Need to remove head without moving pistons?
Hi all. I'll try to make this efficient.
My '96 Cobra suffered the famous blown-out spark-plug problem years ago. A Ford dealer put a helicoil in the hole and as far as I knew, all was well.
A few months ago that cylinder (#6) started misfiring. I replaced the plugs and wires, and noticed that the boot on the #6 wire didn't fit flush against the valve cover the way all the others did. I concluded that the plug wasn't screwing in all the way.
I got a cheap borescope and had a look:
Aside from the fact that this well is a mess, there's that weird metal fragment at the 3:00-4:00 position. I shoved it around with a metal skewer, and found that it's attached to the coil in the hole. I decided (after much advice and research) to remove the coil and re-tap the hole for a Time-Sert. In an 8-inch-deep well, this was going to be a pain. I was able to pry the metal thing and the coil away from the side with a spade bit and grab it with double-jointed pliers:
And, not surprisingly, the coil end and the fragment broke off while I was trying to rotate the coil. Look at this thing:
The ragged end was still grippable with the pliers, but no way was this coil coming out.
After more struggles, that end also broke and looks like it flopped over to the side; but it may be in the cylinder. Even worse, however, is that the wrestling in the well resulted in the pliers pressing the borescope against the wall, shattering the lens. Yep, glass bits and powder rained down into the cylinder:
So now it looks like I have to remove the head. The instructions I see call for rotating the crank to put the pistons in the correct position, but I don't want to move the piston (which appears to be near the top of the cylinder) with glass in there.
Any suggestions?
