Thread: Why does my spark plug keep fouling out?

last time i pulled my plugs about a couple months ago, i noticed one of the ground electrodes was kinda sticky and smelled kinda funny, yes i smelled my spark plug. i mean it smelled funny cuz it didnt smell like the others lol. any thoughts?

How many miles? Pictures would be helpful. Otherwise, it maybe a little oil.

well the plugs were practically brand new but the motor has about 148,000 miles, and the plug looked a little black compared to the others

My finger is a little sticky, want to smell it?

leaking valve seal on that cylinder

ah interesting

Originally Posted by kentpappy

My finger is a little sticky, want to smell it?

What great advise!

ah, well i havnt done a leak down test yet but maybe ill find a set of low milage heads and swap em out

I'm bringing this back from the dead. I was talking to some guys last nite about my car running like crap and my spark plug being very fouled out and coated in a black deposit. At first I was thinking it was an oil leak of soomesort like someone mentioned above a bad valve seal or bad piston rings. Well this morning I went and started the car for the first time in four days and fired right up. I let it idle for a few minutes and turned it off, pulled the plug. So mind you I swapped the plug last friday with one from another cylinder, drove it saturday and havnt ran it till today. When I pulled the plug it wasn't black but it was wet not sticky and smelled real bad like gas. I'm prolly gunna still swap the valve seals but I'm leaning more towards the injector being stuck open. So I'm gunna get some new o rings and some seafoam and swap the injector with another one and see if the missfire moves to another cylinder. If it does problem solved and ill run the seafoam through it and see if it helps. If not well then it is an oil leak. I also did a compression test here are the numbers:

#1- 145
#3- 145
#5- 142
#2- 132
#4- 133
#6- 145

For some reason #2 and 4 are the lowest numbers. To refresh the car has 145000 miles and the missfire is on cylinder number 4. I don't think those are bed numbers for such high miles. So what do you guys think?

130s isnt low. that's fine.

i keep chuckling at the threads title

They make a cream to clear that up........

hahaha ok, im changing the title to be a more serious of a discussion

so far ive read of 2 maybe 3 other ppl having missfires on cylinder 4, coincidence?

when is it misfiring?

if it is at idle: that's normal. these cars just run rough at idle because of their old technology.

no it missfires when accelerating and since its been running rough it starts rough and takes about 3-5 seconds to level out after start up usually.

k, well i pulled the wires off and put the number 4 plug in the number 4 cylinder wire and had my gf crank the car and it fired weak. put the same plug in the number 2 wires and it fired weak. put the number 2 plug in the number 2 wire and it fired strong and same for number 4 and it also fired strong. so i cleaned up the number 4 plug and put it all back together and started the car and it started rough like, didnt drive it but i imagine it would be doing the same symptoms. so that tells me that it isnt the wires or the coils and prolly not the plugs either cuz they are just a few months old and less then a 1000 miles on em, that one was prolly just dirty. sooooooo.........injector then? still need to get o-rings first to swap around the injectors to see if it missfires on another cylinder. uuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh