Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

[Black Knight]

Truck started running pretty bad the other day, so I figured I would tune it up AGAIN and try to locate what I believe to be a exhaust leak.

Did a compression test since I was there and
#1) 165
#2) 155
#3) 165--What a PITA to deal with, why oh why does the steering linkage have to be there
#4) 160
#5) 160
#6) 160

So everything looks good there, but these plugs look bad already and they only have 3,500 miles on them and about 4 months. Any thoughts? It also has had a miss ever since I've owned the truck that I've never been able to get rid of. #2 and #3 I think look the worst. These are NGK UR6's. Is 3,500 normal wear and tear, seems pretty soon to me to be this chared.
#1)

#2)

#3)

#4)

#5)

#6)

 

[MikeRenz]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

looks like you have a cracked exhaust manifold and its coughing all over the #2 plug.

 

[James Thomas]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

Actually those plug tips don't reeeeealy look that bad. Some deposit is normal due to additives, fuel type (and in some cases time of year due to fuel blend) and of course blow by. The color you are looking for is a light straw to med. golden brown. Too light / chalk / white is lean and or too hot.

James

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

looks like you have a cracked exhaust manifold and its coughing all over the #2 plug.

Thats kinda what I was thinking, I pulled all these out so I could pull the manifolds to look for a crack. If cracked does anyone ever have any luck welding on these, being cast and all and how hot they get I would think it wouldn't hold very well.

 

[CKEITH]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

Thats kinda what I was thinking, I pulled all these out so I could pull the manifolds to look for a crack. If cracked does anyone every have any luck welding on these, being cast and all and how hot they get I would think it would hold very well.

send it to me if it's cracked and you'll never have to worry about it cracking again. :tup:

the jeep wrangler 4.0 inline 6 is famous for cracking their maniflods. i have welded a ton of them with no complaints as of yet. but this could be the first.

 

[gjp]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

My 91 jeep has a cracked manifold. I went through 2 before I found a guy to weld one up and it has been good ever since. I say plugs look ok. I switched to ur5's and found them to idle better. Not sure if it was the hotter plugs or gapping them down to .28 that made my truck happy. With the alky Knock is almost no problem so I am not woried about running a hotter plug. Start the engine and use a peice of tissue paper to find the crack. It will vibrate for the smallest amout of air flow.

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

I think Mike nailed it, I got the turbo off and the DP out of the way and the exhaust manifold gasket on the #2 cyl. was sticking half off. So I pulled it out and it ripped in three pieces. I'll pull the rest out and try to put it back together and see what happens.

 

[ircwet]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

You have been using fuel additive..............

 

[Don W.]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

There are people who weld cast iron. Research and references. Where you at? Put a WTB note up for a replacement.

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

You have been using fuel additive..............

Yah thats true, I just forgot because I haven't used it in the last couple months.

There are people who weld cast iron. Research and references. Where you at? Put a WTB note up for a replacement.

I haven't found it to be cracked yet, I just suspected that, now I found that the gasket was bad I'm hoping thats all it was. I'm trying to get the manifold all the way off to check it, what a PITA. Gotta drop the lower I/C to get at the crossover, and I can't get the D/P and cat apart to pull the D/P out of the way :roll: I had the end of the cat glowing red hot and still couldn't break it loose.

 

[gjp]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

the cat gets stuck on there. I pulled mine off and had it on for just 3 days and I had just as hard time removing it as I did the 1st time.

 

[QUICK STORM]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

if you need manifolds, i got a set for sale

 

[blk00z28]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

So thats what the inner fender well bolts look like.. :lol:

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

if you need manifolds, i got a set for sale

Thanx, I think it's OK and it's just the gasket because I don't see anything wrong with it. Is there any specific area these like to crack in or just where ever?

Finally got the cat off, but I messed up the end of the DP doing it. I think the cat might have been part of the problem, it's falling apart inside.

See and like I was talking about before, my WG rod is screwed all the way in and will still only make 6 psi of base boost.

I know there are different options for replacements of these anyone got any suggestions on which one to get, or just scrap it and go external?

Sooo much stuff is going on with this thing right now!!!! I have to finish pulling the motor to put the mounts in and I figured while it was out maybe I'd look at upgrading a couple things heads, cam, A2A . If i'm going to do all that I might as well pull the whole freaking thing apart and change the crank, pistons, and connecting rods while i'm at it. Aghhh but this motor only has 7,000 miles on it, do I really want to rip it apart being that its so new?

Am I going to have to remachine everything even if its only got 7K on it? You know rods, pistons, and a crank are another 1,200 I don't want to spend! But if i'm already there?? And I think the Impala needs a new tranny. And if I do all this the Sy will probably need a new tranny. :rant: And all the other crap I need to do bigger brakes, coil overs, front prop shaft, loops, the headliner still needs fixed, I'm on my 3rd starter in 2 months so I need to exhaust coated so it will stop burning up my starters, but I just screwed up my DP. Sorry, its just like everytime I turn around something brakes, and my trucks not even fast compared to everyone elses, if it was way faster I would expect to have problems!!!

Where are all the recently divorced women who got a settlement from their divorce worth millions and need a live in boyfriend who they'll give a credit card to in his name. Preferably the black card (you know what I'm talkin about).

OK ranting and raving over, back to completely ripping my truck apart because of one little exhaust leak :roll:

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

So thats what the inner fender well bolts look like.. :lol:

Yep nice arn't they I was going to have them triple chrome plated but I didn't want tooo much bling under there

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

Yes it's 12:04 and i'm still at it, but alot more calm down so thats much gooder. Finally got the manifold off.

Everything looks good to me, I can't find any cracks.

Here's my jacked up down pipe, I think I deserve a "down pipe bitch slap!" for messing it up so badly, I'll have to figure out something to do there, hmmm "cough" Jeff Scott you got any more room left "cough,cough"

So know i'm sitting there on the floor thinking about the truck and realize i've dazed off for about half an hour and think "man i'm sick of the sloppy steering this thing has". Next thing I know the box is unbolted and I ripped the steering arm linkage thingy out and low and behold it's wasted. This thing has sooo much play in it it's not even funny.

Anyway I guess i'm off the wrecking yard to try and find a new linkage, i'll have to dig up that thread about the jeep wrangler or cherokee or whatever it was swap. Anyway going back to work on the soon to be completely disassembled truck.

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

All this BS just to get the crossover pipe out, anyway lower I/C is out of the way,sorta.

Here's the bumper off, it probably didn't need to come off but the grill is broke anyway so I figured heck I've already took the truck this far apart why not get it out of the way anyway.

And now the grill is out, see that would look so much better with a nice front mount A2A setup. Plus i'm sick of the W2A no matter how much I mess with it I can never get all the air out of the system.

Anyway. thats it for now think i'm going to bed.

 

[BacDoc]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

*subscribes for the madness.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

Hmmm...

Sounds a bit like my weekend.

I took the turbo off a couple of months ago an d found it had seized. Since then I have been plagued with the ticking noise from the cylinders. I have had the downpipe off loads of times as thats what I though it was.

Turns out it all the cylinders were leaking.

See the exhaust waste all over the engine?

Looks worse there.

So I decided to smooth it all down...

I then cut out by hand some Mr Gasket material and thank god I had a spare exhaust header....

The bolts all seized when I was taking them out.... Anyone know the stud sizes/specs? I want to order spares if I have to do this again...

The worst thing was, that once I had done all the work and started the car, it sounded PERFECT.

The idle was steady and strong and the car rumbled like I always thought it should. 1 hour down the moptorway the damned gasket blew and I was left with the same ticking noise all over again.

The cross pipe was a fiddel but I dind't need to remove the lower IC, but I will def take off the rad hose next time.

Also, where can I get the T fitting to the bottom of the turbo? I want to replace that POS metal - rubber - metal connection with some braided hose.

If I could do the same with the coolant line (orange/red hose) at the end then that would make this job 10x easier...

Does anyone know the sizes for that and where to get the T flange fitting for the turbo/braided hose part?

I am going to order some SCE gaskets for the turbo - dp, header - turbo, and engine - header.

I tried home made copper, silicone sealant and Mr Gasket. No luck so far. If that doesn't work then I am welding thw hole lot together. Screw it!

Oh yeah, I bust a sparkplug when I was retorquing them. Guess what - nobody in the UK sells em. I had to use about 3/4 copper washers to make sure that there was enough cylinder clearance on the plug I DID buy lol.

The reassuring thing is that it ran really really well when I got it going.

The other thing is that I will need to see if the cat is screwed or not. Maybe the back pressure blew the turbo seal. Not sure when the manifold seals will go.

At least I got my gauges to light up.... there's another story....

 

[Black Knight]

Re: Look at these plugs and tell me what you think, pics aren't the best.

Don't use any gaskets, atleast thats what I learned from this.

OK back to highjacking my thread back :lol:
How the hell do you get this braket off to get the manifold off? Do you have to pull the power steering pump off to get the braket out of the way? If so chalk one up for PAS and another great job engineering this setup :roll:

Well atleast I got the crossover tube out.