'99 Honda Civic EX coupe, automatic, 200K+ miles. Northeast car, south central Pennsylvania.

First Issue:

Spark plugs are stuck so much that when we force one out with enough torque, that it strips the threads in the head (it happened on one so we stopped there). Worried about metal shavings falling into the engine when that happens. We've researched two methods how to fix this, and wonder which is best, or if you have another idea. 

1) A local shade-tree mechanic told us that some mechanics will just force the plugs out with enough torque and if possible hold vacuum to it while drilling. Then they drill the bad threads out while holding a vacuum if possible. After that they will flush/vacuum the engine so much that it gets out any shavings (and other impurities) that may have fallen into the engine. After they'll insert a Heli-Coil (thread inserts) into the head.

Or

2) Other people told us to take the engine out (this exceeds my capability), take the heads completely off, drill everything out, and rethread/tap the heads and/or still use heli-coils (thread inserts). There is probably a lot more to this option, and I think they do a better job of preventing shavings from falling into the engine, but I do not know the details or the specifics of this method to say more about it.

As the car sits now, we'll most likely rent a dolly trailer to tow the car to a mechanic, so that cost is the same for either method. (Maybe a $20 rental from U-Haul, etc).

Financially speaking, on an almost 22 year old car, but it always starts and runs well, and we've done an average amount of costly repairs on it over the years, I have a feeling that option 1 is the cheaper of the two. Option 2 sounds like it potentially could offer a better result, but I really have no idea. 

Option 3, which is not really an option, and I will not even try, is to just say the heck with it, torque out the spark plugs and just not care if metal shards get into the engine, not care if some of the threads got stripped, then just screw in new plugs, and just drive it until the engine completely fails. Cheapest option, but will most likely result in total engine failure, I just don't know when.

We're due for other service too like a timing belt/water pump, need to replace the spark plug wire set and should probably get a new distributor too. When the car was about 7 years old, we had the transmission rebuilt due to cheap Chinese bearings in it, which was just north of $2K. About 2 years ago we replaced some radiator hoses, the radiator and had some floorboard rust areas stripped/re-welded which was a little costly, and just had a new muffler put on this year.

I would greatly appreciate your opinion on these options, or if you have any other ideas or options for the spark plugs.

2nd Issue:

The engine hesitates, almost like it will stall out (but doesn't) when, after driving normally up and down small hills and around curves (think country road driving around 35 - 45 mph) and then coasting (ie, not really being on the gas) at around 1500-2000 rpms when going around 40mph. This happens rather frequently during this scenario, and because we take the one stretch of road a lot where that style of driving leads to these results, it's repeatable (it happens elsewhere too, but almost always given the same circumstances).  Anyhow, because I believe this hesitation is to blame for the engine to stall out on the highway, right after entering the highway - one time last year for my wife and mother-in-law, and then it didn't want to restart, it really makes me worried about continuing to use this car as a daily driver - even though the engine always starts and has zero knocking, and it's generally inexpensive to repair (but does add up over time). So that day it stalled on her, I left work to see what I could do on the side of the highway, and it started right up for me. So, being the good husband, I let her drive my car from there (she was taking her mom to appointments), then I called my dad to meet me to follow me home. I made it home with zero issues. So, I believe her engine totally cutting out on her is related to what I notice happening when the engine hesitates when coasting at low RPMs - but I have no way to prove that. Since then, it runs without totally cutting out, but that hesitation bug is still happening. Unfortunately, I do not have any trouble codes for this. Every year our local mechanic keeps passing it for state inspection/emission, and he said we can probably put a million miles on it. But, that hesitation is bad, and I worry about my wife's continual use of it as a daily driver after it stalled out on her on the highway last year. I hope changing the plugs, wires and maybe the distributor will help resolve that hesitation issue. Also, the fuel filter is easily accessible right under the hood, and I want to replace it too. Anyhow, if you have any ideas what could be causing that engine hesitation (almost like it wants to stall but doesn't), letting off the gas going around 40 mph at 1500-2000 RPMs, that would be greatly appreciated too.

We can do some engine work ourselves, so long as we do not need a lift, and as long as we don't have to take out the engine/trans. Also, we don't have the professional tools to flush the engine properly, so we'll have to take it to someone to do that too.

I believe these specs from the Honda website are correct for my car: https://owners.honda.com/vehicles/information/1999/Civic-Coupe/specs#mid^EJ824XFW:

     Engine:
     Type: Aluminum-Alloy In-Line 4
     Displacement (cc): 1590
     Horsepower @ rpm (SAE net): 127 @ 6600
     Torque (lb.-ft. @ rpm): 107 @ 5500
     Compression Ratio: 9.6: 1
     Valve Train: SOHC 16-Valve: VTEC™
     Fuel System: Multi-Point Fuel Injection
     Ignition System: Electronic

     Drivetrain:
     Type: Front-Wheel Drive
     Automatic Transmission: 4-Speed (available)
     Lockup Torque Converter (AT only)
     Final Drive Ratio (MT/AT): 4.25/4.36

Thanks again for any advice, insight, knowledge that you can offer. I like your YouTube channel, been following for a few years now.

Mark