one plug with deposits on it??

[piggyfinndude]

Hey guys,

I was wondering why one of my plugs have "blackish" deposits on it, while all the others seem fine? I just changed my plugs in March and had to change them again (one because one was defective and the other cuz of the black stuff, so i jsut changed them all again). I went with Champion plugs the first time, but this time i went with NGK, i think it was.

Ummmm....only thing i can tell you is that the car shoots out a puff of smoke out the back when i start her for the first time after a lil while, but nothing visible once i'm driving or idling.

Any ideas?

Also, sometimes i try starting my car and it doesn't even turn on the car at all, just ticks and it resets my radio stations and everything?! I still think the thing is possesed...but i still love her!!

[jeffs94]

Oil seeping by a failing valve stem seal. Youll see more oil when idiling when the rest of the valve stem seals begin to fail.

[kene]

is it a 5efe or a 3ee engine. im assuming its a 5efe. look into the ignition system for that one cylinder. make sure the spark plug wire is insulated the whole way to the dist. cap. and look at the distributor cap as well. check inside and see if the terminals are corroded. then post what you find. i had a similar problem and it was due to the cylinder #3 spark pkug wire. the clip for it to attach to the distributor cap snapped. so as i was driving it was misfiring every now and then. then it just kept getting worse.

if in your case its missing spark, think like this.

If the spark is missed, but the fuel delivered never skips a beat, will you have more fuel than needed? the answer is yes. and if its really bad it could sometimes be flooding that one cylinder.

It could also be your coil inside the distributor. maybe the primary fire or the secondary fire is messed up. So in the first half of the cylinders firing cyle its ok, but the spark is missing from the second half, or vice-versa. So now your running rich, which gives your car a puff of black smoke out of the tailpipe.

go here for an animated diagram.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine3.htm

[kene]

usually with oil being burned it looks like a bluish-grey color. black is usually something relating to fuel.

[jeffs94]

You are correct, and i didnt even bother to ask what color of smoke he was seeing, black or bluish grey.....my bad. BTW too much fuel will blow blackish smoke, the smoke is just unburned fuel.

[kene]

don't ignore the fact thats its unburned fuel. tht isn't a normnal thing on EFI models.

[piggyfinndude]

it's a blue grey smoke...
also, a loud "ticking" noise coming from the engine means what? doesn't seem to affect anything...i don't think.

Thanks

[kene]

usually when you only see a puff of blueish smoke when you start the car(tercels/paseos) it means that the valve stem seals are bad. overnight the oil sitting in the top of the head gets past the bad valve stem seal and leaks into the cylinder. so when you start it all the oil gets burned.

[dotmrep]

Get those stems checked out and if you dont have some good plugs in their already, no is the time to get on it.

DOTMREP