spark plugs... again

[spartanmisfit]

:confused:Well this all stems back about 2 months ago. My car was boggin really bad when in full boost. So I bought some new spark plugs bkr6e's or whatever and the car ran fine. Shortly afterwards I put in a manual boost controller because my avcr broke and turned the boost up to 13 lbs. Then I went out and bought some ngk bkr7i's or whatever and dedcided to put them in when I burned the 6's up. So it finally started boggin again this past week so I put in the iridiums today. Well when I took it out for a test drive it was horrible. Even worse than the first time. It runs fine when not under boost but when under full boost it's really bad. when I turn the boost down to around 7 lbs it's a little better but it still does it a little. any ideas?

[BiG MiKE86]

What mods do you have? What are you using to tune? FPR? Air/Fuel Ratios? What color were the spark plugs u pulled? White? Brown? Black/Fouled?

[nis-son]

how is the bogging cause i think my car might have the same problem. is the bogging like when your on full throttle it just stops and doesnt wanna go any furthur.

[spartanmisfit]

i have a sr20 that i got with a greddy turbo greddy fmic, ive got an safc, koyo radiator, electronic fans. the plugs didnt look bad other than orange climbing up the white near where it says NGKR. Also yes it boggs when at full throttle. At first i thought it was a boost leak prolly through the fmic, but it's all fine. I'm pretty sure it has to be the spark plugs. oh and I have an hks turbo timer.

[Addicted2Kouki]

What did you gap the plugs to?

[spartanmisfit]

I was told not to gap them

[Addicted2Kouki]

Well, what is the gap at now?

[spartanmisfit]

shit, i dunno.

[spartanmisfit]

my friend keeps tellin me it's prolly my c.a.s. Any thoughts on that?

[slideways2004]

every time i bought ngk bkr's, i had to re-gap them. b/c most of the time they are gapped for n/a cars. check your gap

[nis-son]

does your car shut off at idle when u had those bad spark plugs in?

[drftthatshit]

gap your plugs to 32thousands and you should be fine go to pepboys spend 1.00 for a spark plug gapr and then see what it does dipshit

[Sileighty_85]

Gap the Plugs, Your probably blowing out your spark in boost

[s15specR]

I've read that you regap the plugs to .40 or .44 from the out of the box .32 ? Is that incorrect ?

[spartanmisfit]

well the problems gotten even worse. I took it to a friend of mine after going through 4 sets of spark plugs which blew immediately after i entered full boost. The plugs turn a deep red color immediately. Iridiums, V plugs and bkr7es, oh and bkr6es. But I never gapped any. It runs fine at idle and under low boost. But regardless of where my psi is at full boost it shits on me. My mechanic / friend thinks it's a boost leak, but I can't find it. He wants to hook it up to a ait hose and find it but he's been too busy. I checked all of my intercooler piping and I cant find a leak. When my car was running fine I never gapped the plugs either so I'm pretty stumped. How do I tinker with the cas if I should?

[stupid nissan]

well did you gap them? if not try that that way it is one less thing it could be.

[spartanmisfit]

Nope, the guy who sold the car to me keeps tellin me not to gap them but screw that. I'll get some new ones tomorrow and gap them and tell everyone how they did. I really hope that's the case.

[spartanmisfit]

I'm going to try gapping the first set at .028. If that doesnt work does anyone have any suggestions for a better gap. I'm runnin a red top with a greddy turbo, greddy fmic, koyo radiator and electric fans. And I like to drive at about 12-14 psi

[blackej7]

Nope, the guy who sold the car to me keeps tellin me not to gap them


Stop listening to the guy who sold you the car.


oh, and check and see if your throwing any codes.

[BiG MiKE86]

Can Iridiums be gapped?

[spartanmisfit]

Well it's still doing it at .025. I cant even tell how many pounds of boost im runnin, but it should be around 13

[SoSideways]

I'm going to try gapping the first set at .028. If that doesnt work does anyone have any suggestions for a better gap. I'm runnin a red top with a greddy turbo, greddy fmic, koyo radiator and electric fans. And I like to drive at about 12-14 psi

So you're running a bigger turbo at 13psi and don't have any kind of engine management done?

Do you know what your base timing is at?

Honestly, you seem pretty clueless about what you have, and what your engine can/cannot do... you might want to learn a bit more about it before you go blindly turning the boost up and blowing it up, then blaming Nissan for shitty motors, when it was the owner who was being shitty.

Don't be that guy.

[spartanmisfit]

Ok, first of all I'm not blaming nissan for anyhting. I love my car. 2nd of all yes I'm pretty clueless but that's what 4 1/2 years in prison does to a person. Alot of time I missed out on working on cars.That's why I'm on here, because I don't know everything obviously. Obviously I bought the car with most of the work done to it. Oh and I have an SAFC unit and an HKS turbo timer not that the turbo timer would have anyhting to do with this. Does anyone know approx. which setting I should set on my SAFC?

[spartanmisfit]

Well I found a boost leak. There were a couple of holes in the intercooler piping where it leaves the engine bay where the battery use to sit. So we fixed it and I took it out for a run. It runs WAAAY better in first and 2nd gear. It still bogs down a little but not nearly as much. 3rd and higher gears are better but not as bad as it was. I couldnt find any other leak so I don't know if it's because I already fouled my plugs out or whatever elseit might be. I'm still wondering if it's my timing or CAS. I'm going to change my plugs again today when the rain slows down again and hopefully that does it.

[aNskY]

if you gapped your plugs down to .025 and its still breaking up, its not the gap. that should be undersized gap for 13psi, you could probably bring it back to ~.030 and maybe bigger, safely

[spartanmisfit]

it was originally at .035

[drftthatshit]

stay at .35 or try .32

[spartanmisfit]

alright thanks. I'll try that tomorrow.

[spartanmisfit]

Here's some pics of the spark plugs

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/DSC00984.jpg (http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn108/spartanmisfit/DSC00984.jpg)"

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/DSC00985.jpg (http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn108/spartanmisfit/DSC00985.jpg)

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/DSC00987.jpg (http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn108/spartanmisfit/DSC00987.jpg)

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/DSC00986.jpg (http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...t/DSC00986.jpg)

These are only one day worth of use too. Also prior to the boost leak, but I havnt been able to get those plugs replaced yet.

[UNISA JECS]

Looks like rust on the spark plugs, looks like water entering the combustion chamber.

[UNISA JECS]

Nevermind did a quick search:

MMT Fouled
APPEARANCE: Spark plugs fouled by MMT (Methycyclopentadienyl Maganese Tricarbonyl) have reddish, rusty appearance on the insulator and side electrode.
CAUSE: MMT is an anti-knock additive in gasoline used to replace lead. During the combustion process, the MMT leaves a reddish deposit on the insulator and side electrode.
RECOMMENDATION: No engine malfunction is indicated and the deposits will not affect plug performance any more than lead deposits (see Ash Deposits). MMT fouled plugs can be cleaned, regapped and reinstalled.

[spartanmisfit]

You know what that might make sense. When I took my intercooler piping apart yesterday there was quite a bit of water in it. We didnt think too much about it because it's been raining the past 3 days.

[spartanmisfit]

Oh, well wth than. I'm even more confused now. So the plugs are fine just miscolored? Maybe from my octane booster or something? Maybe it's my timing, but if so why only at high throttle pct?

[BiG MiKE86]

try not running octane booster.. a fresh tank of gas - cleanin out ur IC piping or w.e. had water in it and see what happens

[spartanmisfit]

well i shouldnt have any octane booster left. ive filled up since then. I wanna mess around with the timing but to be completely honest im not comfortable enough to do it without someone who knows what theyre doing. I havnt messed with timing in about 5 1/2 yrs and the ones i did work on were not like this. I feel pretty dumb but I need to learn.

[spartanmisfit]

Oh and what should my boost gauge be reading at idle? My boost gauge is in barstoo... thanks Greddy. Right now it's reading about -490 mm/hg

[UNISA JECS]

Oh and what should my boost gauge be reading at idle? My boost gauge is in barstoo... thanks Greddy. Right now it's reading about -490 mm/hg

Thats about normal, thats about ~19in/hg

[spartanmisfit]

I'm sooo confused. I really have no idea now. If it was the timing or cas it would run badly even when not at full boost right?

[SoSideways]

You have an S-AFC.

If the "tuning" isn't good on it, you could have problems, and it sounds like you're having problems now, so I'm pretty sure your S-AFC "tuning" needs some help.

[spartanmisfit]

Well yeah, I know it still needs some fine tuning, but it still doesnt make sense why it acted worse after I put in new spark plugs. IT was running fine on 14 lbs of boost, but I was running the wrong spark plugs so when I put in the bkr7e's that's when it went nuts on me. I'm going to do the timing tomorrow hopefully and see if that's it.

[SoSideways]

It sounds like you're running rich, and so by going to a colder plug, your car isn't burning all the mixture in the cylinder, thus it seems it's bogging or whatever.

Having holes and boost leaks don't help either, but it sounds like you fixed some of them.

But there in lies the problem, your car was probably tuned previously with the holes and boost leaks in place, and also the 6 heat range plugs.

By fixing the boost leaks and going to a colder plug, your car is probably out of tune and acting funny.

That's just what I think is going on, I could be wrong, because I don't fully know what's going on with your car/setup, since you didn't go into detail about everything, just vaguely went over your mod list.

[spartanmisfit]

YEah, I'm sorry about not going over my mods very well. I've been away from my passion (cars ) for a very long time so I'm learning pretty much all over again. I bought the car with all of the work done to it, and that guy got it a week prior from the original tuner. The guy I bought it from never got a build list and didnt know what was all done to it. I can only list the things I can see. I don't even know if the computer been modified or anyhting. So all that I know that I have is the GREDDY turbo kit, koyo radiator, tial-a-lite elec. fans, apexi full exhaust, and I never tuned with an safc before, so honestly it intimidates me, so I had someone play with it a little that knows more than I do about it, but he's confused with some "in and outs" I guess. I don't even have a FPR or fuel rail or intake manifold. It seems like I got into something unprepared. So now I wanna sell it and start an s14 build on my own but I have to fix my car before I sell it.

[SoSideways]

Stock FPR and fuel rail are fine, same with the intake manifold.

If anything, you can just sell the GReddy turbo kit and all the other junk and start fresh with a stock motor.

From there, get everything running smoothly, then start over with another turbo or something.

[spartanmisfit]

Well problem is solved!! So sideways ... thanks. It was my SAFC. It was apparently too rich in parts and too lean in others. The only problem now is it wants to stall when I put it in nuetral, but that's fine with me for now. I'll be going to the dyno soon to fine tune it and see what I'm pushing. Thanks everyone!

[SoSideways]

Sounds like you need to mess with the decel air function.

Do a search on here, I'm pretty sure there was a write up on here about how to do it.

If it's not on here, find the Fresh Alloy forums, and do a search there. A guy by the name of Grant (I forget his screen name) did a pretty in-depth write up on how to set up decel air function.

Also, make sure your BOV is getting a vacuum line of its own, because otherwise your BOV won't work at its full potential, which will cause your car to want to stall during deceleration and sluggish response when you do on/off throttle.

[spartanmisfit]

Thanks sooo much! I ran into a much worse problem and I'm about to post a new thred in a minute. I think my turbo is done...

[reccakun08]

Sounds like you need to mess with the decel air function.

Do a search on here, I'm pretty sure there was a write up on here about how to do it.

If it's not on here, find the Fresh Alloy forums, and do a search there. A guy by the name of Grant (I forget his screen name) did a pretty in-depth write up on how to set up decel air function.

Also, make sure your BOV is getting a vacuum line of its own, because otherwise your BOV won't work at its full potential, which will cause your car to want to stall during deceleration and sluggish response when you do on/off throttle.

omg sosideways i wish you chimed in my thread about that! although zar did mention it but i didnt know it would cause so a noticeable sluggish throttle response. I will try to reroute my vacuum lines and see if that fixes the problem.

[SoSideways]

omg sosideways i wish you chimed in my thread about that! although zar did mention it but i didnt know it would cause so a noticeable sluggish throttle response. I will try to reroute my vacuum lines and see if that fixes the problem.

Sorry I didn't see your thread...