changed my sparkers.. reading plugs
 

i changed my spark plugs today, its interesting to read the plugs, ill describe each plug and you tell me what you think!

on the front rotor the plugs looked pretty good.

both of them were covered in half black and half white residue.

the rear rotor was alittle scarier.

one of the plugs had liquid gas on it.. i think it was trailing, and one of them also was literally brown, and looked like the deposits on it had somehow chipped off... never a good sign right? is that a fouled plug?

Put new plugs in, swap your leading plug wires, and see if the problems "goes" to the front rotor...If it does, it's an ignition problem...If it doesn't, it's an injector, port, airflow, or compression problem on the rear rotor...

you mean swap the entire wire right? not just crisscross themm.... hopefully.

edit. the plugs and wires were repaced in november originally, but the car was running with the maf unhooked (i dont know either) from a previous owner

id believe its a compression problem first. im going to see if the same thing happens

I've always found brown that looks beat up and chipped to be coolant seal failure. This isn't a gaurantee, but this is what I've almost always found.

ive done the gushing coolant test with the cap off, and it seems that there is nothing of interest in there, coolant just flows on by, no gas smell in coolant. maybe the car just had a bad day?

You smoking at all, rs 1101?

Could have been the inop MAF doing it, you think, Rat?
Bad fuel scheduling?

It doesn't neccesarily imply that this is the cause, but generally this is what I've found from plugs that turn out this way. The testing for bubbles isn't always a perfect indicator if there's a leak, as it could be elsewhere along the rotor housing.

Yeh, that's true...

You losing any coolant at all?

And yes, I meant take the leading 1 plug wire off the plug, and put it on the leading 2 plug, and vice versa, but before you do that we need to see if SonicRat's scenario is happening...

Picture would be nice...


-Ted

Ted: do you have any more specific information on checking plugs? All I've got is my past experience, which definatly isn't as extensive as yours, and it's always interesting to be able to figure a few things out just by looking at the plugs instead of wasting time checking everything else.

well the fuel on the one plug indicates not necessarily that it isn't firing but that it isn't igniting gas... but brown (like you said) means water...
Did the car run fine before you changed plugs or did it drive like it had a blown apex seal?
if enough coolant is getting in than it could be keeping the gas from getting good ignition and leading to shitty combustion...

think i found the problem
 

my car has had a missing idle since i got it. i think i found out why. the leading wire plug on the rear rotor is in fact. bent. the female end where it should be a cylinder of metal, is bent and split.. can you say bad connection?

the thing is.. my car hauls ass. ive been looking for signs of streetporting on its last rebuild b/c it finished the local qm at 90mph.. on an s4. my honda barely went that fast.

and yes i did say brown. im going to look for signs of coolant failure, however i havent lost any coolant recently. as far as i know the cars about 40k into a rebuild.

If someone says "white", that should automatically raise a red flag for being too lean, but it's hard to tell what everyone considers "white".

If you see little balls of metal on the tip is the spark plug, that is BAD.

Some people are color-blind, so you want to make sure you got the color right. :)


-Ted

yea theres some white in there, and i know that usually means lean. i was kinda shocked, myself. im glad to know my misfiring problem is probably just a spark wire though.

running lean may actually be giving you a decent power output...just a thought. that's why you may not notice any troubles with your car, because it is "hauling ass"