please tell me what possible causes there could be for this cause changing plugs every 5 minutes sucks!
i just put a 218-224 112lsa cc extreme cam in it, some 1.6 rr and a set of headers. i'm still on stock tune, do you think that is fouling my plugs out. i mean, this thing ran great for 4 minutes after i changed the plugs out the other day. i ran it through the gears (and it ran awesome!), stopped, and turned around and they were fouled out that quick cause it wouldn't run worth crap after that...missing terribly.
i've gotta get this thing back on the road! what could it be?

 

The stock tune should work fine.I would say you have an exhaust leak,or vacuum possibly.

 

a vacuum leak crossed my mind but i didn't realize an exhaust leak could foul them out. its possible i have an exhaust leak since i just installed headers

 

You haven't thrown any codes?

Things I would check: intake elbow on the bottom where it slides over the throttle body. Tends to get folded in and cause a leak. Get a mirror under there.

Check all your vacuum lines.

O2's are bad, causing a rich condition, but that would have to be in closed loop. Did the car get up to temp?

That cam is bigger than the Hotcam, and the hotcam benefits a lot from tuning. Tuning should help alot.

Like others said, could be an exhaust leak before the O2 sensors. Do you hear a pfft, pfft sound when accelerating hard?

EGR leaking? EGR tube leaking?

You do have the full exhaust hooked up right?

Dan

 

the only codes that have been thrown are misfire codes, that's why i have tried to rule out the o2 sensors. the misfire codes come about when i foul out my plugs. i did hear some noise that coulda been an exhaust leak...i wasn't sure if it was an exhaust leak or if its' just the sound of a missfire. did you guys put your header gaskets on dry?
and how do you figure out where a vacuum leak is coming from? the intake elbow was on fine. one guy i know who's built race engines for many years told me i should get a vacuum gage and find out what the vacuum reads on it. i thought maybe the cam was too big and causing low vacuum i think.

 

My car also fouled the plugs after my cam install. It ran great for about 10 minutes and then fouled a few sets of plugs. It turned out that we tighten the rockers down too much allowing the valves to stay open all the time. This is what it turned out to be for me.

 

hey you're from new philla, i went to high school at River View down over by the Coshocton/Warsaw area. i've had my valves adjusted twice now, so i'm hoping that's not the problem! i'll have to recheck them and see how they feel. thanks man

 

Here's what I think.
1 It's not an exhaust leak. An exhaust leak could never cause plugs to fuel foul.
2 O2 sensors, even if not hooked up could not cause it to run rich enough to fuel foul either.
3 I kinda doubt a vacume leak could cause it because that would generally cause a lean condition

Is it runnig so rich that when you rev it there is black smoke comming out? Have you checked fuel pressure?

HUMMMMM, A bigger cam will a stock tune will cause it to run rich at or near idle but what you have is extreme

 

honestly, i have not noticed any black smoke when i rev. i kinda looked for that. i wish i knew someone around here with some kind of engine monitoring equiptment to tell me what's going on.

 

Yea about the engine equipment good luck, I cant find anyone other that dealerships to look at our cars. My car has a miss and detonation, its in the shop as we speak.

Did I mention since I have an LT1 it's costing me a total of $140 instead of $70 because its so hard to trace the problem?

-Dustin-

 

Are the plugs fuel fouled or oil fouled? I assumed it was fuel but thought I'd check.

If you were running rich enough to foul the plugs in 10 minutes, I doubt it would even run.

 

it certainly smells like fuel to me. the plugs themselves are all black.

 

I hate to disagree, but all three of those DO cause rich conditions.

here's how. the oxy. sensor sees the extra oxy. in the exh. system (either by exh. leak drawing in air, or vac. leak allowing air in that way) and tries to compensate for the "lean" condition it thinks its seeing by holding the inj.s open for a longer duration. resulting in too much fuel being delivered and fouling out the plugs.
I agree though w/someone that said egr tube may be leaking, your valves may be adj. wrong (prolly not though if it ran strong for a few min.s), or the headers/ypipe may be leaking. and given that you just installed that stuff, thats def. the first place Id look. also, you may need to remove the 02's to clean the raw fuel/carbon off them too. they will get coated just like the plugs and now give off a false reading. that would cause you to go in circles trying to figure it out. after youve replaced theplugs, cleaned the 02's, you need a scan tool to moniter the 02's, IAC counts, and the fuel trim. that will tell you if the computer is richening the mixture up and fouling the plugs.
good luck
chris

 

I'm gonna say this. More than likely you are having this problem when it enters closed loop due to the fact that it runs fine when first started. Since the only major thing that gets monitored once the engine switches over to closed loop is the O2's, I therefore vote exhaust leak. Scanning equipment would let you know whats going on, but what can ya do...

 

so who wants to drive to ohio and let me borrow a scanning tool?! kidding, but what is a good scan tool to buy for a decent price and where to buy it?