Spark plug electrode fell into engine and did who knows what

This does not only pertain to 1st generation Tacomas but that's what I've got. I was driving one night and suddenly i heard a loud flicking noise that sounded like if you were to stick a card in the spokes of a bicycle or a fan. This noise persisted for maybe a minute or so, off and on and then gone. Immediately fell a loss of power and rough idle. Check engine light came on right away. Luckily I was nearly home so checked the code and it was 0301 misfire. Removed the coil pack and checked the spark plug.
Upon removal of the spark plug the terminal fell right onto the ground. These plugs have approx 6,000 miles on them, I keep meticulous records so I can provide the life in mileage of them down to the mile but I'm currently at work and of course the truck is at home now). They are NGK BKREKB11

This has me pretty worried about what damage has been done etc. I've contacted NGK already and they've sent a damage claim report to fill out. Anyone have this problem and an outcome? I did read of another user on here that had this similar thing happen with a Denso in their 2nd generation Tacoma I believe but don't think an outcome was ever posted. I love this truck and it's just a tank, very reliable. NO complaints. I reckon the only way to really know what damage was incurred would be to take apart the engine and at the very least use a scope to look around, but I won't be really sure or satisfied unless it's thoroughly checked by a professional. Everything's relative and I know there are countless people out there that have real problems and compared to many this is nothing, but it's still annoying nonetheless. Thanks for any advice.

Oh yeah, it's a 95 Tacoma 3.4 manual

 

You're going to see major damage to the top of the piston and in the combustion chamber of the cyl head

 

THis kind of stuff happens. It may have slightly pitted the piston or valve but most likely it pushed through the motor. Just replace the plugs and drive her till she dies.

 

What @JayRolla said.

Boroscopes that use your phone as the camera are cheap. I'd certainly take a look around. If you see bits still lying there (possible) then work to remove them. If they are not magnetic, some dab of heavy grease on the end of a piece of copper wire might nab it.

Let us know what you find.

 

Pitted pistons and combustion chambers if bad enough will cause spark knock from heat build up that will cause carbon build up

Plus if the piece of debris was big enough can damage the valve face or valve seat , this will cause compression loss

 

True but so does a SC that is installed by TRD.

In the low HP, low compression NA 3.4L you could drill holes in the piston and most likely be okay.

I have ran pitted pistons on 400+whp turbo cars with no major issue.

The repair is going to be very expensive, easier to swap a motor. So if he can just swap the plugs and it drives fine, drive it till it dies.

 

I had a Holley carb bowl vent come loose on my drag race sbc and it destroyed (2) cylinders . Both the cylinders had major combustion chamber damage ,bent valves and destroyed valve seats . The pistons didn't fare well either , both were damaged

This happened in the water box at 5k rpm

 

Being the Devils Advocate, and looking at the plugs insulator, obviously cracked and arcing threw the insulator to ground, is it possible the plug was damaged when installed? or missed entirely when the plugs were changed, look at the rust on the insulator and ware on the side electrodes, looks to me like a lot more than 6000 Mi. of ware. In any event. I am sorry for your loss.
Now you have to weigh the cost of repairs against the value of the truck. good luck would be interested in what happens going forward.

 

This exact thing happened to my old truck. Started it up one day and it sound like there was a marble bouncing around my engine and the whole truck was shaking. Parked it and had it towed to a shop where they found half the spark plug in cylinder 3 had broken off. They took the valve covers off and tried to fish it out of there with no luck. Told them Id take it home and try myself, although I didn't have any luck either. Decided to just throw in a new spark plug and hope the pieces went out through the exhaust. Started it up and after a few misfires it ran as normal. Drove perfectly fine for the next few months before I sold it. They were also NGK plugs with probably 20k miles on them.

 

Borescope it, if valves look fine throw a plug in and drive it.

 

I honestly don't see a tiny piece of ceramic doing much damage like most have said. Obviously get the remaining out if you can, I'd recommend some type of bendable wire/rod with a balled up piece of duct tape on the end. I used this method to extract a similar piece from my spark plug well recently. A tiny piece of anything would have to be traveling at damn near the speed of light to bend a valve. An aluminum head on the other hand might not fair as well. There is likely pitting on the head but realistically it's not going to hinder performance to any measurable degree.

 

From the master himself:



Hopeully your spark plug crumbs got sucked out the exhaust before doing any damage like the chunk of valve did in this video.

This is the closest I found to his since his videos usually sell out Amazon when he links a product.

DBPOWER (2-in-1) 2Million Pixels 5Meter USB Waterproof HD 6LED Borescope Endoscope Inspection Tube Camera with USB Adpater for Android Device with OTG Function

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00J...=9YBMRJF6FFJVAEZJ68MP&dpPl=1&dpID=61H9Qbl-MVL

 

thanks man. Well what was in there before were single tipped plugs of a different brand and they were dirrrrrrrrrty and worn! (I bought this truck a little over a year ago so I've been doing routine maintenance on it here and there when needed) and I started on the coil pack side first so cylinder #1 was the first one i changed. It's actually not cracked, although I took another look at the picture I posted and I can see how it does look like a crack. It's just black residue.
This may be a better picture below of the detail.

 

thanks for the link!

 

This happened to a friends 4Runner, we used a ShopVac and it came out, truck is fine now.

 

Well.....Not everyone is so fortunate