Badly fouled spark plugs Options

[injunmort]

i love the statement that there is no indication that there is something wrong with shortblock. my experience tells me that heavy oil smoke would indicate something is amiss in the shortblock, and since nobody else suggested it, i will go out on a limb and suggest the rings. that is if this unicorn even exists.

[TheCabinetmaker]

I think you mean uni"con"!

[HAM Inc]

i love the statement that there is no indication that there is something wrong with shortblock. my experience tells me that heavy oil smoke would indicate something is amiss in the shortblock, and since nobody else suggested it, i will go out on a limb and suggest the rings. that is if this unicorn even exists.

I think you have 914 World confused with Facebook. Most people are civil here.

I don't normally wade into these cesspool moments, but douche baggery is why I gave up on FB except for business posting. I would like it if assholes don't F up this place too.

[Whitney Mic]

after 3pgs now the spark plugs are not firiing,really?

That's funny, because the rest of us are reading (and replying) to a thread with the title "Badly Fouled Spark Plugs." Also, the OP asked in his original question about why his car is running rough, then posted a couple of pics on page 2 of the fouled plugs. Everyone else here is trying to help troubleshoot for someone that may have a combination of problems with their engine, and a few folks are really engaged in helping the OP find an answer. But snarking at someone you suspect may be a troll is a valid response as well, I guess.

Did you start reading the thread on page 3, or did someone wee-wee in your Wheaties yesterday?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

-- Whit

[TheCabinetmaker]

Defending yourself mic?

[Bartlett 914]

How old is the gas? When did you last fill up? Doesn't explain gas in the oil and smoking but you may have multiple problems. Bad gas will certainly make a car run rough

[injunmort]

mic and HAM, have read this whole thread? read pages 1-3 before you accuse med of douchebaggery, you douche bags. pg1 post 4 from me, rings. followed by others suggesting the same including HAM. the op does not adress the rings and i am the douche bag? re read then respond intelligently or i would suggest you suffer from affliction as the the op.

[Tbrown4x4]

I was going to shy away from this train wreck, but I would like to correct two point made earlier.

High zinc in our oil is to protect the flat tappet cams.

Running a fresh rebuild for 20 minutes at 2000 rpms is to properly break in the new camshaft. No load, lots of oil splashing around.

I am a mechanic of 35 years, with MANY engine rebuilds under my belt including BMW, Corvair, Ford, Chevy and Toyota.

[TheCabinetmaker]

Tbrown, I agree about both your points, but I've seen nothing in this thread to indicate any disagreement with those points. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[Bulldog9]

Reading through the thread, you have:

1. Black sooty plugs
2. Blue smoke out the tailpipe when running
3. Increasing oil level in crank case
4. Occasional no run situation.
5. 125# on compression test
6. Bad gas mileage

The sooty plugs could be many things, incorrect heat range on the plugs, bad wires, bad plugs, weak spark/coil/rotor. As many others have said, when a plug is fouled, it needs to be replaced. I've even filed the firing points and for whatever reason fouled plugs rarely work right. Could also be as has been said many times too much fuel due to too high fuel pressure, or your cold start valve continues to spray creating a super rich run situation.

This is further supported by your increasing oil level. Either you have too much fuel spray or not enough spark. You need to correct/eliminate one or the other or both.

Blue smoke? RINGS...... FIrst get rid of that Castrol Crap, put in the proper Oil. Valvoline V1, Joe Gibbs, or Brad Penn. Castrol used to be a solid product, now is unreliable.

I also think that this is a new motor? It could be that they havent been seated properly, but my guess is you have trashed them with a too rich environment. What do I mean?? Well you have so much fuel in the cyls that it is seeping past your rings and getting into the oil raising the oil level and because of this the rings/cyls, maybe pistons (unlikely at this early stage) are shot...........

YUP, I'm saying that I think that even once you fix your fuel/spark issue you are looking at a ring job/rebuild. Now once you sort out the fuel/spark issue, I would change the oil and go beat on it, see if you can get the rings to seat/reseat and start working properly once they have proper lubrication and oil film on the cyls.

But if I may, you have largely ignored or rebuffed most of the input people have given you. Why bother asking?

Either way good luck!

[Whitney Mic]

Defending yourself mic?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)
From what? That was my only post in this thread.

I'm just reading along...

I do kind of wonder what would cause the car to go lean, then compensate and run rich again when the OP removed the FI electrical connector for each cylinder. Could a combination of a problem with the AFM and a vacuum leak do something like that? A vacuum leak could explain why the OP was running fine, then the car crapped out completely and started running rich on all cylinders

Remember, I have no experience with FI, I'm posting this as the village idiot looking at the problem from a fool's perspective. It just seems that the above could be a part of the problem.

-- Whit

[HAM Inc]

mic and HAM, have read this whole thread? read pages 1-3 before you accuse med of douchebaggery, you douche bags. pg1 post 4 from me, rings. followed by others suggesting the same including HAM. the op does not adress the rings and i am the douche bag? re read then respond intelligently or i would suggest you suffer from affliction as the the op.

Yep. The OP has largely ignored advise and exhibits confused headless chicken syndrome and may indeed be a clown that got banned for previous douche-baggery... but maybe he isn't. Maybe he is just a confused headless chicken.

Either way, calling the guy an idiot and castigating people for trying to help him is, well - you get the idea.

[rhodyguy]

this one has turned the corner. the comp test seems to have been completed, howzabout the leak down?

[Bulldog9]

mic and HAM, have read this whole thread? read pages 1-3 before you accuse med of douchebaggery, you douche bags. pg1 post 4 from me, rings. followed by others suggesting the same including HAM. the op does not adress the rings and i am the douche bag? re read then respond intelligently or i would suggest you suffer from affliction as the the op.

Chill dude...............

[Whitney Mic]

mic and HAM, have read this whole thread? read pages 1-3 before you accuse med of douchebaggery, you douche bags. pg1 post 4 from me, rings. followed by others suggesting the same including HAM. the op does not adress the rings and i am the douche bag? re read then respond intelligently or i would suggest you suffer from affliction as the the op.

Wow.

Project much?

You started with the snark, then went further and implied the OP is a troll. I snarked back and asked if you had a bad day yesterday, but don't think what I posted insulted you in any way. Now you are straight out calling names and insulting people.

All I did was quote you as saying that the OP didn't mention his plugs were not firing until page three of the thread. I pointed out that the thread is tilted: "Badly Fouled Spark Plugs," and that the OP posted pics of fouled, poorly firing plugs on the second page. With that title, I would expect to see non-firing spark plugs as part of the OP's problem.

and yes, I did see post four on page one. You were seriously trying to help. I think that you have convinced yourself the OP is a troll because he didn't listen to your advice about the rings. While others are still trying to help with the original question posted, you are sniping from the side and being rude.

There is a chance you are right and the OP is a troll; I still give the benefit of doubt to him. Others here seem to agree that he is serious, they want to help him solve his issues.

If you go back and read the thread, please notice that I was not the first person to respond to the unhelpful comments you were adding to the thread. I was only more direct and open in my post than the comments made before I posted.

If that makes me a douche, cool. After all, I am apparently the unwilling ambassador of the Masengillian Contingency. You should be careful you aren't becoming one of us though...from what I have seen here, you could be one of our leading citizens...

I actually feel kind of sorry for you.

It bothers you so much that the OP might be a troll that you can't let it go and ignore the thread.

It bothers you more that others are taking the OP seriously, so you question why and then you insult other forum members because they are trying to help the OP.

It must also bother you that we don't see what is so obvious to anyone with half a brain.

-- Whit

[andreic]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!

Sorry for the many posts, and I apologize if this has brought out some anger in some people, leading them to troll. Trust me, I was probably the most frustrated of all.

The trouble turns out to have been the ECU. After changing the oil with fresh one, and putting in new spark plugs I tried running it again, with no change whatsoever -- very rough running, no idle, blue smoke coming out.

Then I replaced the ECU as a last hope measure. And lo and behold -- suddenly running perfectly. It was still spewing a bit of blue smoke, but that corrected itself after driving it hard for about 5 minutes. I also did the "lugging" procedure recommended by Len, just in case it was needed, but the car now runs perfectly, no smoke coming out of the exhaust, exhaust smells normal, etc.

So warning to others: even though I myself had never heard of the L-Jet ECU's failing, they apparently can fail in rather weird ways (I suspect it kept some or all of the injectors wide open all the time).

At this point I only have one last question. The previous oil got fouled with gasoline; I did change the oil, but not the filter, so a small amount of fouled oil still is there in the engine. The questions are:

a) Is it OK to drive the car with this oil in for another month (I'll be putting car in storage mid-October, and usually I do an oil change just before that), or should I change the oil right away?

b) Many people said that Castrol 20W50 is not ideal for this engine. What is a recommended oil? Brad Penn 20W50? Or a straight weight oil?

Thanks a lot again for the support, especially the experts (Timothy, Len, etc.)

CAR IS RUNNING AGAIN! HURRAY!!

[timothy_nd28]

Would you mind mailing me your ECU, I repair them. I'm highly interested to what exactly failed on yours.

[andreic]

Would you mind mailing me your ECU, I repair them. I'm highly interested to what exactly failed on yours.

I will gladly do that. I am also curious what failed, and it would not be bad to have a spare ECU. PM me your address and I'll mail it on Monday. Also let me mnow what you expect it to cost to fix it.

Thanks for all the help!

A.

[euro911]

Glad to hear you found the problem. Happy motoring.



Back to our regularly scheduled programming (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Whitney Mic]

Glad you found the trouble, hope you can get out and enjoy some motoring this weekend!

--Whit