Ok, so I have been driving a 1995 LS Integra for the past few months to get me to and from work.

The car needs help and I don't want to break anything unless I have to. lol

The car is sputtering like crazy and I am 99% certain it is only running on 3 cylinders as I can smell gas and it sounds like a WRX while accelerating. On decel, or if only just the slightest bit of gas is applied it runs fine.

Anyways, I will be checking the distributor cap and rotor first as I just thought of that today while at work.

Now to the problem at hand.... In cylinder 4, there is a seized spark plug. I assume cross threaded since the rachet/extension/tool rubs up against the spark plug tube seal when I did actually get it to turn out 1/4 of a turn. After that 1/4 of a turn, I get nothing, no matter how hard I pull on the ratchet.

Basically, am I stuck with warming up the engine, spraying PB Blaster in there, letting it sit for an hour or so, warming up the engine again and just trying to remove it with a breaker bar + extensions? I assume using an electrical impact gun is not a good choice over the breaker bar with extensions?

Any help/suggestions would great. If I have to just try the above and pray it comes out without a problem, I will wait until the Civic is back since I cannot leave myself stranded.

Thanks everybody for the help in advance.

 

Well, the current problem is fixed so the car is drivable. Turned out to be a spark plug wire failed. Replaced all four and the car is running just like it used to.

Any suggestions on the possibly seized/cross threaded spark plug would be appreciated. Thanks again!

 

A good chance the head will have to come off. If it is cross threaded you will have to drill & heli coil the plug hole in the head. or at the very least run a tap in the hole. If the plugs are deep set you may need to remove the head to see. Either way the plug is going to have & come out easy or hard.

 

I'd turn the plug back in, and if with the new wires it fires all 4 cylinders it's good to go for now. You can deal with it later.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. Yea, I had turned it back in and let it alone for now.

Basically, just making sure that when the times comes, I will have my chips in order knowing that attempting to remove it with a breaker bar is the proper thing to do.

 

Just drive it until you start having trouble with that plug. Hopefully it's a platnium plug, they'll go 100k easy.

Like 90 civic said, when you do need to replace that plug most likely the head will need to come off.

 

dang that stinks...i'm assuming you bought it used? might try asking the previous owner if he knows anything about it. (maybe that's why he sold it)

i just changed my spark plugs and used a boat load of anti seize...maybe too much. what happens if some of the anti seize drips down below the plug?