Pulled my spark plugs today.

Morphine · Sep 19, 2015

This is what I found, they don’t look good to me at all…I am a little worried.

I have been running the Eurodyne stage 2, 93 octane for about 8000 km’s now (odo is about 10,000 km’s…about a year). Always run Chevron fuel as it is my only choice.

Two things to mention. I did have the over-boost problem from about Jan ~ March.
And 2, I live in Vancouver which has the crappiest gas on the planet.

I will swap the plugs and do an oil/filter change next week. Then switch to the stage 2, 91 tune. Then pull the plugs again in a month or so.

I need some advice interpreting what is going on here.

Morphine · Sep 19, 2015

Heh forgot the attachments...

gn4rwhals · Sep 19, 2015

Interesting, mine looked a little lean but not like that at all.

RjRacing · Sep 19, 2015

I just pulled mine at 7500 miles and they didn't have half that amount of carbon deposits on them. I would have your intake valves scoped for carbon build too.

Morphine · Sep 19, 2015

That aint right!

Morphine · Sep 19, 2015

My first impression is it’s the gas here, poor/inconsistent pump gas with questionable octane levels. I would also like to try colder plugs.

The only bolt-on I am missing is a upgraded intercooler, which I will buy in a heartbeat now. I will also get the throttle pipe with the meth bung installed while they are poking around in there.

I was at CTS the other day and there was a prototype bolt on intercooler sitting in the chair…looked really nice. Nick said it will be out very, very soon.

BravoMike · Sep 19, 2015

RjRacing;171113 I would have your intake valves scoped for carbon build too.[/QUOTE said:
Out of curiosity, what is involved with this? I assume the heads have to be pulled?

RjRacing · Sep 19, 2015

BravoMike said:
Out of curiosity, what is involved with this? I assume the heads have to be pulled?

Not at all, the carbon buildup typically happens in the intake ports and on the valve stems. You can pull your map sensor off and use that hole if the head of the scope is small enough. If the head of your scope is too large, you just run it through the throttle body. You just run your LED powered scope down the manifold runners and face it towards the intake ports to do the inspection.

BravoMike · Sep 19, 2015

Great info RJ. I just looked up prices on bore scopes and there are some very reasonably priced ones from $100-$300. I remember in college using a bore scope on a jet engine as a demonstration and the thing was wheeled on a cart and had its own TV monitor! The hand held ones look like they could be a valuable tool to check on carbon build up on DI engines. I might look into getting one.

BJJGTI · Sep 19, 2015

Why do you say the gas is poor? (Besides the screw up last week when a lot of the stations got the wrong octane and they posted signs) I believe that same Chevron gas was used to produce and test the ED tune, at least on Nik's car which was one of the main test cars I understand.

Morphine · Sep 20, 2015

Heh this all started with a rainy day and tire rotation.

It really likes this tune…or so I thought. Damn thing goes like a bat out of hell.

I had a AEM wideband failsafe installed last week and have been doing a lot of logging with VCDS, the Eurodyne dongle and the AEM wideband (a combo boost/Afr or Lambda).

I felt I was getting the occasional misfire, so I started running the logs to see when they were happening, as under heavy load its hard to tell. It turns out that most occur during idle…but they are happening in large misfire clusters. They also seem to move around, not staying anywhere in particular. Ok no real biggie, but irritating none the less. Nothing unusual under full power.

This is why I pulled the plugs to take a look. I think I see small flecks of metal on the center electrode and insulator building up…that cant be good. Along with the “browning” of so many threads deep, this leads me to think cooler plugs would be a prudent move.

I also am thinking there is too much timing for the gas I am using.

Or is this all in my head?

Morphine · Sep 20, 2015

BJJGTI said:
Why do you say the gas is poor? (Besides the screw up last week when a lot of the stations got the wrong octane and they posted signs) I believe that same Chevron gas was used to produce and test the ED tune, at least on Nik's car which was one of the main test cars I understand.

Heh, I didnt know that.

I just know when I get gas in the US that my car runs way better. Check some of the ricer forums and they are also constantly complaining about the gas here.

RjRacing · Sep 20, 2015

Colder plugs is a great place to start!

BJJGTI · Sep 20, 2015

Morphine said:
I felt I was getting the occasional misfire, so I started running the logs to see when they were happening, as under heavy load its hard to tell. It turns out that most occur during idle…but they are happening in large misfire clusters. They also seem to move around, not staying anywhere in particular. Ok no real biggie, but irritating none the less. Nothing unusual under full power.

I believe that I was experiencing this from day one stock. My car has never run 100%. Dealer insisted it was normal.

gn4rwhals · Sep 20, 2015

BJJGTI said:
I believe that I was experiencing this from day one stock. My car has never run 100%. Dealer insisted it was normal.

Same boat here, I can stare at AFR via VAGCOM and exactly the moment where the car goes to near 1.0 AFR at idle the rough idle starts. When its a touch richer the car idles perfect.

One the topic of colder plugs, has anyone run the Denso's that are supposed to fit? If so what gap?

Pulled my spark plugs today.

Morphine

Ready to race!

Morphine

Ready to race!

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