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Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

For my 1992 240.

I went with a longer NAPA thread sleeve as you can see:


The original thread sleeve that comes out with the spark plug. The spark plug set is due for replacement. The center electrode is getting sort of short.





I have Permatex High Temperature Red Threadlocker #27200 to secure the thing, we hope.



Any suggestions, please?

Thanks,

Dud.


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    Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

    Hi

    I think I would stake the side with a punch while you have it down in there and call it good!

    You are talking about blow by coming through those threads when there is a gasket on the plug that seals the top off shoulder.

    When comparing a few thousandths of clearance to the volume amount of the cylinder just how much could possible pass in a few milliseconds anyway.

    If you want to coat it anyways and feel better that you used a few drops of that stuff.
    You could try using a pair of snap rind retainer pliers and put the tips in the bore. Squeeze them tight to open to grip the bore and twist.

    If it doesn't come out then it is meant to be left in there and up to the 15 ft lbs of torque to seal it off.
    This plus all the lateral clearances are pulled up in one direction and the plug body crushes the sealing gasket.

    If the threads were of a great concern they would put in tapered dry seal threads. Yes, the same as use on pipe threads. NPT

    Of course there is another thread that the British invented called a gas sealing thread. It's design gets used on aircraft but that might be a bit of overkill for spark plugs.

    Still you got to hand it to those Brits and Yanks to be separate. Visit Britain for a spell and you will hear that they still refer to us Americans as colonists.

    If you thought HeliCoil was unique, you should see the fit up on those. Special taps and dies!
    Check it out here.

    http://www.ralstoninst.com/news/story/the-difference-between-npt-bspp-and-bspt-seals/
    After you see that, think about our threads, Withworths and metric come from?

    Everyone want a piece of the pie and I don't mean Apple! (:-)

    Phil








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      Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

      Hiya Uncle Phil,

      Thank you kindly. I have a conical punch drift thingy yet did not imagine doing this.

      Well, the blow by either side of the insert.

      The engine was clean when I bought this horribly neglected 1992 240 GL near Boise, ID in August 2007 (nine years ago, great biscuits and gravy).

      The blow by was an aggressive seep of combustion products that fouled the spark plug recess and basted the back side of the #4 exhaust port runner. So much so, it was smoking a bit. I imagined the round rear seal or the valve cover gasket was seeping splash oil. I power washed off the engine before this task to see where the source of the engine soiling.

      I used a mirror and a flash light to look down the spark plug holes into the cylinder and the piston tops in the dark shortly after buying this rig. I missed the insert on #4. Everything looked really good!

      Yet in the two images, the replacement tapped thread does not travel the entire length of the #4 spark plyg channel. I'll guess the replacement thread is tapped deeply enough to accommodate the selected TIME-SERT brand insert. So, the NAPA thread insert I filed down with not have seated, if the TIME-SERT insert exterior thread would have been a match of the NAPA insert.

      Oh, I apply for technical author jobs in the UK and Scotland occasionly, as well as Finland, Norway, Canada, and elsewhere cooler. Rather reside there, at least the grass looks greener and the tea and dairy (and hunny) products are probably much better. (Though I'm about intolerant of what Steven Moffat has done with this new Dr. Who series since it started about ten years ago. Dr. Who for those short of attention span.)

      Though I would like to have a big garage and a little MIG welder (I guess) and apply the repair method you mention earlier. Though I'd be scared to screw up the cylinder head or worse welding on aluminum. I've only ever welded carbon-steel using arc or MIG and a long time ago.

      Thank you for the link. Very informative!

      NPT Connections - NPT (National Pipe Thread)


      BSPT Connections - BSPT (British Standard Pipe Thread)


      BSPP Connections - BSPP (British Standard Parallel Pipe)


      I drove the thing around town yesterday afternoon. The new-used Bosch Super Plus spark plugs became unfouled in a few minutes. I drove to look at another rental house, with a garage and basement I could afford, and then drove down I-64/40 to downtown to an Irish Pub touting a hosted Irish Traditional music session from 2-5 PM yesterday. And then back to the suburb slum gulag where I reside, with fleas and roaches. The thing worked better than it ever had. Less throttle position to maintain highway speed.

      I removed the air filter box preheat flap valve. Took out the silver preheat hose some time ago. So, two air inlets upstream of the air filter. It has a more sprightly throttle response. It idles more smoothly than ever, about perfectly, like kittys grey 1991 240 volvo sedan.

      I want to adjust valve clearances, pull the cam up to see what cam version is on it, replace the hushers, and if it has the M-cam, maybe an A, B, or huh-huh-huh K-cam from a Canadian 240 with a carb. I have a bunch of surface rust on rear suspension parts and other under body stuff.

      Apparently, CO-state uses magnesium-chloride as ice and snow melt. That stuff is in some ways worse than the sodium-chloride salt these here lowlander use in their Midwestern states. Why this green 1992 240 GL and the red 1990 240 DL wagon are so rust as they lived in CO-state for quite some time.

      The 1992 240 GL green sedan is from a dealership in Littleton, CO. (Not the current MacDonald Volvo dealership. The one that was bought and became the current Volvo dealership in Littleton.)


      Still for sale in St. Louis craigslist, 1992 240 wagon with M47 II and LH-3.1.
      Down 500$ in price in over two months.
      http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/5715064929.html

      Parking Brake is a bit weak ...

      New(er) Head Gasket & Rear Seal, & Motor mounts ...






      New tail lights? Hinges are out of whack. We have rear hatch sag.




      Rear hatch remains up on its own?




      Rusty parts here, and rust elsewhere? Rust down the throttle cable? Black brake fluid? New coil? What OBD codes? Disconnected washer fluid hose, yet replaced new wiper motor? Hmmmm.


      Sorry to go on so.

      Thank you.

      MacDuff and the Stinky Inhospitable MidWest.
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    Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? (Try again? 2 More images.) 200

    Kindly and Learned Folks,

    What I pulled out when checking spark plug gap a few weeks ago. The wee green 1992 240 beastie was blowing the socket 2 OBD code 2-3-2. Exhaust in no way smells rich. The airbox flap valve defeated my anti-hot air flap valve. I removed the preheat air hose and preheat flap valve assembly. Put in a new Mahle LX-59 air filter. I used Goop RV on the AMM to TB accordion accordian hose to seal it years ago. Still good. No vacuum leaks. Both the TB and air intake gasket are getting brittle, though.

    I put anti-sieze on the thread of all spark splugs. The center anode electrode is getting short. Time to install (used) new spark plugs, the Bosch Super Plus.

    Yet the sleeve came with the spark plug as I check gap. Two weeks ago.




    The high temperature thread locker compound is for application to the exterior of the thread sleeve insert to secure it in the thread of (a) prior owner's repair to the #4 spark plug hole on this 1992 green Volvo 240 GL with horrible abused feel sorry for it M47 II and LH-3.1 and the aggravating (at times - more so in cold weather) iPd (I guess) turbo sport exhaust.

    This is a NAPA product spark plug thread sleeve I mean to replace, with another, longer, NAPA thread sleeve insert. Not my choice and I don't wanna recut thread to suit a heli-coil or other threaded sleeve for spark plug thread repair product. (The next outer diameter size up kit from NAPA runs over 300$ And I'm poor in spite of three university diplomas I earned and paid for myself. (Why, in part, I'm a bastard and an SOB much of the time.)

    I have nickel (or the other one, not lead Pb) high temp anti-sieze for the spark plug thread.

    So, is the sleeve to long? Will it interfere with the spark plug, uh, sparking? I mean to file it down. by two thread turns. As HillBilly recommends.

    Phil, I had a Heli-Coil repair kit with the drift you tap to spread the knurled outer thread at the top of the Heli-Coil sleeve. Came in a hanging package with yellow color cardboard slide out backing. For a relatives' 1979 240 DL wagon in the 1980s, though used again with replacement sleeves on others' autos. I had to do it to two of my prior 240s from prior owners distressing the thread, and it stripped on my replacement.

    I want to avoid removing the cylinder head, ha-ha, which is so much fun to do without a garage. Like rear wheel bearing inspect, clean, and grease repack. Or replace the front flexi brake lines.

    Now to the images. Two are new.







    I pulled a set of these four Bosch Super Plus from an NA 940 a year ago. I pull spark plugs from junkyard cars many times as sometimes they are newer then the spark plug sets I have in the cars I own. So, like a Pokemon, I choose you, Pikachu, er, this used set of Bosch Super Plus spark plugs for the engine. The center electrode has crisp shoulder and is (relatively long and the ground electrode (cathode?) shows no thinning or rounding. (The numbers match, unless i screwed that up also.) Though the Volvo 940 I pulled these from was running really rich, as you can see.

    Please advise. Thank you folks.

    Chronic Athlete's Foot for Months Now MacDuff.
    (Wanna an image of that, too? HA!)
    Clotrimazole to the rescue? Bleach the shoes, again. Blames the unending fleas in this Midwestern slum hell hole apartment and flea spray with anti-flea hormone stuff. I have no pets.
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      Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? (Try again? 2 More images.) 200

      sorry, it was not clear to me that your head has been re-threaded because of some damage

      Never Mind

      except for DON'T Use that thread locker








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        Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Don't use threadlocker to secure the sleeve to teh head, why? 200

        Don't use threadlocker to secure the sleeve to the head?

        Why?

        How do I secure it? The NAPA sleeve thingy requires it. It comes with threadlocker in a small tube. Except it's like seven years old and cured.

        Thanks,

        Dud.
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          Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Makin' shorter ... 200



          Joy. No garage or bench or any counter top space here in the trashy slums of a Midwestern city county 'burb.

          Old resume prints make a nice way to protect the surface of my table.

          cheers,

          dud.
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            Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Makin' shorter ... 200

            hi kitty grey- read this whole thread. never saw a thread sleeve like that for a spark plug where the threads in the head are stripped. always used a helicoil. how do you get the sleeve in the plug hole? would seem to be too big. unless you drill out the hole making it larger,but that would put fragments in the cylinder. what am i missing. thanks tons oldduke








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              Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Shorter. 200

              Hiya Uncle Oldduke,

              Sure Happy it's måndag (monday)!

              Yeah. like you and Phil (machine man), I'd also used Hel-Coil kits. I had a Heli-Coil kit for 14 mm sparkplug thread. The kit came in a hanging package with a slide off cardboard backing (yellow in color with text), three sleeves, all a different length, the thread tap, and the tang to press the knurled three or so turns of thread at the top of the sleeve using a small hammer with a gentle few taps. No thread locker adhesive. It was the save-a-thread version and not the tangle springy version.

              Heli-Coil is now owned by STANLEY Engineered Fastening
              http://www.stanleyengineeredfastening.com/brands/heli-coil

              The NAPA kit:


              While solving an OBD fault code for lean or rich fuel mix at idle, I replaced the air filter and checked the air intake. Inside the air filter had propped the cold / warm air flap valve to the cold side, and the propping failed, so it was pulling air through the disconnected preheater hose. As it had been awhile, I checked the spark plug gap on the Bosch sparkplugs that came in the engine when I bought the 1992 240 GL wee green beastie. In the earlier images, the center electrode is very short. Time to replace them with these Bosch Super Plus plugs I pulled from a junkyard NA 940 in the last few years.

              The #4 spark plug removal came out with the thread sleeve insert you see in the original post. That sleeve came out with the sparkplug and is well secured to the sparkplug.

              Time-Sert, is the brand you may mean, HillBilly, not (Timken) Redi-Sleeve. I get the brand names confused, also.

              The prior owner of this 1992 240 GL wee green beastie, or someone, used the NAPA, or like, Time-Sert (http://www.timesert.com/html/sparkplug.html) method. Time-Sert thread repair uses it's own thread tap and repair sleeve repair method. So, I feel it best to merely use a Time-Sert sleeve. It, or something like it, is available from NAPA under their private label brand name. As you see, the kit comes with a threadlocker in a teardrop package in the image above.

              So, that's what I'm going to do. Pull the #4 spark plug out, with the copper-coated (in aluminum head?) thread insert stuck to it.

              Clean the spark plug recessed area and the (by a prior owner) repaired thread with brake parts cleaner. Let dry.

              Short enough? Not short enough?


              Then, dab some nickel-anti seize to the spark plug thread, screw on the insert, dab some of the thread sealer-locker high temp stuff the the exterior of the insert, and leave it in their over night.

              Then ride my crappy bike to a local brewery and enjoy some måndag 2.50$ or so pints until too much is had. Or maybe some of the ripple?

              Then remove the Super Plus sparkplug from the threaded sleeve and see that we did a good thing before replacing the remaining three spark plugs with the remaining three relatively new Bosch Super Plus plugs.

              And then crank up the beastie.

              I've worry that cylinder head stuff can go bad, requiring head removal. So, with massive trepidation I continue, here.

              Does that help? Questions and comments, please.

              Thank you.

              Unemployed MacDuff.
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                Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Even Shorter. 200



                woo-hoo. In it goes.

                What a god damn pain.
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                  And so, when attempting repair .... (HA) Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. BS. 200 1992

                  Soooooooooo, yest-turd-day, Friday, have all parts and tools in hand.

                  Two cans brake parts cleaner.

                  So, diligently, I clean the area around the #4 Spark Plug recess with the old plug in the spark plug hole.

                  Remove the spark plug. Yet the TIME-SERT brand sleeve remained in the cylinder head.

                  God damned lovely.

                  The compression blow by was through the thread on one or both sides of the sleeve insert. The compression-combustion blow-by condensated (a verb?) as carbonization that originally pulled the sleeve out with the spark plug. The sparkplug was also leaking combustion compression between the glass-ceramic insulator and the metal barrel, too.

                  I was worried about anything falling into the cylinder, so, Mr. Antiseptic here cleaned all, and freed the spark plug from the TIME-SERT brand insert.

                  Unscrewed the spark plug and it was free of the sleeve. Se, we see into the #4 spark plug recess using my crummy Sony 1999 digital camera and some Gamma correction to the image....





                  So, I cleaned and dried it all, the spark plug specifically. Install and removed the spark plug, hoping to unscrew the sleeve. HA. Nope, I'm an absolute bastard. And if you meet my mother, you'll know I'm an utter SOB, too. Truthfully.

                  After three times of spark plug in and spark plug out, the sleeve remained in. I gave up. I mean, shit. God damn it.

                  So, I cleaned up the Bosch Super Plus plugs that had little wear yet were fouled a bit from the rich running condition from the 1995 normally-aspired Volvo 940 I pulled them out while at a WA-junkyard some years ago. Treated thread with nickel anti-seize, as usual.

                  Plugs are at proper gap, yet Bosch spec says not to change the gap.

                  So, I'll wait until it sticks to the spark plug. TIME-SERT uses a red thread-locker, thread-sealer rated to 500°F



                  The TIME-SERT website indicates their red thread sleaer and locker is the same as Loctite 266.

                  http://www.timesert.com/

                  So, I replaced the air filter in the kittys grey 1991 Volvo 240. The air filter was fouled. I also replaced the large EVAP hose between the throttle-body (TB) and the EVAP cannister as the hose kept splitting at the TB end and was short from my nipping it off ever time it did split. Yet I check under the hood and such several times weekly. (I meant to clean the EVAP valve on the cannister, yet that'll be another day. It appears to work fine.)

                  Clean emissions! Leaky #4 plug. I've not ever stripped spark plug threads. I usually slightly under torque (or turn them). Oh well.

                  Removed the #6 (and #4) fuses to clear fault codes in the green 1992. Also in the 1991 so it can re-map with a new air filter. For grins.

                  I may get the proper TIME-SERT inserts. TIME-SERT is available online. Can't walk into a Crappo-Zone and buy or order what you need for store pick up.

                  Any ideas? Thanks.

                  Happy Sat-Your-Day. Shalom Shabbat.

                  MacDuffy's Tavern.
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    Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200


    why don't you just get another set of Bosch plugs. Or Champion N9YC (C for copper)

    Don't use that licktite on sparkplugs....if anything spray a little silicone spraylube on the threads before you hand screw them in place.








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    Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

    Hi Kitty

    I also would be skeptical about whether the red thread locker or thread locker will hold under those temperatures as the combustion temperatures are all over that zone stated on the package.
    In fact, the removal procedure for thread lockers are to heat up the item to loosen it!

    The heads metal is probably cooler since there is water in the cooling passages.
    We know that the temperature of the ceramic portion the plug is less than a melting point of silicone spark plug boots. Then again, the ceramic is a poor conductor of heat.

    Now that I'm talking about conduction, How is that stuff for the grounding of the spark plug?
    That would be a bigger concern for me, than whether, it holds the insert!

    I have not seen or used that type of thread insert you have for a car.
    I have repaired bolt holes by screwing in a bigger piece of threaded stock, welding it and then machining the original bolt size back. I have even stubbed shafts back to life.

    I'm more familiar with the Helicoil brand thread repair systems.
    In theses cases, it is a stainless steel wire that is formed in the shape of a V-sharp thread on the inside.

    The outer part of the coil is formed to fit a special designed helix. Therefore, it requires its own special tap to form its threads in a hole.
    The coil is placed and set into that formed thread with its own center tang.

    When installing the coil it is turned into the helix until it breaks off the tang. The torque and the snap off, sets the tightness and depth of the insert.
    They are commercially used is materials too soft, to tap threads into or of a material make up, not compatible with fasteners.

    For cars their stainless steel alloy does not interact with the aluminum but still provides electrical conduction.
    I believe you can still use an anti-seize compound if desired.
    I have not seen nomenclature either way on that from Helicoil. I doubt it can hurt anything though.



    If you still want to use that insert I would definitely shorten it like the other poster said.

    It looks from the top that it is made to bottom out against the last turn of the thread. So you need to turn it in until it stops down tight.

    Did they provide you with a stub tool to do that?
    The insert should fit loose on the tool so it will release after being torqued in.

    There are two ways to mechanically stop that insert from turning out.
    This first one will lessen the likelihood and is easier to do than the second due to its location.
    You want to ding up the outer thread of the insert to take up excessive clearances between the threads radially and clearance latterly.

    You want to flatten the outside top of the threads with a light hammer while it is screwed onto a spark plug.
    Work on the upper portion of the body so the bottom end that starts first will not be harmed.

    I know it sounds hokey but if the clearances, are not excessive, it will add more resistance to the insert turning out, before the spark plug does.


    The second method is to "stake" the top of the insert into the head.

    Since the head is still on the car the best way to do this is not possible.
    Normally you would be best to stake the bottom of the insert so the thread would be spread out and be harder to come up.

    After threading in your insert,
    You will need to take a small pointed prick punch or center punch and place pricks or dimples around the perimeter of the insert where the seams join together. This creates a key or disruption in the surfaces to rotation.

    In lots of cases, two will do just fine, but some machinist and mechanics prefer to use three equally spaced dimples to keep an item or thread in this case, held more uniformly in roundness.

    After doing this staking procedure you will want to used a spark plug tap or thread cleaner to clear up the first thread so it will not interfere with screwing the spark plug.


    I say this because, not all "pricks" end up where they are intended to be! (:-). It's a tight place down there!
    SORRY, I meant, down there where the spark plug goes! (:-)

    So ok! That's enough, you get the idea!

    Hope this give you more options than trusting a resin.

    Phil








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      Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

      Hi Uncle Phil,

      Weld. And also a garage. Thank you. Don't gots either.

      So, I have to trust the super glue garbage this time.

      Thank you though.

      Bruce.
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    Volvo 240 Spark Plug Thread Sleeve. Too Long? 200

    I would definitely shorten that Redi-Sleeve so that it is flush with the end of the spark plug.

    How are the threads in the head?

    I don't believe that Locktite is suitable for that application......Just my opinion...YMMV.







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