Crossthreaded Glow Plug hole

Lately with the cooler weather my car has been starting and sort of chugging a bit. The GP light was coming on maybe 1-2 seconds so I decided it was time to do some GPs. Let me add that this is my first tdi but I've had several IDIs and the GP are much more accessible Anyhow, I had one with no continuity through it and it was on the flywheel side. The long of the short I put my socket on it and the buggar just spins in the hole. While the other three were removed with nominal pressure. I tried getting a little pry bar underneath while I turned the plug with my socket but it's STUCK, unfortunately now it can be turned by hand and has a little wobble to it. Bummer.

So my car is just about due for it's VR clutch upgrade so I've decided to haul the engine out and do some scheduled maintenance ie: intake cleaning and some seepy gasket replacement.

Here's a couple of questions I'd appreciate someone enlightening me on. Is it easier to drop the subframe out of these passats ('96 Variant) or shall I lift the engine out by it's lonesome? It seems rather tight on the passenger side more so than my previous A3 IIRC. Also, I'm assuming that I can take my head into a machine shop and have them remove the stuck GP and have them weld and cut new threads for my GP? I hope that someone else can vouch for this procedure. One last thing I should be replacing my head studs with new units, correct?

If you've made it this far through my novel- thank you. Any suggestions/incouragement is appreciated.

Cheers.

Rob

I've pulled a few tdi's from b4's and a4's. I always leave the engine and tranny attached and pull them out the top together. I usually pull the axle from the drivers side and also remove the starter. I made an engine balancer for my cherry picker. After lifting the engine a bit I start tilting the tranny side down rather steeply, which helps clear the master cylinder. I put it in the same way, tranny side steeply tilted, drop it in and then level it out. Why remove both ? Just doesnt seem to add a whole lot of time to the procedure and you're going to do a clutch job anyway. Someone else might like to do it another way... let the real mechanics chime in.

I stripped a gp trying to get it out. After removing the head, I was able to use a thin punch and tap it through the piston side and persuade it out, but it was a bear. I saved enough threads to where no machine work was needed. I doubt that area could be welded as it is so deep inside the head. I couldnt find a helicoil kit that size either.

Always replace the head bolts.

#1 Relap the valves for good measure and new stem seals.
#2 Inspect the lifters for any cracking.
#3 One thought on the GP. I heard a while back from my friend at the German repair shop that there is a 12mm Plug that will work in the head.
You have to rethread the hole and make an adapter to attach to the wire up. I dont know any more than that.

Also they make 10x1.0 helicoil kits for motorcycles that might work.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice guys. I was able to get around and work on it again yesterday afternoon. The engine is now sitting on the shop floor.

I'm remaining optimistic about my cylinder head glow plug hole. There's an excellent machine shop here in town that I take the majority of my work too. Hopefully they can rework the area sufficiently. Today I'm going to remove the head and get "into" the engine.

Do you have a digital camera to share your joy?

Sure, but it sure doesn't look like anything different than any other head right now? I got the head off today and I plan on pulling the plug sometime tomorrow. I hope to be able to salvage this <cross fingers> .

Just as a FYI for anyone who was following this thread. I took my head off and had a reputable machine shop look at it. They were actually able to break the GP into two or three pieces and remove it. They then threaded a brand new GP in the undamaged threads!

I've not heard of this happening before and I was certain that the GP was turning "in" the head but man am I happy it turned not to be