Spark Plug Trouble

My neighbor, who restored an old Willys Jeep, told me that everything I try to do on the car will lead to still more things to do.  True to his word, when I tried to remove the plugs, the ceramic tops came apart from the threads in the cylinder head for four of the plugs.  Now I have to try to get the threads out with an "easy" out which do not sound that easy to use and in turn often lead to still more problems when they snap off and cannot be removed.  Before I try I'm going to see if I can buy a cheap torch and apply a few cycles of heat to each plug to try to break the rust bond.  I may also soak the threads in a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid which is evidently a cheap and very effective penetrant.

Lest anyone accuse me of breaking these things with shear force, be advised that I soaked these things with PB Blaster for several days before applying a wrench and did not apply much force at all.  In fact, the last one that came apart did so with almost no force applied.  I don't think my technique is to blame in this instance.  You can see in the picture below that there is carbon on the ceramic where it should have been tightly bonded to the metal part of the plug.  I think these were ready to go.

The reason I am trying to remove the plugs is because I want to pour assorted chemical mixtures into the holes and then see if I can manually turn the engine over.  I'm trying to find out if the engine is seized up.  If it is, I might try to find a different car to work on.  I'm still not sure exactly how to manually turn it over, but it sounds like it can be done by putting a wrench on the end of the crankshaft pulley or using a screwdriver to turn the flywheel.  It doesn't feel like there is a nut on the end of the pulley, unless it is quite large, and I don't know how to access the flywheel.  But it looks like I have some time to figure it out while I struggle with the plugs.

This is a shot of the entire engine as it looked in the seller's yard.

The Car

If I were a superstitious person, I would not be the owner of this car.  On my way to see the car for the first time, the police stopped traffic on I-205 about a half mile in front of me so President Obama's motorcade could get on the highway unimpeded.  That doesn't often happen in Portland, Oregon.  On my way to see the car for the second time, the police stopped traffic on Division because of a criminal investigation.  I had to detour through a neighborhood with unpaved streets and giant potholes, causing damage to the front-end of my Honda Civic.  The Traveler was already eating a hole in my pocket and I had not even made an offer on it yet.