alpha didn't buggar the threads up he should be facing a simple repair.

[Toronto5.5]

Damn dawg. Easy fix though but maybe take it to a mechanic for this one.

[old guy]

Damn dawg. Easy fix though but maybe take it to a mechanic for this one.

If the threads are not damaged removing them with an easy out is really not much different than removing the spark plug.

[AlphaMale]

My question is why the hell you would feel the need to put apply so much torque on the spark plug that it snapped.

I'm still asking myself the same question. Seriously, shame is all I feel. The truth is actually kind of hilarious/pathetic all at once.

Here it is:

The numbers etched on my torque wrench are small and hard to read and when I thought I had it set for 22 lbs. I actually had it set to 122 lbs. I sh*t you not. And just as i started to wonder why the hell my wrench wasn't working...BAM. Snapped it right off.

[diagnosticator]

The specified torque value for the spark plugs is 30 Nm, 22 ft*lbs. A torque wrench should always be used to tighten the plugs. The torque wrench selected should have the required value about mid scale ideally, don't use an oversized torque wrench. A 3/8 drive torque wrench is the right size tool for plugs.

Your calibrated Armstrong torque tool is backup for when something doesn't feel right when tightening fasteners.

[MurkyRivers_A4]

There are also instructions on the spark plug box that do not have words but pictures so it is absolutely idiot proof.

[redline380]

Keep in mind not all spark plugs have the same way of torquing. As shown on that box above, some do not have the washers and will hardly be torqued extra. Others require the washers to be smashed with torque. I've felt a lot of loose plugs on other peoples' cars because they must have thought the plug was tight when in fact they simply seated the washers. They need that extra 1/2 turn to use them as designed.

Hope this works out for OP.

[MurkyRivers_A4]

Keep in mind not all spark plugs have the same way of torquing. As shown on that box above, some do not have the washers and will hardly be torqued extra. Others require the washers to be smashed with torque. I've felt a lot of loose plugs on other peoples' cars because they must have thought the plug was tight when in fact they simply seated the washers. They need that extra 1/2 turn to use them as designed.

Hope this works out for OP.

The picture above shows you both with and without the washer. One is to turn 1/16 of a turn for without washer and the other is 1/2 of a turn with the washer. Im serious when I say they are idiot proof. I guess I should say that all NGK plugs have this. Im not sure on BOSCH but I would assume so.

[diagnosticator]

The picture above shows you both with and without the washer. One is to turn 1/16 of a turn for without washer and the other is 1/2 of a turn with the washer. Im serious when I say they are idiot proof. I guess I should say that all NGK plugs have this. Im not sure on BOSCH but I would assume so.

Bosch has a detailed torque turn method described as well. With new plugs and clean hole threads, tests have shown that the resulting torque applied is correct using the torque turn method.

Using an accurate torque wrench is always the prefered tightening method regardless.

[MurkyRivers_A4]

I couldnt agree more, but if you are using a torque wrench and happen to be going well past the suggest torque turn method, you may want to take a look at your torque wrench.

In this situation, 22 ft lbs take a lot less of a turn than 122 ft lbs.

[egovreau]

The specified torque value for the spark plugs is 30 Nm, 22 ft*lbs. A torque wrench should always be used to tighten the plugs. The torque wrench selected should have the required value about mid scale ideally, don't use an oversized torque wrench. A 3/8 drive torque wrench is the right size tool for plugs.

Your calibrated Armstrong torque tool is backup for when something doesn't feel right when tightening fasteners.

As a mechanic in the Navy, we were told that the torque should fall between 50% and 90% of the range on the wrench. It's been 20 years so I could be wrong on the actual numbers, but you get the idea.

Sent from the 7th Galaxy.