Badly stuck glow plug

So the glowplug snapped at the face of the cylinder head upon removal, the one furthest to the drivers side. In my infinite wisdom I thought I'd hammer a socket end bit in there and try turning it but the bit itself snapped, also flush with the head and glowplug and now I'm wondering how do get it out.

Also this engine has overheated (boiled over), about a year ago when I forgot to tighten the reservoir cap and lost a bunch of coolant. Temp needle was all the way over before I noticed - has been running fine since.

Bottom line: do I just swap cylinder heads at next timing interval? Next one is at 510,000km. Its an ALH.

Currently smokes a bit on WOT and idles like a metronome. I believe the previous owner mustve swapped nozzles because its quite peppy.

Chances are any methods you attempt to remove the stuck pieces will just mangle the head even more. You can try drilling down the center of whatever is there, if that is even possible. Extractors, etc. can sometimes get stuff out, but not always.

And even then, if the hole (the threads AND the bore) are not in good order, a new plug will not screw in and/or seat properly, and it will just leak combustion anyway.

I would plan on finding another head. At least you can drive the car this way.

I don't volunteer anyone's time/help, but Wingnut in Oshawa has posted about removing broken glow plug and inserting a timesert (or other type device) into the head for repair, without removing the head. I don't know if he'd be willing to help directly($$$) but may be able to offer you some advise.

The write up he showed basically showed taking the injector out, stuffing a rag in there for the shavings and drilling it out, put an insert and a new plug, cleaning up the shavings and re-assembly. Its by no means straight forward.

you kinda screwed the pooch breaking off a hardened tool in there ... you could just live with the broken plug or remove the head and have a machine shop EDM the tool and broken plug out

The car will start, even in the great white north, on three GP's assuming everything else is in good order.

Leave the broken one be, make sure the rest are working right and that the battery and starter are in good shape, and run the car that way until you are able to replace the head.

Not the end of the world really - just find a good welder. Pull the head off so the welder has the best condition. TIG welder is what needs to be used and it can get both pieces out. Done it on other things like a bolt flush on a chrome cycle rim and brake calipers the bleeder screw. I am not even the best welder but it has saved me and can save the head if done right. TIG doesn't throw sparks and you add metal as you need it to protrude out to grab onto. The heating of it will break things free as they heat/cool. But if this is a needed car -have a spare hear ready just encase.

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One trick I saw another welder use for bolt extraction was to cut a short length of some copper pipe that barely fit inside the threads, and then TIG welded inside that, onto the stub that he wanted to extract.
The copper pipe kept the molten metal (and a little spatter due to contamination) from trying to adhere to the threads in the part that he was working on.

This might not work all that well on our heads, due to the head being aluminum, but it may work. In a worst case scenario, you would already have the head off for a new one to be installed...

Welding is great with snapped off studs and the like, but unfortunately this is not the same situation. The glow plug material is not likely to take weld. Working the plug from the outside is going to bugger it up even more. Personally, I have never gotten an EasyOut to work on a glow plug, however I had taken out a dozen gp's with a snapped off easy out stuck in them!

I do agree with oilhammer and Windex; pick your battles. As long as the car will run the way it is, choose the best time to fight your issue.

We can offer a restored or new cylinder head and take your existing cylinder head as a core exchange. If you prefer, ship the head to us, we can remove the stuck glow plug and recondition your existing cylinder head for return.

For details, feel free to call or email.

Thanks all for replies. The head gasket does not seem to have issues (despite the overheating) and there doesnt seem to be any oil/coolant consumption so if she continues to start in the cold I will likely just keep driving it as you suggest.

A few years ago, I had the same problem where I snapped the Glow Plug. Bought a Helicoil kit from Franco6. Soaked the installed Glow Plug areas with a mixture of Acetone and Auto Trans Fluid. Let the mixture set over night. The next day, I was able to loosen the unbroken Glow Plugs. I left the loose Glow Plugs in place while I worked on the broken Glow Plug. Drilled out the broken Glow Plug. Used a short length of plastic tubing to stick into the Cylinder Head. Attached a Vacuum Cleaner to the other end to suck out the chips. Then used a small Harbor Freight Telescoping Magnet to further clean the small shavings. Installed the Helicoil. Repeated cleaning the Cylinder Head. Installed the new Glow Plugs with a generous coating of Copper Never Seize. Have since put on over 100K miles without any problems.

As long as your not getting blow by and everything seems to be running fine I would just leave it. I've had a GP stuck in my head for about 4 years and last winter the stuck one crapped out, so I only had 3 glow plugs for the better part of last winter. I'm in Alberta and it started fine, just if you have an oil pan heater or whatever use it when it's cold. When it was really cold it took a bit more cranking or pre heating plugs a few times but wasn't actually that bad. For a while I had hard starts and then realized I only had 2 working at one point!

But ya I'd just drive it until it gives you problems, and maybe it never will...

The biggest problem with only having three glow plugs working is that it will throw a code and if you live in an area where they emission-test and demand the MIL light not be on or it's an automatic fail....

I drove my '03 for a couple of years with ONE glow plug working, including multiple trips into areas with sub-zero overnight temperatures, and other than a "wee bit" rolleyes of extra white smoke on a cold start had no trouble at all with the actual vehicle's operation.

If you ran a jumper between the four plugs, better yet at the relay, wouldn't that prevent the code being set?

... Or you could attach a good size 6 ohm resistor to the GP harness on that plug to fool the ECU.

I soldered the two wire system over 8 years ago to each other, been running with three glow plugs ever since. I check the remaining three at each oil change.
I've put over 200,000k miles on it that way, my car has 387,xxx miles on it now.
No CEL from the glow plugs.