Guys,

I just answered my own question, Wayne's book arrived and it says on page 180 no anti-seize on plug threads, as per factory bulletin. in order to insure a good ground and a properly firing plug.

Real nice pix and explanations in the book. Bravo

This has happened to me before too... scares the hell out of you when it does. It was on my wife's 914, but the concept is the same as a 911.

The wife did the tune up (Yes, she can work on her own Porsche). She missed torquing one of the plugs properly.

I took a greased tap and chased the threads to make sure they were clean, the put a new plug in and drove it until the next tune up. Never had another problem.

Ironic that there is a thread in the Tech forum about a spark plug that would not come out. They are advising various lubricants, mostly Graphite.

I want to confirm to all who responded, you were right and my fears were unfounded. I got back to the car with a plug wrench, flashlight and a new plug in hand. Sure enough, there was the old plug, loose and hiding down in the shroud. I could not get my fingers around it to pull it out. The more I poked, the more it fell inside. I forgot to bring a magnet on a stick.

So I called Hagerty and had it flatbedded over to Zim's independent shop in Bedford, TX, about 20 minutes away.

What happened next really, really made my day. I am not known at Zim's, but I told them I was stuck far from home and belong to PCA and 356. They were plenty busy, but they dropped everything and let me watch their top wrench, Darren pull the old plug out with a magnet, comment that it looked almost new but the crush ring was not compressed, meaning the guy who did the tune-up forgot to torque it. Back in it went. Darren pointed out the fan belt was loose and tightened it up for me, and pointed out the fuel line across the motor was visibly cracking and should be replaced soon (not a small job), both good tips I had not received from my own mechanic. I drove home with no further problems.

Zim's bill: $50, less than their shop rate for the time spent. I wrote Mr. Zim an e-mail and thanked him. They now have a new customer. All's well that ends well.

This last Tuesday I was at the track and during my third session I started to lose power. On the main straight I was down about 15 mph. As I was pondering my loss of power at around
6,000 rpm and all hell broke lose. There was no one behind me so I turned it off and coasted to the pit exit. Fearing the worst I opened the lid and there was the #5 plugwire laying there.
The plug had blown out but was still in the hole. I fished it out and it was fine. I reinstalled it and fired it up and all was good. I checked the rest and they were all tight. Wierd stuff.

-Dave