Re: untightened sparkplugs

["R. Shayne Pavlic'" <bcpi@arias.net>]

While  in Europe on vacation several years back I rented an econobox car
which had so-so performance and gas milage as bad as my 1974 454 suburban. 
After about the third fillup in 400 km I decided to look under the hood.  I
found 2 of the 4 plugs nearly ready to be catapulted out of their sockets. 
After tightening them, the car took off like a rocket and the fuel economy
was more like a Metros (why can't Chev. make cars that get 45 mpg and haul
ass?).  

The moral:  The looser the plug the worse the economy and performance.


Shayne.


P.S.  I have a 200TQ5S and your milage is about what mine is.
----------
From: Phil Rose <pjrose@servtech.com>
To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net
Cc: 200q20V mailing list <200q20v@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net>
Subject: untightened sparkplugs
Date: Sat, Jun 06, 1998, 17:21


Yesterday I decided to check the sparkplugs in my recently acquired '91
200q. All 5 plugs were the Audi-specified ones and seemed in fine condition
and with the proper gap and a small am't of medium-grey deposit on
electrodes. But most of them had been installed barely beyond
finger-tightness (!!!!), and in two very loose ones there was a thick, oily
deposit around the threads and washer. However the electrodes of these
plugs appeared identical to the others. I cleaned and reinstalled all at
the specified 22 ft-lb torque--anticipating some significant improvement in
engine performance (although I had no real complaint to begin with).

A short, low-speed test drive seems to show no immediate effect of my plug
"maintenance". Might there be a fuel economy improvement, I wonder? I've
gotten 26-29 mpg in highway cruising so no complaint there, but perhaps my
short-run gas mileage will improve, since the around-town mpg has been no
higher than 17.

Is it possible that _un_torqued spark plugs will _not_ degrade engine
performance? I wonder if this will depend greatly on rpm and engine
temperature?

Phil

Phil Rose  Rochester, NY
'89 100
'91 200q  pjrose@servtech.com