Make It Aluminum They Said Pt. 2

 Today was the day to re-thread the spark plug hole on the 2003 Grand Marquis. The procedure is pretty simple. The kit comes with a bore, a tap, and the steel sleeve insert.

It has enough sleeves in the kit to do an entire engine, and believe me that if I ever build one of these for a car I WILL do all eight as part of the build.

Like I said, it's pretty simple. Crank the engine around until the cylinder you're working on is at bottom dead center and both valves are closed. This will keep the aluminum shavings out of the rest of the engine. A  bore-scope comes in handy to check the valves. The kit even includes a hose with a rubber stopper that you can use to test if the cylinder is sealed up. Put air to the hose and if all is good it'll blow the stopper out of the spark plug well.

Without getting into too much of the nitty-gritty of it, this is the result.

The second pic is a side view of the new threads.

Last step is put anti-seize on the plug and screw it into the sleeve. Put JB Weld or other high heat bonding agent on the outside threads of the sleeve and use the spark plug and spark plug wrench to screw it all into place.

Now I have to wait until tomorrow to start the car and see if I actually fixed it.  At least it looks good for now.

I'll give a short post this weekend to let you know if I won or if it's going to the salvage yard.  

Until then, be good, and if you can't be good, be sneaky.

Wayne