I, too, would believe you were using a clicker type torque wrench.  Nothing against them, as I use them in aviation all the time, but they NEED to be calibrated on the regular.  We do ours every 6-12 months depending on the wrench.  Even when calibrated, clickers are typically only accurate +/- 5%.

Even still, 10 ft-lbs/120 in-lbs is not a lot of torque.  Sorry for your luck.  You should definitely contact the spark plug manufacturer with some detailed pictures and angry words.

Once you get the big pieces out of the whole, you might go fishing with some wax at the end of a straw, pencil, or string.  See if you can pull any more pieces out of your head.  That chunk of electrode insulator looks pretty big, though.  Where are you located? Are there any nearby savage riders that can help?

I am with Raydawg on the vacuum trial first.  The problem with using grease is that you may actually make the cylinder sticky and parts may stick to it as well as the grease coated swab.

I use my shop vac and the plastic top from a paint spray can.  Find a spray can top, or peanut butter jar, or anything that fits over the shop vac hose.  Then cut/drill a small hole in the plastic and insert a piece of rubber hose that will fit in the spark plug hole.  Having the piston at the bottom of the stroke will give you the most room to move the hose around.  A really small tube is the most maneuverable - but may not be able to big up big pieces.....bigger tubes are less flexible but can pick up bigger pieces.  You might try a few different sized to see what you can use best.  The angle of the spark plug may require that you lean the bike over toward the clutch side and vacuum up the pieces from the low spot on that side....you may not be able to reach over to the shifter side very well.

OK....explain to me what you hoped to accomplish by indexing an E3 spark plug?  Indexing on a high performance 8,000 rpm engine with a single electrode might get you a ).0001 second advantage on the drag strip......but on a spark plug with 3 electrodes....what is there to index?

If a 3 electrode spark plug was of any real benefit - they would have been installed in most production cars and bikes.  The factories are spending millions of dollars trying to make engine more efficient....they would have used E3 plugs if they made any real gains.  Customer reviews like these would have stopped me from putting them in my engine.

Hi if you are consindering changing to this plug please dont they are junk, they caused missfire,blew out a plug boot and cost me $179.00 to find this problem. I contacted E3 they said it was not caused by their plug. I had AC delco plugs installed and have no problems. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY THEY STINK. The warrenty just covered the cost of the plugs I am out almost $200.00.

CHECK WITH YOUR DEALER TO SEE IF PLUGS ARE RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR VEHICLE...I put a set in my 09 wrangler, drove from Kentucky to Florida. At approximately 600 miles the jeep started missing, at 700 it was missing and back firing, we stopped for the night. We took it to a jeep dealer the next morning, they put it on the computer and told me one plug was dead and three were breaking down. Also the plugs were not recommended by Dodge and should not have been installed, as a result the warranty did not cover repairs.
I had to pay $197.00 for diagnostics and new plugs, then on the way back to Kentucky the check engine light came on, back to Dodge dealer, because of the back firing, I had to replace EGR valve and PCV valve also not covered by wrranty, $572.00. both dealers said the E-3 plugs because of the firing/spark design the computer sent the wrong firing command and the plugs did not work right, the back firing killed the EGR and PCV. In my opinion if you have a late model Jeep you should not use this plug under any circumstances.

I bought these from my local autozone to replace my old Denzo plugs in my 08 Saturn Outlook. The autozone guy said they were better than the denzos and would produce varied gas mileage over new Denzo plugs. Being a car guy, I usually go with what I know and buy brands that are reputable; in this case I said what the heck I'll give them a try, big mistake!

After replacing the plugs and setting them to the proper manufacture torque, I start the vehicle, runs fine purs like a kitten, ildles high as all outlooks do. Then, once the idle settles at 750-800, I kept getting stutter and hesitation. No check engine light, so I scan it with my Craftsman OBD2 scanner...code P0301 misfire cylinder 1!

To make this short; I removed these plugs one by one only to find all but one cracked. Yes the porcelain was cracked around the top and in some cases the entire diode was bent. I thought I just over tightened then till I googled the situation. There are many reports of these plugs either being defective out the box or crapping out under 30k miles. I just wish I had done my homework first, these plugs have a quality control issue, you are playing roulette buying them and I'd steer clear of them! The company along with some random others promote these plugs as having produced HP gains of 8hp, and 5lbs torque, and distances of 100k miles or more, however they lasted all of 10 minutes in my truck.

Yeah I was using a click torque wrench I just got new from Harbor Freight,  didn't know I had to calibrate it,  though from the reviews posted above,  seems like I bought a crap plug.   I already emailed them with some choice words,  I'll send pics now too though.

Waiting on a torque wrench to click,, youve got too much leverage to "Feel" a spark plug crush washer work..

Ive never seen plugs installed with a torque wrench. They put torque specs in the book for everything, but not everything needs a torque wrench. Get a ratchet, put it in, dont even TRY to tighten a plug till it stops. Use antisieze, Its like Brylcreme, a little dab'll do ya.

Just use a short 3/8ths ratchet & dont put much work into it,,

I like Daves answer a lot, Id Start there. The only thing that bothers me about it is GETTING the piston to bottom dead center. Youve gotta do that w/o ever letting the piston move UP, so, dont go past BDC & let it start back up & dont go toward TDC. You dont wanna catch any busted chips between jug wall & piston.. Id start with layin it on its side & vacuuming. I would want a Super Clean vacuum to start with, wash the hose insides out, or maybe figure some "Catch can" inline or maybe just a piece of tee shirt pulled across where the hose attaches, so I could SEE what I was getting out,, But, of course, a tee shirt would be somewhat restrictive,,
& yea, go easy on the grease. After youve done all ya can with the vacuum, unless you can get hold of an inspection tool & KNow its clean, then Id go fishin with a wire,,

Now, you CAN get some very stiff but very thin wire at the hobby shops that cater to airplane builders. I call it piano wire, sometimes they call it control rod wire,
Take the hose thatll pass thru the plug hole, & some masking tape or dental floss or fine fishing line & connect the wire to the hose, that way you can actually point the hose where ya want it.,You can shape the wire at the end & make the hose not round, kinda like a crevice attachment. That changes the area, makes it smaller, increases flow rate, as long as ya dont decrease it enough to make such a restriction it decreases it.. It could
A: Reach that piston/wall junction better
B: suck a little harder
If ya hear that "Im kinda plugged up" sound, gently pull out & see whats on your hose..

Three or more electrode spark plugs were around in the very early twentieth century. Most were soon done away with. I had two electrode ones in my Toyota Camry and they gave no trouble, but single ones are in there now. If the hex part broke off, it must be faulty manufacture, as to break of a good one there wouldn't be any thread left in the head.

I changed my mind!  In an earlier post I thought it would be best to pull the head.  After reading these posts I think some of the suggested methods of fishing out the debris will probably work. There is always a certain amount of risk associated with mechanical work and removing the head might end up creating a new problem.

If you do vacuum it out, try to catch the debris is some sort of filter so you'll know if you got anything.

uigiroux wrote on 06/01/14 at 18:28:39:


Sounds like me and a plumbing job.  
Anyhoo... a 50/50 mix of acetone and transmission fluid is the best "nutsoff" rusty bolt fluid. It works ten times better than any off the shelf product. Small amount, let it sit and penetrate, apply agin, let er sit, apply again... etc etc. Let the fluid do the work.

uigiroux wrote on 06/01/14 at 18:59:46:


You can probably use an eyedropper. It is acetone which evaporates in a heart beat and tranny fluid which won't hurt anything in your cylinder if you get some in it, it'll burn off quickly after smoking like crazy for a couple minutes. (Buy the acetone at Home Depot, 7 bucks a quart in the paint department).  You can use any home vaccuum cleaner with a hose.  Depot sells small shop vacs for about 30 bucks if you don't have anything that will work. Grease? I'd think any moly wheel bearing grease would work. I don't think you'll be depositing enough in the cylinder to do any damage... again, it may smoke for a while as it burns off, and  you might have to change the plug, but still cheaper and easier than pulling the head.  Grease experts may correct me on that so stay tuned.