As a vehicle tech for 32 years i so enjoyed watching this, This guy knows his onions with Merc diesels! His confidence and skills in getting the job done was awesome to watch 👍
First time viewing one of your videos, what a brilliant experience. No rubbish distracting background tempo / music. Just quality information. Well done and keep up the excellent work Mr
Just watch your brilliant engineering skills Nice to see things went wrong but you over came this Looking forward to watching your other videoes Live long and prosper
Any welded extraction like this is always easier if you use a flux-core Mig - simple reason being it welds hotter, so the extra heat helps loosen stuff, it isn't at all fussy compared to Tig or Mig about contamination - it will still bite hard to dirty metal, plus you can really hose in material to get fast build-up. I grab the welder, start hosing metal onto the broken-off plugs, don't even attempt to fit a nut or anything at first - just hose on metal so you have a nice big area to get a nut onto, then grab a nice chunky nut - bigger the better - sit the nut onto the big weld-gobbet, weld on the nut & then use a low powered rattle gun. Because flux-core bites so hard & deep, generates so much heat in the process, stuff gives up. :-) With normal mig, it's really difficult because there is almost always contamination - which makes for a weak weld that breaks easily, same goes for tig. I failed loads of times using those, almost always because the tungsten/oil/grease/crud made the welds weak & porous. Try flux-core, report back in amazement. :-)
Brilliant video, and some clear experience and learnt skills being brought to bear on a difficult job for the average DIY mechanic. I really enjoyed that. Cheers 👋🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦
Amazingly refreshing that a professional actually wants the Joe soaps of the world to learn and try to do the work, rather than just wanting them to send in jobs.
Came across this video today as I have patiently taken the whole day to remove mine and onto the last one that’s moved back and fourth with loads of thread breaker and wd40 and pop snapped past the nut. Currently using a self tapping screwed into the tip (tungsten luckily attached to the top that came out) and have tried pulling it out with not much luck. Have started to remove the front of the van just so I can get a slide hammer on it. Thought I’d have a look online for any tips as although I done this when the engine was hot it doesn’t take long for it to cool down and that carbon turn into what I can only describe as bitumen like hell 😂 Glad I stumbled across it as just for what turned out to be an American Steven hawking impression 😂 you get a follow for that alone and a great video insight 👍🏻
Fair play showing how to remove glow plugs. Very informative video with lots of trade tips. I have to admire the ending of the video saying "just do it yourself" Great Yorkshire lad running a business and a helpful RU-vid channel. 👍
the 2 jobs on any diesel engine with the most potential grief .. glow plug & injector removal ( different engines have different levels of PITA ) .. nicely done Luke
I served my Apprenticeship under an English Diesel Mechanic..You said you wanted some Helpful Engineering advice..? .Weld a washer, with a hole large enough to go over the object you are trying to extract, to the object..This gives you a larger surface to weld a nut to, and therefore a bigger purchase area for your weld.. The nut can then be welded inside and out multiplying the weld contact area several times..Let it cool right down..Then warm the head around the area of the extraction..NOT Red Hot, just warm and especially with Alloy it will transfer heat quickly..This will expand the alloy and help relieve the tension..Where you used engine oil, George always used Auto Trans fluid..He called it the best lubricant in the world..
very enjoyable video. first job I learnt to do as an apprentice . sharpen drill bits. spent over a week sharpening a big box of drill bits all different sizes.🤣🤣
Ahh the old nutwelder! great tool to use for extracting a lot of threaded fasteners as well. When hand feeding a drill bit on soft material especially with a small cut, you can take the belt sander and adjust the last fraction of the cutting edge, changing the helix angle from about 30 degrees to about 15 degrees, blunting the cutting edge. This makes it a lot less grabby and requires slightly more pressure and gives better control
Listen,i have absolutely loved watching this video. Im a diy mechanic and work in heavy engineering so i love this. I have subscribed and please keep these fantastic videos coming.
Best video to date. Have had MB diesels most of my life and now I understand SO much more. Thank you. An entire diesel course in 20 min. Saved in video library.😊. Great promotion for your products.
Luke, another great how-to video. I would very much appreciate a video on the relationship between the idle control, the low-end rack-limiting nut and the ELR. With some experimentation I have found that by plugging or unplugging the ELR, turning down the idle control and compensating with the rack nut and vice-versa, I get various effects such as more or less jerking, idle speed that varies wildly with temperature or run time, and an engine that will or won't start without accelerator pedal input. Such experimenting is time consuming and after a few hours of it I'm not sure I'm any smarter about how these three things interact and I'm still not satisfied with the level of jerkiness, consistency of idle, or ease of starting without accerator input. I have been able to get every one of these factors working in a satisfactory manner, but never all three at the same time, and I would very much appreciate a tutorial from your expertise.
Great video, I totally agree with your comments (learn to do it your self). We have a nation of thickits who expect everything done for them yesterday for nothing. When I was about 10 years old I blunted one of my father's drills and put it back in drill box. When dad got home I was promptly dragged back to his workshop by my ear, then dad showed me how to sharpen the blunt drill. I couldn't go and what I wanted until I could sharpen a drill bit, best thing dad ever taught me. I did a tool making apprenticeship after leaving school at 16, the only thing I've not go my head around over the years is fixing diesel injection pumps and injectors, I send them to the local specialist.
Once upon a time basic engineering skills that we who did real apprenticeships had.Mine was with Holroyds at the gear works in Milnrow some 40 odd years ago first year with Jack Valentine and Dave Kirk in the training school followed by production work. Tig had not been invented then but we did Gas and Stick in addition to bench fitting, machining sheet metal work etc all between the tender age of 16 to 20. We have fallen along way as a Country. Good recovery of this cylinder head well done.
Another great video to watch full of knowledge material 👌🏼 I used your previous video as a reference when I did my glow pugs, they were all stuck, I went through the process as you explained and everything went smooth, I managed to extract 5 of 6. I only failed to extract the last one because I'm an idiot, It was already dark, I was really exhausted and instead of calling it a day, go get some rest and carry on the next day I tried to just get it done and didn't remembered to replace the stud I was using to pull the glow plugs out, it was probably already really stretched after removing 5 glow plugs and when I went to extract the last one it snapped inside the glow plug. I tried welding a nut to the top to remove it but I didn't let it cool enough as you mention in your video and jus kept snapping. I got the engine back together and kept using the car in the hope the engine would spit out the glow plug since the threads were already drilled. It's been 2 years 😅😭 Maybe when I get one of your mechanical pumps, a big turbo and some propper boost it will finally come out! Keep it going man, all the best, I love your work!🤜🏼🤛🏼
totally amazing footage of how to remove broken glow plugs like i have at the moment on my vivaro. brilliant step by step video an well informative great job
It's great that you share your skills and knowledge, now days some just put it in the to hard basket and pay others, what they miss out on is the life skills they can gain
If all hell let loose and things seem like they can't be salvaged, the tungsten and entire glow plug can be removed by using an EDM drill. Some shops have something similar for removing broken taps or siezed bolts. Maybe in the UK the heads are readily available, but here in the States not so much. Never scrap it unless all options are exhausted.
flippin MEGA! this is the best Engineery Nerdy thing i have watched on youtube this last year. Solid Effort, determination, confidence backed up by those TIG skills. keep on this track tackling hard shit jobs with honesty.❤
Great video and repair. I like the fact that you are teaching other people to fish. I know you have been doing that for a while but I worry about using a powered device for running a tap, it's risky. I think a lot of technicians would have destroyed that cylinder head and then told the customer they need to buy a new cylinder head. I commend you on a job well done.
Thanks for all lessons Tks for along compassions and you’re one of beauty mechanical guy in the same time make job funny and simple hope all the best god blessed you mmm finally get welding 💪🏻.
Best way I found to remove them was to just take them all out while the head was still in the engine and if one or two broke just to leave them in the head. Make sure to keep extras and a ratchet in the van and in a couple weeks they just blow out from engine heat and cooling cycles. Pullover and pop the new ones in! Way easier then pulling the head.
Another top tip for you, having been here with bust off plugs and just the shank left deep inside the head, all options exhausted… Heat the head! Stand the head up in front of a space heater, mines the torpedo type, leave it for 10 or 15 minutes then try, I get them so hot you need welding gloves to handle, build this into your process and hopefully you’ll find it helps loads, surface before refitting.
Nice video of fixing that head up. I was surprised you didn’t use a glow plug hole reamer to clean the bores. I have not bought one in a long time, but I didn’t think they were to expensive.
My glowplugs have been in for 7 years with 70,000 extra miles. every year I'd say to myself I'd need to change them but never did. Last week I got new nozzels and will clean out the prechambers. All glowplugs came out perfectly because I used gray anti-seize on them back then. Use Anti-seize on the whole plug except the black anode part. torque to 25Nm and you will never have any issues. Use left over transmission fluid fluid as thread penetrating oil if you did not anti-seize.
Luckily the plugs in my 2.7 5 cylinder CLK came straight out! I’d been made aware of the nightmares! And used the small impact. And yes I fully agree with sharpening drill bits! My mentor a blacksmith called Stan pike. Showed me how to sharpen drills! One skill I’m truly grateful for!! ❤ the videos bud! 🎉🎉❤❤
love the vids even tho i dont have merc diesel i do want to om606 swap a defender eventually i love watching your entertaining vids and having a laugh too, keep up the high quality vids mate
As this is something that I do on a daily basis on the vehicle - believe me many people are willing to try but only a select few are knowledgeable even in garages. In garages like ypu say in your workshop it takes time and time doing better things like a service or fit a replacement part. So its a specialist job, hence calling q specialist - I have seen many attempts with broken drill bits, easy-outs - do in my opinion it can be the difference of being lucky, having experience or inadvertently scrapping your cylinder head. Your advice and methodology was sound though 👍👌🙏
I am doing PSA diesel injectors. Also doing glow plugs. I'm doing practically the same as you do. Except I use ceramic grease on both injectors and glowplugs.
Time served blacksmith one of the first things I was taught was to heat and cool a nut and bolt , to un seize, the cooling of the nut stretches it over the Still expanded bolt , then when the bolt is also cooled, the not will more than likely be hand tight. Another thing I am surprised to see you not using left-handed drills for cleaning threads
Hey Luke I know you guys are over the pond and use the metric system regularly, but Ive found the holes in the sleeve where the tungsten lives if it breaks down low like it should is right about .250 and you can tap it to 5/16x18 and keep the remaining plug sleeves as strong as possible for the slide hammer and skip a step. Thought it might be helpful if you hadn’t tried it yet. Great video!!
Also you can tap the plug sleeve with a left hand tap and back the glow plug out with a grade 8 left hand 5/16x18 if your lucky, its worked for me a couple times. 👍🤘
Nice extraction. Couldn't help but wonder why you didn't shield the glow plug hole wall with a short piece of thin-walled copper pipe? On the one which broke real deep, I reckon you could have just put some copper pipe in the hole and guide and weld a MIG wire down the pipe, soon it would have been sticking out enough for you to attach a nut in it.
To remove them without breaking them, start by removing the corrosion at the top of the glow plug. Then heat the head of the glow plug to white hot for a minute or two so the heat has time to make it's way down the plug. As soon as it has cooled enough not to burn it, start spraying it with penetrating fluid. Let the plugs fully cool before removing them. Warming up the engine doesn't hurt.
Really good video, but I wanted to see how hard the tungsten middle of a glow plug is. So I got one out of my scrap bin which I pulled out of my landrover 300tdi engine a few years ago I sawed it in half with a standard hacksaw blade no problem, so I got a drill bit on and drilled the tungsten aswell which didn't seem that hard
nice one Luke ,good work there ,its a shame theres not a better way ,trouble with unscrewing them is they dont put em in easy access places ,you saved the head there mate ,think the tig welder was key there ,a mig would of been a bit of a blunt tool
Ahh yes the not so fun job of glow plug removal... I had to change mine a couple of months ago when I was changing the inlet manifold and I snapped two tips off, luckily it was just the tips to drill and tap out, still a painful job... That's when a friend said only do them when the engine is hot.... Great advice for anyone attempting it themselves...
Very useful thank you, after a previous fiasco I wasn’t ever going to attempt again but I might this time. Quick question how powerful a gun should you use when trying to remove ie whilst intact, as I know they have a breaking torque……tho spose if they going to break, they’ll break anyway.
Great video buddy. The TIG welder is definitely my friend in these situations. You mentioned you used 308L wire. This is normally for welding 304 grade stainless, if I’m not mistaken? 309L is recommended for dissimilar welding. In reality I normally use whatever scraps are laying within reach on the bench 😄 Although for this kind of job, I’d be putting in the effort and seeking out the 309 wire. Persistence is the key though. I’m also glad to see I’m also not the only one who uses the drill to tap threads. Plenty of lube and a quality tap, be fine. It’ll slip in the chuck before it snaps.
Many years ago an old mechanic showed me that to clean the carbon out of an engine prior to disassembly, you use water. By spraying water into a running engine, the water turns into steam in the combustion chamber and, with enough water and some patience, the steam will clean the carbon out of the engine thus making the cleaning MUCH easier. I don’t know if this process would help, but it can’t hurt.
