Airridestang

Hi guys.. long post sorry.

Looking for some help. Firstly im from england ao please excuse my terminology. Recently bought a 1996 Gt and I'm having a little trouble with the pistons smashing into the spark plugs...



Plugs hitting the pistons
So the car runs fine if you drive it steady. But when you put your foot down it instantly drops a cylinder and sounds like a subaru... I changed all the plugs ordered some new ht leads from summit...( which are no good by the way there about 4 inch too long I think there 4 v leads?)

Took the car out to my grans came home a little more confident that it was just a dead plug when I purchase the car... went around a van and bam... total loss of power subaru engine returned and the guys in the van looked at me like I was a complete tit.

Stripped it down when I got home and found it had bumped a different plug on the same bank... I have done a little research and found that this appears to be a common problem... but can't find a solution. About to see if I can get on the machine at work to made some spacers to bring the plugs up a little... but wondered if anyone else had a proven method... I've herd about the motorcade plugs being long reach. If this is true is there an alternative?

Also if this makes any odds... it's supposed to be a later refurbished pi engine which was part of the reason I bought it.... but I'm now unsure.


Oil filler on the left of the heads but old style coil packs?




Casting on the heads believed to be the later pi heads




Bad picture but im pretty sure it makes out XW7E

Hoping you guys might be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks

Airridestang

Should be Motorcraft plugs .

Sorry

dawson1112

I dont believe that damage to the plug is caused by the piston hitting it.
Bare with me here,

It looks more like you have a few blown out plugs, meaning the threads that they screw into are either stripped or completly gone. Its common on the 4.6l engines for the sparkplug holes to become so bad that the compression blows the plug right out of the head, then it bounces around in the hole from the compression and suction. Causing the plug to look like that.

I would also guess that when it happens the cars gets kinda loud and sounds like a loud ticking our chug chug chug sound.


Very common on the 1L2E heads
http://www.hrpworld.com/store/defaul...r-rf-2c5e.html

You can probly have them repaired using the Time Sert

Airridestang

Thanks for the reply.

I have read this in another thread somewhere.

My questions though....

if that were the case, surely you'd notice a nackerd thread on installing new plugs...?

And am I right in assuming that if it was a blown plug and the thread was nackerd allowing the plug get blown out... that said plug would not be where it should be and certainly wouldn't require unscrewing to remove it from the head...?

Finally what is time cert?

I am no expert and have no experience with this engine so I do appreciate you help.

Thanks again

Airridestang

Sorry missed the link at the bottom... that explains the time sert thanks.

To add..

Car doesn't go particularly loud... just sounds like a Scooby. No knocking ticking etc...

Airridestang

Just a quick update for anyone who's interested...

Had a crack in one of the coill packs, swapped for MSD coil pack. Car has run spot on for months since.

Also was mentioned that could be something to do with the octane level in the regular fuel, she now only runs on she'll v power which I think is 98 octane...like a plank did them both at the same time so can't say for certain which it was but I darnt put the regular crap back in just in case.

Thanks for the help though

WhiteFoxGT

you red coats and your funny petrol! lol

id look to see if someone in the area has the ability to write a tune for the computer, might do you well

Airridestang

A tune is something I'm looking into but finding a trustworthy tuner with American experience is something I'm struggling with.

Z28KLR

They shouldn't need to much in the way of "American" experience, just good tuning experience. Same as any other car really, just need to get fuel trims and spark timing dialed in.