Well, I cleared out my afternoon and popped open the hood today. Using that $12 thread chaser I cleared out the threads of the spark plug hole and my NEW volvo spark plug went right in like butter! Oh it took some work. I gained a thread here a thread there. I took my time, 4 hours to be exact, but I took breaks, enjoyed the outside and even had a glass of merlot.

I fixed the spark plug hole! Whoohoo!!!

I believe it was a combination of having dirty threads and there were some tiny pieces of threads that came out about 2 hours into it. I was super delicate though. As delicate as I could be. Like I said, a thread here a thread there. Slowly I made progress.

I'd get the thread chaser to the point where it would start resisting and i'd give it a little more force then i'd back out, go a little further, then back all the way out, shop-vac the hole and brushed off any dirt or metal from the chaser using a wire brush.

I lubed the thread chaser every other time with a small amount of oil and back in it went, each time making more progress. In between this I would occasionally take the old/original spark plug and i'd install it a little by hand, just to see. Eventually the threads got so clean that i was able to screw down the spark plug most of the way with my fingers... the way i think it should be. I finished by taking the new plug... the one that I was trying to install from the friggin' beginning... and it went right in. No problems!

I was so happy. The car started right up and I let it idle for about 30 minutes. Now I can tackle some of that noise.

Hey thanks to everyone for your help. Just openly discussing some of this as I encountered it was a big help.

Jagtoes & Dytha, I'm going to try what you said. I'll take the belts off and see what I get and I'll record it for all to see. I'll also take a better start up video and another when the engine is warm and has been driven a while. I'll update this post when I do.

Oh and I'm using 10w-30 oil. What do you guys use on yours?

 

10W30 for most climates. if you live where its 100F+ all summer, 10W40. if you live where its sub-freezing most of the winter, there's some lighter weights approved but you should change back to 10W30 before driving above 60F any significant distance.