Why it pays to check/read your plugs (long)

[Zeke]

On the early MFI and carbed cars anyway.

When I got this old heap, it hadn't run in years. So, when it started up after the prep work, I was delighted, to say the least. Well, that was a couple of months ago, and I've been sorting out things since.

The first thing I noticed was that it was gassing up the oil, so I thought I was in for a pump rebuild. Tyson said, "Drive it and drive it hard, just keep an eye on the oil." I did and changed it a couple times in a week. The pump seems to have resealed itself well enough that I can put off the rebuild for now.

So, I'm still tuning and sorting along and decide to read the plugs again. When I got it, the plugs were brown on one side and sooty on the other. I've run it around a bit and thought I'd check and see how those new plugs were doing. Five nice tannish ones and........what's this?.........a whitish one. Hmmmmmmm. So, I need to investigate. I start with the obvious, the injector. And I find that the hard fuel line to the injector moves a bit. Didn't notice that before. I separate the line from the injector and the injector is loose in the head about a half a turn.

I cleaned the injector with Berrymans and filled it up with some more Berrymans and resinstalled it. Snugged up the hard line and another step to a smoother engine.

The moral: Just curious poking around uncovers troubles by accident. Gotta keep an eye out for aberrations on the unknown car.

It'll be a long time before the thing gets paint. But, while I'm dealing with the rust and mechanicals, I sneak it out now and then for some exercise. It gets better with each run.

[campbellcj]

Great tip Milt. I remember not too long ago I was very lucky to discover a cracked injector on my previous 914 (2.0/four D-Jet) prior to leaving for a drive. It had been running perfectly up until then but the injector finally let go. At 30psi a substantial amount of fuel pressure is excerted on those suckers, and of course the leakage is right above the exhaust system!

We can't take -anything- for granted on these 30+ year old jewels as they get older and more precious. Check often, and check twice...