DO NOT USE WELLMAN GLOW PLUGS ON THIS ENGINE

[Danny Cardarelli]

1994-7.3 IDI. "K" ENGINE

Mechanic installed Wellman plugs on my truck, ran engine for about 3 mins. and something sounded of to him.he killed the engine to check the glow plugs...On plug numbers 3-4 & 6, the bases of the GP's expanded & swelled.this cost me a head job. The machinists working the heads really had a difficult time removing the bad plugs....please learn from me..

WELLMAN Plugs suck

 

[rhkcommander]

I don't understand how swollen glow plugs would make an engine sound off after running for a while, the combustion chambers would be warmed up enough too at 3 minutes to not sound "off". Glow plugs aren't like spark plugs, they heat up for several seconds and then they are done doing any work until you go to start the truck up again.

Now if you said when it first started it sounded off, that would make some sense. Everything should be cleared up after a short time.

The wellman plugs I used were fine but i switched to beru, bosch also worked in a pinch. I use a mechanical push button setup so i can control how much time I glow the plugs for, making it safer in my opinion. Most here will say beru or else - ESPECIALLY if you use the automated glowplug controller, they are "calibrated" (probably just more durable to the abuse) for the controller. But there have been a few rare cases of those with swollen tips too. Any glowplug can melt a tip but some are thicker than others. Don't trust anything else. Never heard of the bases swelling, just the tips. Carbon soot can build up making it harder to pull them, I have had a few that were VERY tough before.

Did they remove the heads?

 

[79jasper]

Me thinks the old were swollen, mechanic shat his pants, and blamed the new wellmans.
Me thinks you need a new mechanic.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[Macrobb]

Yeah... I've run wellman/dieselrx glowplugs before, and even overheating them until they failed didn't cause any swelling. Autolites, however.... seen a couple swelled, and not a single one i've pulled has worked. I've seen working champions, beru etc., just no autolites.

 

[Macrobb]

But there have been a few rare cases of those with swollen tips too. Any glowplug can melt a tip but some are thicker than others. Don't trust anything else. Never heard of the bases swelling, just the tips. Carbon soot can build up making it harder to pull them, I have had a few that were VERY tough before.

One thing I'll throw out there is that according to some Beru documentation, swelling is due to moisture in the ceramic used inside the glow plug. If low quality ceramic material is used, and isn't dried properly, that steam pressure will swell or burst the glow plug.

My guess is that on a 'cheap' plug, like a Champion, as long as it's used properly the first few heat cycles, the moisture will be driven off slowly through the internal seals and then it won't swell. If it gets overheated right after install, though... that's probably when it would swell.

I managed to make a Champion swell when testing it - took a 7.3 glow plug(designed for around 6v), hooked it straight up to 12V and held it on for a few seconds, longer each time until it was cherry red. It finally swelled a little on cooling down, but it still worked and I needed a glow plug... so I put it in one of my '88s, and the swelling wasn't enough to cause an issue. Now... either it's still working fine, or it died and came out without issue, because I checked and replaced the dead glow plugs recently without a problem.

 

[IDIoit]

+2 on mechanic swap

 

[rhkcommander]

One thing I'll throw out there is that according to some Beru documentation, swelling is due to moisture in the ceramic used inside the glow plug. If low quality ceramic material is used, and isn't dried properly, that steam pressure will swell or burst the glow plug.

My guess is that on a 'cheap' plug, like a Champion, as long as it's used properly the first few heat cycles, the moisture will be driven off slowly through the internal seals and then it won't swell. If it gets overheated right after install, though... that's probably when it would swell.

I managed to make a Champion swell when testing it - took a 7.3 glow plug(designed for around 6v), hooked it straight up to 12V and held it on for a few seconds, longer each time until it was cherry red. It finally swelled a little on cooling down, but it still worked and I needed a glow plug... so I put it in one of my '88s, and the swelling wasn't enough to cause an issue. Now... either it's still working fine, or it died and came out without issue, because I checked and replaced the dead glow plugs recently without a problem.

Never heard that one before, thanks. Interesting if true. I have never had noticable or appreciable swelling with beru or bosch. I have had soot on them make it harder to pull on the old engine but the plugs were perfect when cleaned.

It's been a while since I did a plug swap, but on these engines isn't the glow plug hole the same size as the threaded portion? the neck on a glow plug is a lot bigger than the tip...

 

[77f250diesel]

I've had to replace one of my 16 year old Wellmans when I broke the connector off.
Push button control.

 

[Hydro-idi]

X2. Time to get a real mechanic that knows what he's doing other than draining your checking account.
Something doesn't sound right with the story. Anyways, hope this gets resolved.
Might be a good idea to get those heads rebuilt while they are off if you have the means to do so.

 

[03wr250f]

I pulled some autolites last week in a customer vehicle that was seriously carboned up, enough to make them hard to pull. Though the truck had had other issues like a "mechanic friend" rewired the gp controller very wrong including running the busbar (squiggly metal thing) to direct ground. I rewired it, and the darn thing actually started without being plugged in. I also ran the truck at hard made it run better. I think just getting the carbon cleaned out helped.

 

[Danny Cardarelli]

Well im not so sure...the machinist that did the Heads, who doesnt know the mechanic, had a serious hard time getting the 3 plugs out the heads after being pushed thru....explained to me that he had " never seen plugs that f@€&%÷ed up before....that was last night...oh by the way, each head weighs about 100 Lbs each. .....the engine is out of the truck bc simplistic approach to all the tight areas. Especially near pass firewall.. One of the best things about this truck is.....no emissions iN MASS...SAFETY CHECK ONLY when it comes time for a sticker.GOD. i hate this corrupt state..the likes of barney frank.eliz warren & ed Markey..ted kennedy....need i go on..so the no emmisions thing is big for me..let me gloat, i need a moment..

 

[Knuckledragger]

Yes, the heads are way heavy and it sometimes makes sense to just remove the engine to do any major work.

California s trying to be another Mass, I think. We are being taxed to death and told to like it.

Like others said, it may well have been the mech doing the messing up; perhaps the controller was bypassed, leaving the plugs on too long. There are more ways to ruin GPs than you can shake a stick at, and they are not all just because there is something wrong with the GP.

When in doubt, use Beru, lots on this forum will use nothing else. I trust Bosch, have no knowledge of Wellman, so no opinion.

Good luck.

 

[laserjock]

Smells funny to me too. Wonder if he got them out to start with. Anyway, hope you end up with a positive outcome in the end.

 

[Danny Cardarelli]

Im looking at Berus but im getting pretty good verbal reviews on DIESEL.RX....ANY HAVE ANY INPUT ON DIESEL RX glow plugs ?????????

 

[IDIoit]

I bought a set of diesel RX "improved" glow plugs,
they were garbage out of the package.