I recently got a 1990 Plymouth Laser Turbo and on Saturday I decided to do a compression test. The #1 & #2 cylinder came up with low compression and I added a little oil to find out that it was bad piston rings and the #3 and #4 cylinders were fine.
Well after I was done with the test I was putting the plugs back in. The spark plug for the #2 cylinder didn't seem to want to thread into the head very well. I wasn't sure if the socket was all the way on or not, but I eventually got it to the point where I felt some torque. I finished it off with the torque wrench set at 20ft/lbs and the wrench clicked and I was like ok good it's torqued down now.
Today I took the Laser out for a drive and everything was normal. The drive maybe laster 5-10 minutes and once I was home I left the car idle for about a minute and I shut it down. I then had to start it back up to move cars around. When I started it I heard a loud POP and saw a little bit of white smoke come out from under the hood. I'm not sure if the engine actually started, but as soon as I heard the POP I stopped cranking the engine.
I opened the hood to see the spark plug cover cracked in half. I took it off and made sure all the plug wires were on firmly which they were. So I tried to start the laser again and the engine began to crank and the when the #2 cylinder was on it's compression stroke I heard a loud POP, sounded like a back fire but then my friend yelled stop!. The #2 spark plug had completley blown out of the spark plug well.
I inspeceted the threads of the plug and they looked fine. I even looked down the spark plug well and everything looked normal. So I tried to put the spark plug back in, but it would never thread into the head of the engine. So what's the best way to approach this problem? Will I have to tap new threads into the block? Will I have to remove the head and possible get a brand new one? What should I try? Thanks in advance
