While driving this evening not far from home, I heard a loud bang and a lot of rattling from my '86 740T. I pulled over immediately and popped the trunk to find that spark plug number 2 had blown out of the engine (it was still attached to the rubber boot!).

I noticed lots of crud deposited in the threads. AAA guy tried to thread it back and announced to me that the threads were stripped.

So, right now it sits at a local garage (mechanic won't see it till tomorrow a.m.), and I have a bunch of questions.

First, how serious is this?

Second, AAA guy said I was looking at replacing the head. I did a bit of research tonight and found lots of information (here and elsewhere) that says I can probably just use a Time-Sert to fix the threads, in lieu of replacing or otherwise repairing the head. How realistic is this?

If Time-Serts are the way to go, and the mechanic refuses to use them, how hard is it to do it myself?

Finally, is the spark plug thread repair kit that IPD sells the same as the Time-Serts?

Thanks in advance!

Joe