not good(pics)

[tschamp20]

as you can see the spark plug took some damage this weekend.well i say this weekend but didnt check last weekend which was the maiden voyage so could be either.noticed pretty sluggish performance,and stalling when putting in gear so i thought i would chech the plugs.
SURPRISE!
sorry for the size but plugs are pretty small

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

piston looks good.trash in cylinder?possibly old broken electrode?put in new one and ran on muffs for 10 minutes.looked fine.
how bad do you guys think it is?

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: not good(pics)

Good enough pics to know something hit that plug.Anything else would have melted it,not knock the electrode off center.

DHP

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

is the distance from piston to spark plug great enough at top of stroke to say this should absolutely not be a piston to plug impact.unless something else was in there?

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

it has to be trash,condidering the divots. the piston has no pointed edges that are visible.would you agree?

 

[AlanR]

Re: not good(pics)

NICE!! You gonna reuse those plugs?!?!?! or can I have them for my Chrysler 45!! It wont make a diffrence cause it runs like a peice of crap anyways! d

 

[itstippy]

Re: not good(pics)

You gotta figure out what "trash" it could be that got in there and did that before you decide that's what happened. "Possibly old broken electrode" is only reasonable if you had a spark plug in there before that had its electrode break off and you never found it. Something mashed that plug. I suspect it's a blow from the piston. Something's seriously amiss.
Theory: A broken electrode materialized from nowhere and started flying around inside the combustion chamber. It managrd to align itself perfectly between the piston and the good plug's electrode, right at TDC, and cause an impact. Then it made good its escape through the exhaust port.
Likelihood of this happening: not high.

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

the piston is smooth!look at that gouge.what would cause the piston to hit the plug?

 

[KYHunter2]

Re: not good(pics)

Its hard to say , if the heads were milled down to true them up .

And too much was taken off, you'd think both would look like that.

I know for sure I wouldn't even start the thing until , I knew , and corrected what caused it.

Really hard to fathom the electrode piece, flying around and getting pinched right there.

You haven't by chance had to install a helicoil in the head.

Possibly plug screwed in too far.

The gouge looks to me like it was made by the electrode on the plug itself, not a different electrode.

And the heat / mini welder ( electrode) kind of welded the piece back to itself.

I'll bet if you run it at any higher rpm's ,then idle on muffs.

The new plug will be about like the one in the pics.

KYHunter

 

[AlanR]

Re: not good(pics)

Could it be the wrong spark plug?

 

[LFK]

Re: not good(pics)

Wow!

 

[G DANE]

Re: not good(pics)

I'd say you need to pull that head to see what other damage there might be. Are you sure the plug was intact before you installed it, not a faylty production, though I never seen such.

 

[clemsonfor]

Re: not good(pics)

pull the head, its not much work to make sure of engines health before that "Electrode" that is still in there does nore damage. Also if this motor is new to you like it sounds to be (maiden voyage). Check model year and post with the HP so that you can find out if you have the correct plug and if not get the correct one and compare the internal protrusion of old plug to new to be sure that the cylinder did not whack it. If the head is to thin like KYhead suggests you may need to find a replacement.

Good luck and wrenching

-Nate

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: not good(pics)

I don't know, but those are some great pics! If you had enough slop to slap that hard, I would think you would know it real quick...

 

[dakotarmx]

Re: not good(pics)

id say wrong plug ??????????was the motor hammering or making noise .not sure but id be taking that engine a part and looking to see if a ring broke ..just looked at the pics again i cant see a broken ring doing that something smacked hit hard dead on.ouch

 

[OBJ]

Re: not good(pics)

Would that be a Split Fire Plug?

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: not good(pics)

Damn Jim! Good eye............Missed that one completely...........

 

[KYHunter2]

Re: not good(pics)

OBJ, Never thought of that.

I figured it was being hammered by the piston , and that flattened it out.

You'd think , the noise would have been noticed , though .

But , it is surprising , what is either ignored , or just plain unnoticed, as far as engine noises .

Im sure , most have encountered this phenomenon, at one time or another. LOL

KYHunter

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

what a great feeling to have so many good responses.the motor is johnson 115esl73m.the plugs are autolite 2634 & are NOT splitfire.the reason for those plugs is thats the model that it came w/ when i got it.yeah those pics did come out surprisingly well.I suppose the cheapest and easiest first trouble shoot would be to get the champion plugs and compare plug length.then head removal,thank god its the side w/o the temp sensor in the way.
i thought i heard a SLIGHT noise but since im new to this motor i didnt know anybetter.
no helicoil present.
thanks for yalls time. DOUG

 

[tschamp20]

Re: not good(pics)

just an update on this.i switched to the champion plugs.took it out the damn thing hauled butt!was going through the channel where we hit another boats wake perpindicular got a little air, not much trust me,the revs went up slightly and we knew immediately we had a problem.can you guess what it was?you got it another mashed plug.really had to limp it in this time.it was hurtin.havent had the money to take it apart till now.
a side note,bought a cheap little spark tester,the kind w/ a bulb you plug in-line. when i did the check the cylinder in question w/ mashed plug seemed to have a way brighter spark by 10x.but it kept going out every few seconds where as the other three cylinders kept the same consistant (but flickering)spark.what might that tell me?after t.s. ernesto passes and some surfing ill be doing the coil swap test to see if the coil is going.
this really stinks i was looking forward to our new boat.