freakin festiva spark plug trouble SOS

[rotinaj13]

Hey guys I took my festy on a 100 mile drive and it started sputtering and dogging and stalling... I started to troubleshoot it 2day. All the plugs had carbon traces higher on the plug the electrode looked chocolate brown. Except number 4. number 4 the electrodes where twice the size, and lots of carbon... I know the oil is causing this right? my question is I have oil every where air intake tube, pcv valve, TB.... now I know some of these oil burners out here aren't going through the expensive plugs in 150-300 miles... so why did mine choose to do this... cause i highly doubt ppl like ummm ahhh JIM have this problem LOL cause he would have been at summit changing plugs.. so what the heck should i do..... I am going to compression test tomm.

[bassman]

i just replied to one of your other posts and now this.
it sounds like you need to find a newer festiva. :wink:
what you have sounds like it has like a million miles and not much life left.
how many miles are on this car ???????


shayne

[kidcurry73]

Is your PVC clogged? Get a new one if its old at all.

Might try running a hotter plug in that cyl to help burn off some of that oil.

[FB71]

what plugs are you running? some of the trendy multiple ground electrode platinum plugs (bosch) foul like crazy with only a small amount of oil present. I run good ol' Autolite coppers from WalMart. Never have any fouling problems...

you also may have ruptured the head gasket at that corner of the block, letting oil into the chamber, and combustion gases into the crankcase...

[rotinaj13]

what plugs are you running? some of the trendy multiple ground electrode platinum plugs (bosch) foul like crazy with only a small amount of oil present. I run good ol' Autolite coppers from WalMart. Never have any fouling problems...

you also may have ruptured the head gasket at that corner of the block, letting oil into the chamber, and combustion gases into the crankcase...

u guessed it bosche 4's hmm i'll run an autolite on number 4. this one has 165k on it the one with the swerzing problem has 68k on it. how do i check to see if the HG is ruptured and don't say pull the head off???

[FB71]

ok, I won't say it...

put air in the cylinder, like for a leakage test, and listen for air in the crankcase. Keep in mind, this is a poor test...

[Biff]

Broken ring , one of my cylinders had this , oil every where in the intake , the cure , a B6

[rotinaj13]

can i apply vac to it and plug every thing except the dipstick tube and use a vac guage on it?

[Biff]

never heard of vac test , think do a comp test , make note of all four cyls, then throw a couple three squirts 15/40w or so into each cyl before another comp test, record results. If comp stays relatively the same , all is good , I think this compares between valve leakage and ring leakage, short of that try using a boroscope down the spark plug hole looking for scratches on cyl wall , the hole I had bad in mine was definetly scratched up with a broken ring.

[FB71]

vac puts pressure the wrong way, and doesn't provide enough flow. Cylinder leakage for head gasket detection is best. Compression test will only indicate which cylinder has a failure, leakage test test what type of failure. Do both for best results.

[rotinaj13]

will a local garage be able to do this b/c i doubt i can do it. or is this something i need to take it to ford and tell them i know u and i want a freaking discount, and a red stapiler or i will burn down the building. LOL

[FB71]

any competent shop can do it. Or spend $40-$50 at sears for the two gages...

[rotinaj13]

mmmm k what guages do i ask for? sorry i am slow.... very slow..... but at least i am in a festiva and not a rental car *cough* carl *cough* :roll: LOL

[FB71]

compression tester and cylinder leakage tester

[rotinaj13]

ok i got the compression tester i need the leakage tester. thanks jim