Fear & Loathing on the #1 Spark Plug Trail

[dshepp806]

What a forum,......watch TV? Ya' kidding me? I'd now trade this for Seinfield anyday...you guys are the cream of the crop....

...on to my trials:

I purchased a "89 S.A. Edition Coupe, 3.2L, G50 back in November. I well service history documented car...completely consumed me, both in driving enjoyment and the hunger to learn (AND FIX) many things the previous owner had no time to do the simplest of simple. I've accomplished SO much on this car and it carries the fruits of this labor......Not at the level of Zimmeister or J/Walker,....but, nonetheless, passionately open to being a good "student" and put my frikin' time in....she's running great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My schedule didn't permit me to adjust the valves myself so I decided to take it in to the pros for adjustments. I'm cool with the guy I deal with, as he races P-cars and has 33+ years experience. Along with my requests fo VC adjustments, I asked him to "look over things", check the idle mixture (CO2/HC), brakes, etc,..AND: look at #1 spark plug. MY earlier tune up was successful for new Beru wires+coil wire, rotor, distributor cap, fuel filter, air filter, oil change+filter, new copper spark plugs gapped for .028,.....BUT ONLY 5 OF 'EM.....as the last one I engaged (#1) had ENORMOUS torque on it...she was PB blasted and everything else short of heat/cold approaches......I could EASILY tell that it was WAY to tight and the plug had a suspicious angle that looked out of the consistency of the other 5..........tune up results were certainly felt...happy but sad on number one SP........I could NOT believe that the shop who looked after this 911 for 8 years (EVERYTHING, to include both top AND bottom rebuild) would have crossed a frickin' thread.. Inanycase, I asked the pros to investigate.

All went well with all tasks (new brake pads and rotors on the front, new rear tires,......scary as hell for the first 500 miles....What a loss of control on the tire break-in.....UNBELIEVABLE,..new oil pressure sender)..She's smoother in the upper bands.....

...back to #1: THESE GUYS COULDN"T GET IT OUT EITHER!! Even the German guys (whatever that's supposed to mean) couldn't get it out ..

.....I'd place my bet on Zimmey's or J/Walker's good old fashioned AMERICAN approach/commentary................

Bottom line: she's running so good right now but number one has over 15K miles on it...(big deal?) It's driving me mad....(mentally, albeit) The pros say an engine drop will be required to address this issue. OF ALL THINGS TO BE HANDED!!!! My own fault COMPLETELY with no PPI....bet a leakdown would of "engaged" the issue on the front end, eh. What a dumbass I am...............Obviously budget drives this decision, as I have no problems presently......is it PERFECT? Of course not.......

We all know where this goes "while the engine's down" thing...so budgeting is at hand,...I guess I've time (albeit compromised a bit) to react.........

I would welcome anyones observations on this (apparent) dilemma , welcoming all commentary housing construction, destruction, insult, counseling, shared tears, trashings...WTF? What's a guy to do here??? (with this plug, that is...)

Thanks in advance for your patience, forebearance and advice.....

I"M BUMMED<>>>>>>BUT HAPPY WITH HER PERFORMANCE,..SHE GETS ME HIGH STILL>>>>>

RUSH, JUNE 13th, ATLANTA, GA..we shall take the P-car.

Thanks guys!

Best,

Doyle

[dshepp806]

calling Pete or JW....ever had it happen before? (spark plug?)

Best removal techniques are? I know the last thing tried by the P-wrench was drastic temp ranges (with freon). With the slight angle on the plug (NOT normal), I'm wondering if someone had certed (sp?) before at an improper angle....

Any comments?

Best

[p911dad]

Doyle, if it only has 15K on that #1 plug, relax, it could go way more miles than that with no effect. I had the same problem, and fumed about it for years, when finally my wrench in Corning, NY (Ron at C.I.A.) managed to get it out and a new set in. He was a little vague about how he did it, which is fine if it his little trade secret. Good luck.. Glenn

[rusnak]

my gut instincts say you should relax and leave it alone for now. If it ain't broke, you can only break it by "fixing" it.

Eventually the kind of guy who would fix it is the type of old school Porsche only specialist who has been working on these air cooled cars for 40 years or so. I have a guy here like that who is sort of a Yoda when it comes to Porsche. That is the kind of guy you need. And an engine drop to fix messed up plug is definitely the way to go. Dropping the engine is no big deal. No need to create more work "while you are in there style", which is totally silly.

[dshepp806]

Thanks rusnak and gmeteer...I'm at the same point. Guys on it are +33 years on Pcars, at least the "yoda" of this shop....

rusnack: didn't mean to come across as "silly". Not too silly to look at ALL the things that SHOULD be looked at "while it's down on the ground"...creating work is a relative term, certainly relative to one's budget. In my case, I don't give a SH#### about dropping in what needs to go there but not go "stupid" about...I can afford it within the next 6 months...Right now, we're busy making frickin' records and I've no time to DROP AN ENGINE....You are so right about breaking it while getting it fixed and I respect these guys for knowing WHEN to back off and provide me a solution path while providing me my EXCELLENT RUNNING P-car, as is. Hell, they could of snapped the ***** off,..then what? I respect the results, with the advice from the wrench.

gmeteer: I'll do my best to quench the "fuming" you speak of (and that's EXACTLY what I'm doing) Advice well-taken!!!

Bottom line: as soon as the cash is ready, she's getting fixed (properly). Just the way I am about these types of situations. I surely didn't buy her to compromise her and won't compromise the required cashola to get it handled. but as gmeteer stated, there's probably much time to be had cooling out about the whole matter and deal with it later......as she's running unbelievably well.

Thanks for you guys' counseling........it has helped!!!!

Maybe someone will reply with a great success story as to this matter ..maybe some more tricks out there to be digested.

Best to all!!!

[CarreraDan]

I ran into this a few month's ago helping a fellow Pelican out with his valve adjustment/tune up. I was installing his cat bypass when I noticed he got real quiet and was definitely struggling with something. His was #3 if I remember right. We ended up tightening the plug a hair and then loosening it a hair, over and over for about an hour and it slowly worked its way out--someone (PO) had cross threaded the plug. I weigh over 200 lbs and I could barely move the plug wrench. After some very careful alignment I was able to get the new plug in w/o crossing it. Sadly, we spent over 2 hours on this one plug. My advise would be to leave it for now and wait until the engine is out so you can get a good look at what is going on. In hindsight that is what we should have done.

[dshepp806]

Makes perfect sense carreradan...thanks for your input!!

Best,

[DanielDudley]

I used to see this all the time with Fiat twin cams. I have a special chase, or you can make one from a spark plug by grinding flutes in the threads. If you fill the flutes with grease, it will pick up the little particles as you chase it. Use penetrating oil when removing the old plug.

The trick here is to ALWAYS thread the plugs in by hand. By all means use the socket and a short extension, but if you cross thread by hand, you will do no damage. Getting it stuck and putting a ratchet on it will screw it up every time.

[Eagledriver]

The spark plugs in my minivan have 80k miles on them

-Andy