[s-cars] Dodging the bullet; a short story

[Joe Pizzimenti]

Interesting story, were you using the Bosch F5DPOR's?

They don't make em (spark plugs) like they used to, I guess...

Joe

On 2/27/06, djdawson2 at aol.com <djdawson2 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> So... Had to do a couple of weeks work in the LA area, and I figured it
> was as good an excuse as any to take yet another road trip in the S.  The
> trip from CO to CA went great... some fun fast driving, and even a bit of a
> snowstorm in UT.
>
> I worked my first week, and decided that over the weekend, I'd go up to
> the bay area to take a looksy at a pretty 850i 6 speed that I'd been
> watching.  So I left LA after lunch on Friday, and headed north on "the"
> 101.  (Important to note that in CA, highways aren't called I-5, or state
> route 101... they are called "the" 405, or "the" 215... always thought that
> was funny).  About 200 miles north of LA, the car began to misfire on
> occasion.  Hmm... I think I'll blow it off 'til I get there.  Big
> mistake.  About 30 miles later, the cylinder dropped out completely.  I
> stopped, and popped the hood.  After opening the hood, I was listening to
> what sounded like major head issues... akin to that of a broken valve
> spring, and a potential valve-hitting-head type noise.  I unplugged
> injectors, and found #4 to be the culprit.  It sounded really bad.  I
> decided to get back in the car, and drive slowly up to the next exit.
>
> I parked at an Osh's store (kind of like a Home Depot) and borrowed a
> phone book.  For about the 3rd time in my life, I was calling shops to see
> if anyone would work on my car.  Since it was 3:30pm on a Friday, the
> answers (of no less than 20 shops in the San Luis Obispo area, and north)
> were a resounding "no."
>
> Next call... U-Haul... yep, I'd like one 14ft truck and a car trailer...
> one way to Denver.  $1445?  Sounds great... can you deliver this stuff to
> me?  2 hours?  I'll be here.  While I'm waiting, I decide to call up Javad
> and see what he's doing for the weekend.  Turns out he's hauling a trailer
> down to LA in a couple of hours... but has to haul a car back, and wouldn't
> be able to work on my car over the weekend.
>
> Curiosity, and 2 hours to kill gets me thinking...  So I pull the coil
> cover, and remove the #4 plug.  Huh??  The spark plug is missing its ENTIRE
> center post... the whole thing, ceramic, metal and all.  Well, I guess that
> explains the noise and the miss.  So I decide to pull the valve cover as
> well, just to check the springs.  Springs check out fine.  So, I figure what
> the heck... and throw a good spark plug in there, and fire it up.  Now it's
> firing on all cylinders, but still sounds very bad.  At this point I'm
> assessing potential costs:
> Truck and trailer  $1445
> Gas to CO           $250
> Flight back to LA  $300 (last minute and all)
>
> Looks like $2000.  I decide the engine is barely worth $2k... and so I
> risk it.  I figure the engine noise is the spark plug tip in the combustion
> chamber.  The damage is probably done the the soft head material... so what
> do I really have at stake?  So I let it sit there and idle.  10 minutes of
> idling, and the noise is 100% gone.  I hop in the car, and pull out onto the
> 101, headed south.  I decide I will "limp" back to LA (hopefully) and figure
> out what to do later.  The cruise back to LA is entirely uneventful.  Once
> in LA, I pull the #4 plug again, to see if it got damaged by the remaining
> shrapnel.  Nothing.
>
> Feeling reassured, I continue south to Oceanside... and spend the night in
> a hotel on the shore.  I get up in the morning, and proceed to drive to Lake
> Havasu... why not, all seems fine now.  After some desert blasting...
> another miss begins.  I pull off, and remove the #4 plug again.  To my
> amazement, the post on this plug is starting to drop out.  The hooked
> electrode is pointing directly into the "cone" of the post, rather the the
> little pointed tip.  What is going on with these plugs?  I replace it with
> yet another plug, and continue to Havasu.
>
> Tonight, I returned to LA... no more failures... yet.  I've put a total of
> over 1000 miles on the engine since this strange disaster, and it is acting
> fine.  At the end of this week, I'll try and return to CO.
>
> Happy... since I didn't blow the $2k to get the car home on a
> trailer.  But I must say that I'm looking forward to popping the head to see
> what the chamber looks like.
>
> That's it for now...  Gotta find a different type of spark plugs.
>
> Dave
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list
>