2009 Honda Fit, 134,000 miles. I have maintained car. Was driving this week and engine light came on and within the same block loud pop as spark plug blew. Mechanic says cylinder is stripped from this spark plug blow and entire cyclometer head needs to be replaced. Mechanic says last mechanic may not have placed spark plugs in properly, unfortunately used a guy in my old neighborhood that many neighbors used for years so no really going back on that as in another state as recently moved. My question is, with such an extensive fix, in general how reliable is such a fix? From what I understand I will have to replace half the engine 😭 trying decide to fix (if fixing is reliable and long lasting fix in general with trusted mechanic) or look for new car as don’t want to start getting nicked and dimed. Will this or could it lead to other issues? Appreciate your insight or experiences. Thanks!


Code reader result

 

Look for someone or a machine shop that can install a time-sert

 

The most dependable fix is to find a clean wrecking yard replacement head, have a machine shop inspect and make any needed repairs on it, and then have it installed. With the installation, valves will be adjusted and the new plugs need to be torqued to 20 ft lbs so they don't back out again. There's a lot of posts on this forum related to the phenomenon of Fit spark plugs backing out. The consensus in those forum posts is that Fit plugs need to be torqued to 20 ft lbs instead of the 13 ft lbs the factory originally recommended

 

I have exactly the same problem as OP, and very interested about this torque consensus.
How did they end up agreeing on this exact value which is 20ft lbs ? Isnt there a risk for over torquing ?

 

Honestly I don't know how to apecifically answer your question. In my response to the OP, I mentioned there are a lot of posts on this topic on this forum. The concensus I mentioned, is based on reading a lot of member posts and what worked for members that dealt with either loose plugs or had plugs blow out of the head. I would encourage you to do a search here on this forum yourself, and after sifting through the posts you can make your own judgement on what works and what doesn't. A good starting point is here- especially member Pyts 6th post on this link: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ad-inside.html There are many, many more posts on this subject here on the forum. I hope this helps.

 

After searching ive found an interesting piece of information about the torque value. A guy asked his honda dealer about the spark plugs torque and they told him to go up to 20ft/lbs. And apparently the dealer took this value from a database.
So we can safely say that its the recommended torque value even from the manufacturer.
And indeed this value is widely followed from honda fit owners (across many forums) who had problems from loose Spark plugs.
​​​​​​​Cheers