Disaster struck

[TheMazda]

So I was driving down the road and I head what sounds like a gunshot followed by alot of clunking. Pull over and the #2 plug boot is pushed out against the coil. Pull it all off and the boot is destroyed and melted to the spark plug that had been shot out of the head. Bought a new boot and tried to reinstall the spark plug, but no threads... Now my car is stuck 20 mins away in an Enterprize RentACar parking lot, and not going anywhere anytime soon. Not even sure what to do now. Can these heads be rethreaded? Is it possible the head is further damaged?

[Fudgie]

How big is the hole now? When you drop the plug in there is it like throwing a hotdog down the hallway? There are a few options out there to cure your issue. I would bring it to a reputable shop and see what they say. Worst case scenario is you have to replace the head. I would try a cheaper heli-coil type fix first though.

[TheMazda]

No, the hole is the normal size. The plug fits, just doesnt tighten. Called a machine shop, they said that can put in a insert to fix it 95% of the time. Unless there is other damage involved.

[TheMazda]

Update: Dragged the car a 20 mile trek to my brothers house. Took off the hood and started the dismantling process! Everything went good, and the head is now off ready to goto the machine shop.. only thing that bugs me is the pistons. Its completely unrelated, but my car has only 70k miles, majority highway, and the pistons look BURNT. The tops are burnt and pitted and pretty much look shot. I have dismantled engines and they dont look like normal wear. And the cyclinder walls are real smooth to, so its just the piston heads that are worn. Why do you think its like that? Anyway, I will get my baby fixed up and running again bout the middle of the week.