HT lead melted over spark plugs

[Murdoc]

Hi,

My other half's punto has suffered from head gasket failure, she drove it for some time with no coolant it seems so I'm pulling the head. Unfortunately the plastic part at the bottom of the HT leads has melted over the plug and when pulling the leads off with great force they have snapped off. The head will be off so I can try and unscrew them from the other side. I think chipping the plastic out will be very difficult so I'm being tempted to try and melt the plastic out or melt the plastic enough to squash a socket over the spark plug.

Does anyone have a good idea to remove the plugs?

Fiat engines are a pain the in the arse to work on. Fiat seem to love 'special tools'.

[andy-xr]

Get a second hand head and recon it, it'll be cheaper and easier

[Murdoc]

This is a bit of a weird engine, it has a 'head extension' that is really a cam carrier. I pulled that which gave me access to the melt bits of plug which I managed to pick out with screw driver.


Now though I have a bigger problem. A head bolt refuses to come out, they have used ribe heads I managed to sheer the bit off and mash the head, it will not budge. I think I'm going to drill the head off then weld a bolt to the remaining shaft once the cylinder head is removed.

[wildoliver]

Once the heads off the bolt will undo easily.

Not taking the P just advice for the future, this is why you loosen bolts then nip them back up again till all are loose because the last bolt is always a pig otherwise.

[Murdoc]

Cheers wildoliver. I did try that after pulling on it like a gorilla with a tooth ache for 10 minutes but I had no more luck. I have a horrible feeling once I get the head off the block will look like a bit of well fried bacon.

[wildoliver]

It might but Fiat engines are tough little sods, I've known Fiats take more hammer than most mainstream "quality" brands without complaint, I'm quite a big Italian fan to be honest, once you reconcile yourself that several unimportant bits will fall off (and they do), that Alfa seem unable to make rear suspensions that last beyond each service and Fiat insist on making cars with interiors that are as mad as a box of frogs they are smashing little cars.

My advice would be get it stripped then appraise the head if it has been seriously hot chances are it needs a skim, at that point seriously consider buying a good used head or even full engine depending how badly she beasted it, the pistons could well have picked up on the bores, or even the block warped. You'll change a punto engine in a day for not a lot of cash or hassle, getting blocks decked/honed etc. Not worth it in this case.

[Murdoc]

I have had a quote of £40 to skim the head at a precision engineering place that we use at work, a little more then most but they are very good. Aparently HGF is common on the 1.2 16v fiat engine which is a shame as they managed to get decent power from a little 1.2.

[andy-xr]

Neighbour has exactly the same problem, Brava 1.2 and it's on it's 3rd h/g now