so WTF happened to my spark plugs? they're only 4 months old!

[Losiracer2]

Okay to my dismay tonight right before I wanted to drag my car, It was telling me something. My #1 spark plug chamber was pretty much drenched in oil and to make things worse, one of the tabs on the sparkplug is completely GONE. Its not even there anymore, broken off and made my car run like crap. So thinking that others might be bad, I took all 4 of them off and also discovered the #4 plug was pretty much in the same condition. The tab was nearly broken off and almost looked like #1. These are NGK Iridium 9's w/ only 5K miles on them and are only 4 months old! So is something terribly wrong w/ my engine? a guy mentioned my piston rings were fried, but I really don't know what it is.

pics of the plugs:




^^#1 plug, extreme left, #4 plug second from left, notice how thin the electrode tab is compared to the right side spark plugs

[evil_demon_01]

WTF thats very odd, I've seen 100,000km iridiums that are still fiine.
You diddn't regap them by any chance did you?
What ECU are you running, they might be running a bit lean to cause that?
d112crzy is the one to talk to about those

Edit: when you say #1 had oil in it, Do you mean inside the cylinder? That would cause detonation which would make the plugs do that.
Heard any pinging noises lately?

[NorcoAccord]

Damn something is terrible wrong with that one plug, umm maybe the piston got a little friendly with the plug, don't know.

[Losiracer2]

I just checked the gap to .044 on all the plugs before i put them in. It sucks all of a sudden after driving like 25 miles in stop and go traffic, my car started bogging down after 40mph so I knew something was wrong w/ the sparkplugs or the wires weren't making contact w/ the plugs, and sure enough, that broken plug was what I found in wire 1 and the almost broken plug was in wire 4. the chamber in wire 1 was pretty soaked w/ oil but I don't understand why they look TOAST. They look completely fried after less than 5K miles. I put them in at 166K and this is what they look like now at 171K.

Do you think the seafoam treatment affected anything at all? b/c I did that at least 2-3 weeks ago and have been driving everyday since then at least 20 miles a day, and nothing like this happened immediately afterward.

[evil_demon_01]

Honestly I havn't had any experience with seafoam - we don't have it over here. So maybe, but don't quote me on that
This has happened over time though, they havn't just done that in a day or 2.
If you look closely at #4 plug you can see thats its gotten hot enough to the point where the electrode has started to melt.

[Losiracer2]

WTF thats very odd, I've seen 100,000km iridiums that are still fiine.
You diddn't regap them by any chance did you?
What ECU are you running, they might be running a bit lean to cause that?
d112crzy is the one to talk to about those

Edit: when you say #1 had oil in it, Do you mean inside the cylinder? That would cause detonation which would make the plugs do that.
Heard any pinging noises lately?

well it had oil in the spark plug chamber, like where the plug connects to the wire on top and around the head of the plug where it makes contact w/ the wire. It covered my craftsman spark plug socket pretty much all the way up to the extension part of the wrench.

[Losiracer2]

but what I'm wondering is, what could cause it to get SO hot that it erodes itself away after only 5K? do I have a leak somewhere that I'm not supposed to have?

[evil_demon_01]

well it had oil in the spark plug chamber, like where the plug connects to the wire on top and around the head of the plug where it makes contact w/ the wire. It covered my craftsman spark plug socket pretty much all the way up to the extension part of the wrench.

Thats due to the valve cover sparkplug tube seals, or the lower sparkplug tube seals leaking, but I can't see that causing the problem.


You said the plugs were 9's but on the plug they say 5's.
I think you should go to a colder plug maybe 6's - Though I wouldn't have thought that the H23 intake swap and intake would have facilitated the need for colder plugs.
Though more air intake volume = leaner mixtures = hotter cylinder temps.

What did the plugs look like that you swapped them out for? And did you do any engine mods since changing them?

[Losiracer2]

Thats due to the valve cover sparkplug tube seals, or the lower sparkplug tube seals leaking, but I can't see that causing the problem.


You said the plugs were 9's but on the plug they say 5's.
I think you should go to a colder plug maybe 6's - Though I wouldn't have thought that the H23 intake swap and intake would have facilitated the need for colder plugs.
Though more air intake volume = leaner mixtures = hotter cylinder temps.

What did the plugs look like that you swapped them out for? And did you do any engine mods since changing them?

yeah I know my tube seals are bad, but I don't know why in such a short amount of time. I had them all redone along w/ a new dizzy, cap rotor, ignitor, plugs, wires and main relay along w/ a valve adj. back in Nov 06' w/ 155K. But as for replacements, I bought some ZFR-6F11, the ones for Hotter climates it says under the hood, since it looked like my iridiums got WAY too hot and the tab just broke under that heat. yeah those are Iridium 9's, ZFR -5FIX11, so it should be the OEM replacement, just in Iridium.

[evil_demon_01]

yeah I know my tube seals are bad, but I don't know why in such a short amount of time. I had them all redone along w/ a new dizzy, cap rotor, ignitor, plugs, wires and main relay along w/ a valve adj. back in Nov 06' w/ 155K. But as for replacements, I bought some ZFR-6F11, the ones for Hotter climates it says under the hood, since it looked like my iridiums got WAY too hot and the tab just broke under that heat. yeah those are Iridium 9's, ZFR -5FIX11, so it should be the OEM replacement, just in Iridium.

Nov 06 - 5k miles in 16 months, nice
Even still if it was a hotter climate issue, I wouldn't expect them wear that fast.
What sort of daily outside temperatures do you have there?

[Losiracer2]

Nov 06 - 5k miles in 16 months, nice
Even still if it was a hotter climate issue, I wouldn't expect them wear that fast.
What sort of daily outside temperatures do you have there?

no u misunderstood me. Back in Nov 06' they put new STOCK NGK V-power's in the OEM plugs. I put those Iridium 9s in back in Nov 07' so Nov-Mar =4 mo. and 5K miles, see? sorry if that wasn't clarified. Temps now are reaching the 90s already

[evil_demon_01]

no u misunderstood me. Back in Nov 06' they put new STOCK NGK V-power's in the OEM plugs. I put those Iridium 9s in back in Nov 07' so Nov-Mar =4 mo. and 5K miles, see? sorry if that wasn't clarified. Temps now are reaching the 90s already

Oic
As said earlier what did the Stock plugs look like when you swapped in the iridiums? Was the electrode worn abnormally?

[d112crzy]

What's your oil consumption like? Do you burn oil?

That looks like your cylinder temps are very, very hot.

Iridiums have a higher spark energy, more so than copper spark plugs. Maybe what happened with yours is that the heat inside the combustion chamber is so hot and the energy of the spark was too strong that it started eating away at the electrodes.

I would definitely get your tube seals fixed tho. A lot of people say you don't need to use rtv on them, but I like to use some for piece of mind.

I have seen spark plugs like that before, but not after 5k miles.

I'd try running some BKR6e11's. They are copper core, which makes them withstand heat much better. Not as inductive, but on a near stock engine, you won't notice a difference.

[js593]

The hell kind of fuel are you feeding that thing Maybe the fuel is too high of grade for that motor?

[ExplodingCake]

Like d112crzy said , probable high cylinder temperature.

Try cleaning your EGR valve. Check if the plug is in the correct heat range , lean fuel mixture , over advanced timing , intake manifold vacuum leak , sticking valves and insufficient engine cooling.