I've got a problem....I'm kinda confused, but here it goes. I'm going down the highway, shift into third, and BOOM. The car backfires. I wasn't running too hard...just accelerating like normal. The car stumbled after that...so I pulled over. There was a noticable miss, but the car was still running. So, I drove it back to the house, and opened it up. I was thinking that I had either fouled a plug, or blew a head gasket. I wasn't happy about either possibility, b/c I have HKS Iridium Tip plugs...(25.00 a piece)! And the gasket speaks for itself! Well, I pulled the 1st plug out and got a surprise. The tip of the plug was bent up into the electrode!!! Like the piston had hit it! I looked down at the piston, and could see no damage though. This explained the miss...... I pulled the rest of the plugs out. The 2nd one next to the first one, was ok, but was realy dark in color, and the porcelin was gray as well. The gap was correct though. The 3rd and 4th were perfectly normal/good color. This puzzled me.... I ran a compression test on the cylinders. The first one, which I expected to be the bad one, was 180psi and held pressure. The second one next to it, was only 150 psi. I tried it several times, and it's 150.... The 3rd and 4th were 180...like normal. Now...I'm realy puzzled! I went and got new plugs, and put them in. I fired it up, and it runs fine. I drove it around and there's no miss or anything. I can smeel a little bit of coolant coming from the wastegate when I run hard. It's got me thinking that it's head gasket...
Now....let me say how much I HATE my turbonetics wastegate. It spiked on me earlier. I run 8 psi of pressure normally. I watched the guage fly somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 psi of boost!! Then, this happened shortly after. This wastegate is horrible! I don't have enough fuel to support that type of boost.
I need some help and suggestions here guys... What's puzzling me the most is how the plug got banged up!? There's no physical way that the piston came that far up and hit it... The only thing I was thinking is that a piece of gasket may have blown from between the two cylinders and it got caught between the plug and piston. What else could it be?! Suggestions?
Thanks
Travis

Maybe it loaded up with coolant? but I don't think that would close the gap on the plug. If you had access to a pressure testing for a cooling system (hooks in place of the raditor cap) You could pull all the plugs and pressurize the cooling system and see if you get any coolant puddling in cylinders. Good luck

Detonation can cause the plug to get bent. I'd bet the POS Deltagate allowed you to spike the boost and you detonated pretty badly, bending the spark plug in #1. #2 may have also had detonation, but usually it will either crank the piston or cruch a ring land (seen that on an SR20 with a deltagate before). The coolant might be that you're actually smelling the overflow bottle by accident. (done that myself). I don't believe that detonation would damage the head gasket without causing other damage first (like a disintegrated piston).

BTW, there's a new TIAL wastegate that bolts onto the same flange for that POS Deltagate (I *HATE* those things). I think HotShot has some in stock.

Good luck!

Tom

Turbomiata told me about that....I think you detonated a bunch and it closed the gap..... check the fluids for traces of other fluids that don't belong and do a leakdown test. There is a possibility that the ring took the force and its leaking :-(

Yup it is most likely detonation that bent your plug, not a good thing. When doing the compression test drop a cap full of oil in the low cylinder and see if it goes up. *I am not for certain but if this goes up, i am pretty sure it is rings that are the problem. Also it is possible that a ring is slightly out of wake and driving it a bit and reseat it (trust me it can happen)...


Lee

The TIAL 35mm uses the same flange as the Delta Crapper. just FYI

BTW, there's a new TIAL wastegate that bolts onto the same flange for that POS Deltagate (I *HATE* those things). I think HotShot has some in stock.

lol!! I like your quote in your sig PSSSHHHGOESMYSR20!!!