Oil on plugs?

[Dooie Pop Pop]

changed spark plugs today and noticed on 2 and 4 there was some oil on the plug and thread, 2 was a bit worse than 4.

can anyone tell me where' s it comin from, just inside the top of the plug hole there' s like a ring. there was oil up to this ring but im not sure if its from where i removed the ht lead.

have also noticed my dv has sneezed some oil over my maf sensor, there was some oil in the plenum side of my top mount and some deposited around the plenum mouth. there wasn' t any on the turbo side, iv got a forge seperator for it but not fitted it yet, could this be to blame (am running 1bar)

any idea' s anyone, done a couple of searches and got awnsers ranging from the plug seals :? to broken rings :shock: which has obviously done my karma right in.

if it is the plug seals are they easy to change? some of the injector pipeworks totally in the way of the rocker cover bolts and im not sure of the correct order to do them back up again....heelp

cheers, stu

 

[AJ4]

I wouldn't worry too much about it, the oil on the plugs can come from a small leak in the rocker cover gasket. The oil collects in the bottom of the plugs holes and when you take the plug out some of it gets on the threads. Nothing to worry about, I've had one like that for about 3 years with no problems, only uses like a tea spoon of oil a month. If it bothers you, just replace the rocker cover seal.

the other problem ( oil in the intake ) is usually from the oil breather system. If you look at the top right hand side of the rocker cover you will see a pipe that goes to the intake after the afm - its supposed to suck all the fumes from the rocker cover into the intake and burn them ( some emmissions law ). A lot of people ( including me ) just keep the oil catch tank that goes to the sump, and the other hose that goes to the intake is either vented to atmosphere or put into a plastic bottle with holes in the top.

Actually makes the car run better because you don't get all crap inside your intake and also you are not burning octane-lowering oil fumes anymore 8)

 

[Dooie Pop Pop]

Ross you are a star

am deinately going look at that breather cos im runnin outa room to put stuff
have ordered new gasket and seals anyway, have got some time off work soon so ill add that to the rather humungus 'stuff to do' list

on the other hand im not out of the woods yet because iv just put some ngk pfr7b' s in it (cos the S45i that were put in it were knackered) the hks' s were put in when i had the boost upped to a massive .9bar and as iv now discovered that they were too ott. wanted some denso 24's but iv gotta wait till tues for the postman so rather than run the car on knackered plugs i got the ngk' s and gapped them to .8 (which they were anyway)

now im a bit :? about this plug issue cos iv read conflicting reports about the ngk' s at 1bar, are they ok or not? a post of fastguys said the electrodes fail while some guy in oz says he uses them all the time :? also have dim memory of post from memski i read last night saying they were fine too.

paranoid about giving the car too much boot now, owning an R can do that to a man :roll:

thanks again ross, stu

 

[zia]

i use both hks and ngk and i swap them on regular basis!! :lol:

zia

 

[Fast Guy]

Ross you are a star


a post of fastguys said the electrodes fail while some guy in oz says he uses them all the time :?

That was in reference to my previous car, when someone posted saying platinums were pants for turbo cars. I tried running NGK (bp8evs) platinums in that, the ones with the .1mm electrode and one of them just broke off :?

Our standard ones are platinums, but I don't know if they're the same type as having had no running problems so far, I've never had to take them out too look at them.

If you go to 1bar you'll normally have to close the gap up slightly and go a heat range colder. I think Denso iridiums IK24s are the alternatives people tend to go for as well.

 

[AJ4]

I think the heat range is probably the most important thing to worry about. I've also heard the stories about platinum vs iridium etc but I can't say I've ever noticed any difference personally. Probably started as an urban myth, someone used a platinum at high boost, fuelling was crap and ran lean, melted the spark plug, told his mate down the pub not to use platinums because they melt at high boost etc etc

From my own experience of the Pulsar, I had standard ones in the car from Japan that ran perfectly, but they had been detted down to pinpoints ( not by me ! ), I changed them for a colder heat range, the car ran like absolute crap with huge misfires on part throttle, now I've got HKS Iridiums and had no problem whatsoever.

I'd say if your fueling was okay and your EGT wasn't excessively high, you shouldn't have a problem with any make / brand / style etc.

 

[Dooie Pop Pop]

aaah ha! and so on. totally naffed off with people who just wanna take wedge off you, poxy S45's @ .9bar :x am totally hijacking my own thread here but the hks's were gapped at .75 when i looked at em a couple o months ago. and were .8 when i changed em today :shock: left the ngks pfr7b' s @ .8 cos i didnt think .05 would make that much difference.

dug out a set of old plugs they were pfr7b9' s pregapped to .9 so i guess when they dropped the '9' they factory gapped them @.8. go on someone tell me im wrong

cheers, stu

wanted to add that i took it 'round the block' after i fitted the ngk' s and it felt more responsive and eager than when the hks' s were new.... :idea: what was everybody using before iridiums became available :?:

 

[Fast Guy]

Yeah, I found those BP*EVs suffered from cold fouling problems alot I ended going back to the normal (but colder) plugs in the end.

 

[Dooie Pop Pop]

RIGHT! took it out a bit further afield to see what it boosted like and its definately not quite right so i' ll take em out and regap them to .75 in the morning see if that improves it. should have realised it' d be ok off/low boost..muppet

 

[Dooie Pop Pop]

:shock: :shock: pixies broke into my car during the night :!: the little barstuards undid my boost hoses, shut the bonnet and locked the car so' s i wouldn 't notice. naughty pixies :roll: