Oh God... tell me how bad this is...
02-06-2010, 06:59 PM
#22
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 116
We may have come to the end of this journey, my friends.
Who wants to bet that the underlying cause of both problems (wet plug and erratic misses) was a defective Brisk Racing spark plug?
I took her out today on the highway to see if I could get a code to come up (since I have been disconnecting and connecting the negative terminal for all of these other steps) and she got really bad on me. I knew it was down to seven cylinders.
I thought, great, it should be obvious with COP stopped working when I pull the plugs.
Now, tell me what could cause this (see picture) beside a defective plug.
Load on the engine was pretty lame - just highway driving. Nothing extreme.
Electrode = gone.
I HOPE TO GOD that this is what was causing this all along. A plug going bad that just finally self destructed.
I have two new Brisks laying around for just such an occasion. They go in tomorrow. I will pray tonight that there is no missing tomorrow. Say a prayer for me.
Who wants to bet that the underlying cause of both problems (wet plug and erratic misses) was a defective Brisk Racing spark plug?
I took her out today on the highway to see if I could get a code to come up (since I have been disconnecting and connecting the negative terminal for all of these other steps) and she got really bad on me. I knew it was down to seven cylinders.
I thought, great, it should be obvious with COP stopped working when I pull the plugs.
Now, tell me what could cause this (see picture) beside a defective plug.
Load on the engine was pretty lame - just highway driving. Nothing extreme.
Electrode = gone.
I HOPE TO GOD that this is what was causing this all along. A plug going bad that just finally self destructed.
I have two new Brisks laying around for just such an occasion. They go in tomorrow. I will pray tonight that there is no missing tomorrow. Say a prayer for me.
02-06-2010, 09:08 PM
#23
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 116
Here's a picture looking down into the ceramic. It's hard to see but there is no clean break. It looks like it was eviscerated.
A look with the borescope showed nothing in the cylinder and no scoring of the walls or damage to the valves.
My hope is that whatever became of the electrode went out the exhaust valve and is lying on the street somewhere.
A look with the borescope showed nothing in the cylinder and no scoring of the walls or damage to the valves.
My hope is that whatever became of the electrode went out the exhaust valve and is lying on the street somewhere.
02-07-2010, 10:14 PM
#27
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 116
Ok. So I had 8 Brisks laid out today (1 new of course). They all look to be fine and I opened the gap a bit to .035 but I opted to not put them back in for now.
I did however order the following b/c if that plug wasn't my problem and I still have that erratic miss going on - I will pour gas over the car and light it on fire... maybe.
1) A set of HT0 plugs and the special gapping tool.
2) A set of 8 new, high-output COPs (I won't tell you who they are from because I risk being ridiculed for not listening to everybody)... but I did read the return policy so I am okay whether they have any effect or not.
3) A Kenne Belle Boost-a-Spark.
4) A BMR driveshaft safety loop and some UMI suspension stuff (UCA and LCAs with their new Roto-Joints for S197s) just for all the crap I've been putting myself through.
5) A mechanics stethoscope. Here's my plan on that... Since I have a miss that I haven't been able to diagnose electrically and my luck is that it will still be there regardless of this destroyed Brisk plug - then I will find it via the sound. Listening to the exhaust is pointless since I have an H pipe. I will put the car on the ramps and carefully climb under it while it is idling. I will first listen to the cats before they get hot to see which bank the miss is occuring in. Then I will listen from under the hood to the manifold to see if I can find the cylinder. This should be fun.
More to follow this week when the rest of this stuff shows up.
As always, I am open to more suggestions.
BTW - Anybody seen a installation post for the Boost-a-Spark? Not Boost-a-Pump.
I did however order the following b/c if that plug wasn't my problem and I still have that erratic miss going on - I will pour gas over the car and light it on fire... maybe.
1) A set of HT0 plugs and the special gapping tool.
2) A set of 8 new, high-output COPs (I won't tell you who they are from because I risk being ridiculed for not listening to everybody)... but I did read the return policy so I am okay whether they have any effect or not.
3) A Kenne Belle Boost-a-Spark.
4) A BMR driveshaft safety loop and some UMI suspension stuff (UCA and LCAs with their new Roto-Joints for S197s) just for all the crap I've been putting myself through.
5) A mechanics stethoscope. Here's my plan on that... Since I have a miss that I haven't been able to diagnose electrically and my luck is that it will still be there regardless of this destroyed Brisk plug - then I will find it via the sound. Listening to the exhaust is pointless since I have an H pipe. I will put the car on the ramps and carefully climb under it while it is idling. I will first listen to the cats before they get hot to see which bank the miss is occuring in. Then I will listen from under the hood to the manifold to see if I can find the cylinder. This should be fun.
More to follow this week when the rest of this stuff shows up.
As always, I am open to more suggestions.
BTW - Anybody seen a installation post for the Boost-a-Spark? Not Boost-a-Pump.
02-08-2010, 10:46 AM
#28
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Redding, CA
Posts: 4,552
I would like to see a picture of the porcelain where the plug meets the COP on the damaged plug.
Usually detonation would cause that. But a faulty plug seems more probable. If it were detonation, I would guess more plugs would be damaged.
Usually detonation would cause that. But a faulty plug seems more probable. If it were detonation, I would guess more plugs would be damaged.
02-08-2010, 11:10 AM
#29
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 116
Unfortunately it went out in the trash last night. But I can tell confidently that it looked perfectly normal. No cracks. No heat, burn, or other marks. Had the electrode still been there and the blueish heat marks not been there - it would have looked like a totally normal plug.
02-14-2010, 09:13 PM
#30
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 116
Final update for those interested...
I rechecked the HT0s that I put in gapped at .035 and all is now well. That Brisk plug was definitely the the cause of the miss. As once I replaced the plugs - it went away. Maybe I had them gapped down too much (.030)???
I also no longer seem to have any fluid on the #2 plug (but I don't know that it was related in any way to the plug - it might be a mystery forever).
After switching out the plugs I did the following to gear up for more mods and to help ensure this never happens again:
1) Kenne Belle Boost-a-Spark - currently set to min unless otherwise needed at the track.
2) Weapon-X coils - did tons of reading on this and I know some will say it was a total waste of money. Save your key strokes....I'll try them for a while and let ya'll know what I think and what my tuner thinks.
Right now she idles much smoother - a bit higher - Short term fuel trims are now symmetrical instead of bank 1 being trimmed more. No miss. No fluid on the plugs. No DTCs.
Right now, I couldn't be happier.
I rechecked the HT0s that I put in gapped at .035 and all is now well. That Brisk plug was definitely the the cause of the miss. As once I replaced the plugs - it went away. Maybe I had them gapped down too much (.030)???
I also no longer seem to have any fluid on the #2 plug (but I don't know that it was related in any way to the plug - it might be a mystery forever).
After switching out the plugs I did the following to gear up for more mods and to help ensure this never happens again:
1) Kenne Belle Boost-a-Spark - currently set to min unless otherwise needed at the track.
2) Weapon-X coils - did tons of reading on this and I know some will say it was a total waste of money. Save your key strokes....I'll try them for a while and let ya'll know what I think and what my tuner thinks.
Right now she idles much smoother - a bit higher - Short term fuel trims are now symmetrical instead of bank 1 being trimmed more. No miss. No fluid on the plugs. No DTCs.
Right now, I couldn't be happier.