Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Man these RB engines are strong! The story goes...

Had it tuned Sat morning. All the air/fuel ratios were right and it made good power for stock turbo and cooler - a tad under 260rwhp.

It was a beautiful day and after having a bite to eat - my arm was twisted by a certain whore expert to go for a drive so we decided to drive up to Chittering...

After a gentle cruise up the freeway and a meander up towards the pine plantation near Wanneroo raceway, we turned off toward Great Northern highway and started passing some slower cars (which just happened to be all of them:D).. After a nice run I was onto the final straight and doing some good revs in 5th when something let go and I lost power... "hmm" I thought.. "wonder whats wrong?"...

We pulled off - inspected my engine which seemed to have a slight miss, decided the plugs had finally given up and decided to continue on and pick up some new plugs on the way home.

After a nice drive out to Chittering, back via Joondalup and through to my place in West Perth, everything was running ok with the exception of a slight miss.. My baby idled itself down in the garage and the whore expert and I went to work to replace the plugs...

What I saw next nearly gave me a heart attack... Somehow numer 5 plug had lost most of the hook over the electrode.. it just seemed to have melted away... "hmm.." I thought "wonder what the others are like.."

Number 3 was the next casualty. All I can say is that it had been obliterated... the hook over the electrode was completely missing and the electrode itself looked like it had suffered some sort of explosion as it was missing down to about 10mm inside the plug...

Panic stations were manned and calls were made.. I ended up replacing the plugs and turning it over.. Everything ran ok with a slight miss at idle - nothing more.. I let it be and decided to limp it up to a garage today...

Enter the compression test this afternoon. I would definitely recommend the Ultratune in Warwick. Dave the mechanic who works there is an absolute champ..Anyway - I digress.. So we pulled out the plugs (that were quite white) and attempt to do a dry compression test and it turns out his new guage is broken. Never fear, you could actually hear the difference between the compression in the other cylinders to number 3 cylinder. Then we try a wet compression test and it seems to come up ok. So we bolt everything back together and do an emmissions test on it. This showed excess fuel/oil which would indicate a tired engine. While it was idling, there was an arcing noise coming from under the plastic cover over the coils which seemed to coincide with the missing.

All of this tells me a few things:

1. The white plugs (100kms old) tells me that it's running lean

2. The wet compression test tells me that number 3 is low and that the rings are possibly to blame

3. The arcing sound tells me that one or possibly more of the coil packs is doing something it shouldn't

So after all this I gave the car a right caining, as it desrved no less, and everything was fine. Aside from the missing at idle, everything else seems in working order...

Plan of attack:

1. Talk to the tuner and possibly run it up on the dyno again to find out why it's running lean.

2. Get an endoscope and check out the damage to number 3 cylinder.

3. If not too bad - thrash the car like normal.

I'm thinking that the low compression has always been there and I'll fix it when I get round to doing a full rebuild..

Comments? Opions? Have I reached the completely wrong conclusion? Help is needed...

Cam

PS - if you got this far - thanks for taking the time to read it!! :D

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20986-blown-plugs-and-it-still-works/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 42
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Nope.. I'm thinking that a bit of low compression in one cylinder is something I can live with for a while.. What I am worried about is why it is running lean when the fuel ratios were ok on the dyno...

Ever since I ran up more boost I've had a problem with the car misfiring. Its not all the time just now and then, pulling the plugs out and looking at them doesnt really show the car running too rich, although the dyno's AFR says different. I'm thinking my missing issue could be something simular to cams.

if you melted a spark plug end i would be checking the air fuel mix this tends to be a severe warning that you are running too lean,the next sign would be cooked rings resulting less compression and or a hole melted into the top of the piston,i have seen this happen before and it's easy to avoid.Check the fuel pump and pressure reg are still working correctly,if so ask tuner to recheck air fuel ratio are correct.Good luck and i hope this helps.

Thanks guys for the input so far..

Micko - yea - it ain't the injectors.. definitely coming from under the plastic cover.. quite loud..

GTS5000 - when i pulled the plugs today - all were white so something has leaned things out.. not sure why it would've changed from the settings on the dyno tho.. am going to get the ratios checked again asap...

It was still doing the stall thing when it tried to come down to idle.. Once the idle stabilises it seems to be ok..

oh yea - I'm not trying to blow it up, but a bit of low compression isn't a worry. What is a worry is the fact that it's running lean and the coil packs are arcing.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Welcome to my 2004 Toyota Mark ii IR-V Fortuna (series 2) With a 1JZ-GTE powerplant under the bonnet (hood) it'll give me plenty of scope for power upgrades. For those who aren't familiar with imports, the 1JZ-GTE is a 2.5L 6 cylinder VVTi engine with a single turbocharger. This has the factory R154 5 speed gearbox, along with a aftermarket 2 way LSD differential (brand unknown). Under the arches are a set of CST Zero 1 alloys, 18x9 +30 225/40 up front and 18x9.5 +15 265/35 on the rear. The car was quite low in Japan and there's evidence of the wheels catching the rolled arches/fenders. The tyre's aren't great so I'm in two minds whether to replace both or just the tyres and put up with the wider wheels on the rear. The car still uses stock brakes with the addition of some braided hoses. The exterior is stock with the exception of a BN Sports front bumper and a replacement Fortuna grill  Moving to the interior, the steering wheel has been replaced with a dished MOMO steering wheel (which will get swapped for my Momo Tuner for the time being) Defi Link Gauges are mounted above the climate controls and on the A pillar, the Oil Temp,Oil Pressure,Water Temp and Boost gauges should help with spirited and track driving  The stock seats have been replaced with some retrimmed Recaro bucket seats. Being a larger build these are a little snug, unfortunately the orange isn't for me so I'll look into replacing these down the line. Other modifications include a twin plate clutch, Blitz intercooler, Evolve alloy radiator, a stainless exhaust with decat, HKS EVC-S boost controller and coil overs
    • Apologies for the long read My R34 GTT was up for sale at the beginning of spring due to a few repairs creeping up. The strut tops needed replacing, roof and bonnet (hood) painting (yay for 3 stage pearl) and the underside stripped and treated. I sold the car which allowed me to be in a much better place financially. Leading up to the sale I was already thinking about the replacement. In an ideal world it needed to be a good all-rounder. Something I can mess around with, modify, do track days, do the school run, go on long drives etc.  Options included but not limited to... Laurel C35, Evo 8/9, Civic FD2, Impreza Hawkeye, Aristo and even an Audi S4 Avant (I've already got the Mazda 6 wagon). But there was always one car at the top of the list The Toyota Mark ii JZX110 I found an advert on a Facebook group for an example in Japan, from a seller called Jon at Rising Sun Exports. A few messages back and forth and Jon calls me from Yokohama one morning (or afternoon in his case). He briefly explained the import process, the costs involved and a repeat of the advert. After much deliberation, the price was agreed and the sale was locked in. I've never imported a vehicle so I jumped into the unknown head first. The money transfer was completed through wise.com (fees apply), very easy to use and the money was with him within a day or two.  The car suspension was raised for the vessel and the car dropped off at the port. It was 7 weeks later when the bill of lading was received and the freight invoice sent to me, followed by the export certificate a couple of days after (both digital copies) In the mean time the port had been in contact. I needed an agent to deal with the NOVA (notification of vehicle arrival) along with the tax/duty invoice, this was £75.00. The port also had a fee of £100, I'm guessing to cover the cost of the 10 day 'free storage' and for moving the car off the boat etc. They need a copy of the vehicle invoice, freight invoice and export certificate to allow the vehicle to pass through customs. The vessel arrived on Tuesday 5th August, the tax/duty invoice was generated and sent over. This is generally tax 20% and duty 10% of the vehicle value. Although the invoice came in at a higher amount than I had calculated. Once HMRC had received the payment the vehicle could be released from customs. I thought once the tax/duty was paid you could collect at any point, that's not the case. Your agent will need to book a collection slot, I requested Thursday 7th which was accepted, with a 9:00am slot allocated. It was a 5:00am start from Norfolk heading to Southampton. We eventually found the compound, upon presenting the bill of lading and some ID they released the car (they drove it out of the compound to the front ready for us to load up). The email from the port stated each slot had a 10 minute window, which seemed abit farfetched but the staff said it's not a strict rule. We were there for approx. 30-40 mins in total. A week prior to collecting I contacted my garage and explained the situation, I was able to get an inspection slot that afternoon. For the registration, DVLA require the car to be insured, for this I used a company called Adrian Flux who can insure the vehicle using the VIN number. 
    • Hey guys, looking for these side skirts if anyone can help me out. 
    • Wife and I are still looking for a new home. One condition was a large enough garage for a full-size lift in one bay. Now if only we could find something... We've been looking for almost a year now.
    • Thanks everyone for the ideas! Sadly, ramps are a no go for me. With young kids at home, I do most of my work late at night while they're sleeping. Starting the car multiple times wouldn't be a great idea.  I'll go see one of those new long reach low profile jacks and take a couple measurements to see if they will fit.   
×
×
  • Create New...