Cylinder Damage from Spark Plug?

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eekvonzipper

eekvonzipper

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So, can a little broken piece of Porcelain Insulator damage a Cylinder?
The wife came home tonight complaining of an intermittent misfire and engine light at cruise in her lil Kia Optima. I pulled the plugs (OBD2 said No#4 misfire) and found this plug with a piece missing.
I blew 100psi of air into the hole and wiggled the blower around a lil.
I dropped some fresh plugs in it and went for a rip. It ran just fine with no engine light.
curious tho, how long did that lil piece hang around and did it hurt the walls?
Whadda you fellers think?

plug.jpg
 
I had an engine swallow a washer. Cyl walls didn't get hurt by the washer. But when the crown of the piston got smashed into the first ring, that ring did a number on the walls.

I'd get a bore scope down the spark hole and see what there is to see. If the piston is OK and compression is good, you should be fine.
 
Man, that motor chewed that up and spit it out. Put another plug in it and as AC/DC said, ride on.
 
I wouldn't sweat it! No bigger than that is it probably got spit out the exhaust!
 
dartfreak75 said:
I wouldn't sweat it! No bigger than that is it probably got spit out the exhaust!
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Probably not before bein crunched to pieces. lol Although I've bigger things come out unscathed.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Yea im sure it dinged around a while lol
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In my friend Charles' 392 Hemi he built a custom intake like on the High and Mighty with heavy duty radiator hoses for runners. When they busted it off, it was suckin the hoses closed. lol SO Charles put PVC pipe in each one for support. One of them busted and sent pieces of PVC right through the engine and out the exhaust. Didn't hurt a thing, but he did get a different intake.
 
RustyRatRod said:
In my friend Charles' 392 Hemi he built a custom intake like on the High and Mighty with heavy duty radiator hoses for runners. When they busted it off, it was suckin the hoses closed. lol SO Charles put PVC pipe in each one for support. One of them busted and sent pieces of PVC right through the engine and out the exhaust. Didn't hurt a thing, but he did get a different intake.
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Wow that's crazy. I wonder if the pvc melted before it was spit out or just crushed into pieces?
 
I had the same thing happen to my 2002 Dodge Ram 360. I normally use the same Champion plugs that came in it, but tried NGK's, received that same code and that's exactly what happened. Yanked them out, put Champions back in it. 9years and 80,000 miles later still running never looked back. Fortunate maybe.
 
RustyRatRod said:
In my friend Charles' 392 Hemi he built a custom intake like on the High and Mighty with heavy duty radiator hoses for runners. When they busted it off, it was suckin the hoses closed. lol SO Charles put PVC pipe in each one for support. One of them busted and sent pieces of PVC right through the engine and out the exhaust. Didn't hurt a thing, but he did get a different intake.
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Wonder if he used Schedule 40 or schedule 80 PVC?
 
You may have a couple nicks in the combustion chamber or possibly along the cylinder wall but I doubt it. It's amazing what a motor will chew up and spit out.
 
How long did you run those plugs ? Looks a little overdue for a change .
 
Looks like a plug with about 30k miles more than it should have on it. Replace the other 3 and forget about it.
 
AJ/FormS said:
The thing is, those insulators don't crack off for no reason. IMO, it could happen again, if the underlying reason is detonation.
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They crack and fall to pieces when they've been left in too long.
 
AJ/FormS said:
Well I can't argue that.
But I can add that it once happened to me thrice in one week, all in the same cylinder.Then I fixed the underlying problem, and it never happened again.
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Judging by the condition of what's left of that plug, I'd say there are no other underlying problems.....other than perhaps neglect of maintenance.
 
Maintenance Aside. I've been working with only One hand since September, I had a Crush Injury at work and a couple of surgeries later and a lot of Occupational Therapy... Melissa is still doing half of almost everything I tackle. My Guitars are gettin' Dusty tho...

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