Damage to spark Plug

[Ram From Hell]

As Hellboy would say "oh crap..."

That plug looks an awful lot like the one I pulled from #3 as well, and you can see from my avatar why that was.

A telltale sign of piston failure is to see if you're getting a pulsed flow of air out of the oil fill cap hole (with the cap removed, of course).

If it is what I think, I'm very sorry to see you join the rest of us STS victims.

If the crank an cylinder(s) are OK, you could do a low dollar rebuild with forged pistons, rings, bearings, and oil cooler (discard after anything goes haywire). Some days I don't know why I didn't choose to do this. These are usually the days where I sit back and wonder where the hell my money went...

You could also opt for 9:1 pistons if you'd like to go to a Paxton or Roe the next time around, and just wait and save up a few more bucks. You'd just be down a few HP with the lower CR pistons until it was time to put the next FI system on.

 

[Bone]

Smoke, if you get your truck up here (probably 4.5-5 hours from you), we can go at the forged pistons and internals. Plus anything else you want. Got two people after my install to help. Learning quite abit from each install.

Diamond has a 9-1, 9.2-1, and 9.6-1 ratios available.

 

[FlyingLow]

Smoke, if you get your truck up here (probably 4.5-5 hours from you), we can go at the forged pistons and internals. Plus anything else you want. Got two people after my install to help. Learning quite abit from each install.

Diamond has a 9-1, 9.2-1, and 9.6-1 ratios available.

Man I am so lost right now. Wife is laying up from the car wreck on Friday. I'm waiting to see if her car is totaled. I broke a back tooth today and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about the engine and the STS. I think I'm going to start with a leak test and see if there is any damage. Either way I think the STS has to come off. But then what? I guess it depends on if the engine is damaged or not. So I just don't know what I'm going to do or even need to do. But thanks for the offer. Once I figure things out I will let you know.

 

[Brat]

sorry to hear this Smoke hope everything works out ok.

 

[viprtek]

Man I am so lost right now. Wife is laying up from the car wreck on Friday. I'm waiting to see if her car is totaled. I broke a back tooth today and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about the engine and the STS. I think I'm going to start with a leak test and see if there is any damage. Either way I think the STS has to come off. But then what? I guess it depends on if the engine is damaged or not. So I just don't know what I'm going to do or even need to do. But thanks for the offer. Once I figure things out I will let you know.

Sorry about the bad news. I hope everything works out for you.

 

[94rt10ohio]

I had the same thing!! But it was after I had installed my headers and had my plugs out during, so I contributed it to hitting the plug when re-installing.

 

[94rt10ohio]

Oh, and I have ran it about 1K miles since, no issues.

 

[FSTJACK]

Scott,

I seem to recall a thead you were looking at or going to buy somebody's flashed PCM.

Did you recently install another PCM

I may not be remembering correctly.

I am very sorry about your wife being hurt and will pray for her and your family.

 

[sleeper]

I had the same thing!! But it was after I had installed my headers and had my plugs out during, so I contributed it to hitting the plug when re-installing.

Was your bad plug in the #3 hole?:dontknow:

 

[94rt10ohio]

Was your bad plug in the #3 hole?:dontknow:

Nope, 5.

 

[FlyingLow]

Scott,

I seem to recall a thead you were looking at or going to buy somebody's flashed PCM.

Did you recently install another PCM

I may not be remembering correctly.

I am very sorry about your wife being hurt and will pray for her and your family.

I bought a VEC2 last month, but it is still sitting in the box. I do have the blower flash from B&G and the STS-1E controller for the 4 extra injectors. I have been running this like it is for 17K miles and several trips to the track. I wonder if the plug was just getting worse and worse and then finally gave out while I was doing high speed under boost.:dontknow: I will try to get a leak test done soon.

Was your bad plug in the #3 hole?:dontknow:

Yes it was.

 

[FSTJACK]

I bought a VEC2 last month, but it is still sitting in the box. I do have the blower flash from B&G and the STS-1E controller for the 4 extra injectors. I have been running this like it is for 17K miles and several trips to the track. I wonder if the plug was just getting worse and worse and then finally gave out while I was doing high speed under boost.:dontknow: I will try to get a leak test done soon.




Yes it was.

Thanks I was just curious, and too lazy to do a search of the Forum. I guess it cannot be blamed on the VEC.

Hope a leak down test shows no damage.....

 

[SilvrSRT10]

Cylinder pressure would not bend it. Reason for this is that the pressure is equal on all surfaces of the electrode. Therefore you would not have a positive pressure side to cause the bending.

Make sense?

I thought about this some more last night. True, on the compression stroke, pressure would be the same all around it. But on the intake and exhaust strokes, air is swirling all around. I'd think that if the electrode had gotten red hot. An exhaust stroke could possibly put enough pressure on it to close it as the gasses escape out the valve.:dontknow:

 

[Texas Yellow Fever]

I thought about this some more last night. True, on the compression stroke, pressure would be the same all around it. But on the intake and exhaust strokes, air is swirling all around. I'd think that if the electrode had gotten red hot. An exhaust stroke could possibly put enough pressure on it to close it as the gasses escape out the valve.:dontknow:

Not likley. If that were possible it would happen a lot more. Air did not do that...those electrodes are stronger than that...it had to be hit by something, IMHO.

 

[ViperTruck2933]

Not likley. If that were possible it would happen a lot more. Air did not do that...those electrodes are stronger than that...it had to be hit by something, IMHO.

I agree with Steve.

I suspect something like what Justin posted probably happened. I hope not, but I think you have a piece of piston floating around your combustion chamber.

This post from your other thread reinforces that suspicion:

Not really melted, just lost the gap for some reason. Now I can hear the valve tap off and on a little. So I don't know what that means.

 

[FlyingLow]

Let me ask you this question. Is it possible that I leaned out because I was low on fuel and driving WOT in Boost? Also I'm thinking that if something did hit the spark plug it didn't hit it very hard otherwise there would have been a lot more damage to the plug. At least that is what I would guess. I'm still trying to find a place to do a leak test. The dealer here can't do it. And as far the sound, I don't really know if the sound is there or not. It's like I'm trying so hard to listen, that I hear all types of things. It was my neighbor that said it sounded like a valve. But I don't think he realizes how loud these engine are.

 

[Bone]

I would have to say also, that something has hit it unfortunately. I know you don't want to do it, or spend the money, but IMO you need to at least test the cyl like they have been saying or even look at the cyl. It shouldn't be hard to find a shop to test it for you. Heck, sears may be able to do it. BTW, you are welcome to one of my stock cyls if you need it. I had not damage on mine.

 

[FlyingLow]

Thanks Bone for the offer. I might have to take you up on that. I'm just really lost right now on what to do and what my options are. So any of you guys that can give me some ideas please do. I'm trying to figure out what the cost of rebuilds and such are. I'm still trying to find a place to do a leak test. At the very least I will get a compression check done this week.

 

[RedSrt007]

Wish you were closer, I would tell you to come by and we can get it done. But as everyone else said, leak it down...that will tell you how the rings, intake & exhaust valves are doing. Not to mention if you have some piston problems...

That would be my #1 thing to do. The second thing to do while you setup an appt for the leak-down is to go get a 10x magnifying glass and look at the plug in detail and see if you can determine what happened. Look for detonation and metal down in the porcelain.

Next, go to autozone and borrow a loaner-tool and look in the cylinders with a flashlight and a scope and see if you can visually get any signs of piston damage.

If everything checks out good (low % of loss on leak down, compression good, etc..) then I would be very curious to find out what happened to the plug....I highly doubt that your cylinder pressure caused the ground electrode to close (gap). Also, while your waiting for a appointment..drain the oil, cut the filer open, check the filter internals for metal.

Not sure if the pan can be dropped on the QC without lifting the motor, but if you can drop the pan, that would give you some info on the crank, rods...

You should have some answers by that time..

All IMHO

-Red

 

[SilvrSRT10]

I highly doubt that your cylinder pressure caused the ground electrode to close (gap).

When I proposed this idea. I was not to suggesting it could happen under normal or even extreme circumstances. We all know that #3 is very susceptible to catastrophic and immediate failure with the STS. I was thinking it was on the verge of doing so. Doing so to the point that the electrode had become "molten" for lack of a better term. And that when the exhaust valve opened and all that explosive gas escaped all at once it might have happened.

Anyhow, all the brainstorming in the world won't tell us what's really going on. Have to wait until Scott is able to get some tests done. I hope your studying Scott.