sr ignition coilpack popped out of engine

[s14srpilot]

Hello everyone,

My buddy had this happen twice so I thought I'd throw it out there. While he was driving, the #3 coilpack popped out of his red-top like an ICBM launching out of a submarine on 2 different occaisions (!). The second time was last night. There was so much force that it broke through the cover (the piece that says"intercooler turbo") and the plastic on the coilpack was melted. We found a used coilpack for him (Tested and in good condition) and when we installed it we noticed the #3 spark plug (blitz/ngk iridium) had NO gap. The threads on the spark plug were flattened, too. That's all I remember for now.

Has anyone had this happen to them? Finally, any thoughts or ideas as to what could cause this to happen? Thanks!

[240sxconversion]

that sounds more like something hit the spark plug and or forced it out and puched the coil pack into the plastic piece.

[2muchboost]

same thing happened to me except it was #2. U should check the head of the block cuz i had to rethread mine since it stripped some the metal where the spark plug goes.

[mrmephistopheles]

i'm gonna guess detontation caused by the lack of gap pushed the plug up and shredded the threads, which allowed for blowby from the compression of the piston, which pushed the coilpack up. Sound good?

[chineseb0i]

hmm..my friend might of had the same thing happen except the sparkplug broke and is inside his engine..he took that shiet off and is going to rebuild it. I'd suggest taking out the sparkplug, replacing it with the correct gap..forgot wut it was for the SR..but make sure u don't brake the electrode..i did that and should replace mine..but am too lazy to. After u gap it and put the new coilpack back in you should be fine. like mrmephistopheles detontation due to bad gap could have pushed the plug..thus messing up threading and coilpack. I'd suggest a compression test on ur 3rd cylinder jus to make sure nothing funky is going on there too..jus to be safe.

[Yoshi]

i'm gonna guess detontation caused by the lack of gap pushed the plug up and shredded the threads, which allowed for blowby from the compression of the piston, which pushed the coilpack up. Sound good?

Bingo.
I'd think only detonation would cause that much force. To get thru the plastic valve cover trim piece, you have to get thru the plug's threads, the beefy screw that holds in the coil back, and THEN the plastic cover. That's a lot of force... only other thing would be a piece of metal flying around inside the engine, but since it seems to run okay otherwise, it sounds like massive detonation... be careful!