Spark plug broke and then the Easy Out broke

help a spark plug broke off in cylinder 4 on my 98 Toyota Tacoma 3.4 so I used a easy out but the easy out broke off what would be the best steps to get the easy out out and the threads of the spark plugs out

 

The easiest way?

Close the hood and buy a case of beer.

The cylinder head will likely have to come off at this point.

Man, I feel for you.
But things went from bad to worse.

 

Yea "easy outs" aren't so "easy" when they break off, I've had bad experiences with them so I almost never use them.

I know it's not what you want to hear but likely the head will have to come off, you can't drill those out with normal methods nor weld to them and your likely to cause more damage attempting to get it out with the head in place.

Very rare for a conventional spark plug to break off.

 

Ah, the whole righty loosey strikes again.

 

Your other right

 

Yeah, I actually went back and edited my reply.
I didn't want to give some a bad idea.

There is a good chance the head will be fine.
But you have a REALLY good chance of destroying the head with a drill or weld "attempt".

 

The only way that EZ out is coming out is if you can get it to wiggle loose of the bite it has in the spark plug bushing.
If you have a small diameter brass drift/punch you might be able to gently bang on each corner of the ez out. Let the drift bounce because you are trying to get the ez out to start to shift position and then hopefully start to bounce. A very strong magnet might get it. Or if you can find a very long set of medical hemostats or a very long pair of needle nose pliers.
There is one other tool that may work if you can find one is a "tap extractor".
IF you can get the ez out removed, metal shards will be your next concern. The concern will be cylinder wall scoring by tiny chips getting wedged by the moving piston and the liner, so don't rotate the engine.
Get a stiff walled section of tubing and tape it to a vacuum cleaner hose. Vacuum as much of the chips as possible. Then get some loose weave medical gauze and fasten it to a soft copper wire and try to swab the inside of the cylinder. Repeat until no more chips are seen. Then do it a few more times.
Be patient and then be prayerful that you get all the chips out or that cylinder could be roached.
Keep it dry. Use no oil.
Good luck.

Or pull the head.

 

Oh, I forgot.
An ez out is about as brittle as a tap. They do the job very well but you can not apply any axial load to them or they will snap. Only radial loads are acceptable. And no shock loads. i.e. not smacking it with a hammer.

 

I was wondering, is there any of the easy-out stick out. Or did it break of flush?
If you are super luck, you might have just enough sticking out to get a 12 point or inverted tors on what is sticking out and back the easy-out out. Remember, to back the easy-out out, you’ll be going clockwise, or what is normally tightening.

Chances are, it broke off flush or down in the plug.
But maybe, just maybe, you got lucky?

 

Pull the head, bring it to a machine shop, have them cut it out and surface the heads

I had to do it on a shitty ford 1.6, he couldn’t get it out either, cut it out and put in a helicoil

 

That is a shame sorry for your luck. I had a 97 f250 heavy half 5.4l I always did the pucker when I had to change the plugs on that motor. Does not seem like an easy way out on this one.

 

I'm curious why the spark plug broke. Can you share the details about what led up to this unfortunate event?

 

Hey …Applying anti-seize will do wonders … for the next time !!!

 

You can try to shatter the EZ out chunk, they are so hard they are brittle, you don't have much to lose.

 

Probably overtightened with no oil or anti seize on the threads.

 

Is that the one that was famous for the spark plug pucker moment? I had a friend that got a really nice truck from that issue.

 

Yeah, the heads had 2 different metals the aluminum heads and a steel insert. I think some were known to just blow out going down the road.

 

I think if you had an auto punch you could use it to shatter the easy out. Still have the plug stuck issue though.

 

Great idea to break it up. Then maybe a shop vac with a small tube duct taped on the end to suck out the lil bits. Could work. I would certainly try it.