Why?? I don't have crossed threads, I just haven't been able to get the stupid thread to start...

 

If you can get a hose in there, how about using a shop vac with an adapter for the smaller hose.....It should suck everything out. Just a thought....

 

Offhand, I don't think that would work as well because the shop vac moves a lot of air with a small pressure differential, and I obviously can't move a large volume of air through a hose small enough to fit into such a confined space.

I think dropping a hose into the cylinder and pumping air in a high pressure is a better bet. Anyway, I can't see that I'm looking at more than a sliver of aluminum getting shaved off the very begining of the thread, and this is likely a lot of worry about nothing. Anyway, that's a comforting thought...until someone disillusions me. Then there's always the borescope.

 

An aluminum shaving in the combustion chamber=melting, if not completely vaporizing on startup. I wouldnt worry about it.

 

I've got got a lot of experience with that #8 plug now, and it is a top notch PITA.

There are 2 good ways to get your hand at the right angle to start this plug. One is to lay across the engine, the other is to stand with you back to the car and this will again put your hand at the right angle. It isn't possiible in my experience to face the car normally and get this plug started.

I didn't use a piece of rubber hose and I got the plug started in less than a minute.

 

Do you mean stand on the driver's side lay across engine? Damn, I wish I'd thought of that yesterday. I'll give it a try and let you know. And yes, major PITA to say the least...Thanks Much!

 

I did the same thing almost 6 yrs ago, used a spark plug thread chaser
and blew it out with air-no problem.

 

Exactly, that is a proven way. Not comfortable, but it works. Put several blankets over the engine to lessen the pain.

 

I had a Neon once that had a spark plug cross threaded by the factory!
Brand new car, and my wife calls me up and says the engine blew up. I went to look at it and a plug had blown out of the hole and was flopping around on the end of the spark plug wire. Made a real funny noise when she tried to start it, ergo the "it blew up" remark. Anyway it was an aluminum head also, but I could see it real well compared to your situation. Not much thread left and aluminum is real soft. I bought a helicoil kit, drill, tap and coil ($50 or so for a good one) and drilled it out (Very Scary), put red loctite on the outside threads, anti seize on the inside, and installed the plug. Lasted at least 50K miles when we traded it in. I used a vacuum and a straw to suck out the little pieces of metal that fell in on top of the piston. Didn't seem to harm anything. IMHO just chasing the threads into aluminum will probably leave you with a blown out plug at some point. I know this is a real PITA, but take apart as much as you need to to get a straight shot at it, and get your AC recharged after. A shop will charge you a lot of labor to do this (check around) and you can do it yourself and learn a lot in the process. I wouldn't pull the head, but thats me. Others who have pulled their motors 10 times probably think it's easy. It all easy once you've done it many times. Good luck.

 

I tried laying across the engine from the driver's side this time. I still couldn't get the thread to catch. My 14X1.25 tap is on order, along with a bore scope that will help me get the right approach angle, as well as helping me get the CCM sitting back in the mounting holes on the passenger side bracket.

I didn't mention, but I pulled the CCM to fix a few electrical bugs, that was fun. Getting it back in had me rolling on the floor laughing, those engineers at GM really know how to build a knee slapper.

Anyway, in the mean time, I'm spending time installing new carpet, vented opti, ps pump, all new hoses, and a snazzy Pioneer AVIC-D1 GPS with XM radio, HD brakes (I live in the Rocky mountians), etc. Hope I can get this thing running again before Christmas.