[mikepellegrini]

Or, how I re-learned the extreme value of properly torquing everything.

I went out to start my 83 NA this morning. Turned the key, BANG! from the engine compartment, the engine shuddered and I quickly turned it off, expecting the worst. Visions of engine overhauls danced in my head.

I opened the hood. A wisp of smoke came out of the fresh air breather - like from a backfire, I thought. No apparent problems. I thought I could smell fuel.

I stood and stared at it for a couple minutes. Then, figuring if it was the cam belt, the engine was already toast - so I said what the heck. I got back in and turned the key.

The car started right up, but ran just awful. Shuddering badly. and it was strange - it sounded like a major exhaust leak - almost like I was running the engine with the exhaust manifold off. I turned it off after 30 seconds.

Nothing made sense. Maybe the balance shaft belt broke?

I pulled the top belt cover off - the belts were both pristine.

The car was sitting in front of my house - so I got my youngest son, and we pushed it all the way around the block and into the garage.

Next, I put the car on top dead center - the marks lined up just fine.

Weirder and weirder.

So, logically, my next step was to check compression. Maybe the backfire had caused a catastrophic failure in one of the pistons?

Number one was fine - plug looked great. Number two, good, number three good. Compression all reasonably the same. Fantastic.

Finally, I get to plug 4. And therein, was my problem.

You see, there was no plug in number 4. None, nada, zip. It was lying inder the intake manifold - where it was blown out.

The loud BANG I heard was the plug getting spit out of the cylinder.

Apparently - 4 years ago - I didn't torque it well enough, and over the 4 years, it finally worked its way out - and when it was finally down to the last thread, it came out with a bang when I started the car this morning.

I checked the compression in number 4 - just great. The plug wasn't damaged, so I put it back in.

And the car runs just great again - like nothing happened. A very happy ending.

And that is how I re-learned just how very important it is to properly torque everything!