and the 3v gods betray me,,,,

[whitmanink]

coming home from the gym today not even an hr ago,,

come off the exit on highway,, come to a stop and my engine is idling at about 400 rpm, sounds like its missing, check engine light is flashing, get over and pull over ,, turn car off and sit in awe of wtf just happend,,,,

then try to start it to get it home (not even 1 mile from my house) i have to give it gas to keep it running, get it home shut it off,,,, sit in awe again at wtf is going on,,,,

get my blue driver reader out and scan the car for codes,,
"misfire cylinder 4"
let the car cool down a few ,, pull the plug,,,,,,

i sit in awe and now wanting to puke,,

the car was blowing smoke when i got it home,,,

i tryed to vac the cylinder out, it dont look bad in the spark plug hole from what i can see ,

so do i put a new plug in and see what happens or just start pulling the head

 

[GlassTop09]

coming home from the gym today not even an hr ago,,

come off the exit on highway,, come to a stop and my engine is idling at about 400 rpm, sounds like its missing, check engine light is flashing, get over and pull over ,, turn car off and sit in awe of wtf just happend,,,,

then try to start it to get it home (not even 1 mile from my house) i have to give it gas to keep it running, get it home shut it off,,,, sit in awe again at wtf is going on,,,,

get my blue driver reader out and scan the car for codes,,
"misfire cylinder 4"
let the car cool down a few ,, pull the plug,,,,,,

i sit in awe and now wanting to puke,,

the car was blowing smoke when i got it home,,,

i tryed to vac the cylinder out, it dont look bad in the spark plug hole from what i can see ,

so do i put a new plug in and see what happens or just start pulling the headView attachment 83108

I think you already know the answer, but if I were you I'd pull B1 valve cover next before doing anything else to check valve train & I'm betting you're gonna find the main reason why you're seeing what you're seeing (you gotta remove it anyway so I'd start there).

That sucks for sure.............

PS-what's the mileage on your 3V?

 

[Forty61]

I would pull the valve cover too and just lay eyes on it but if it all looks good under there I would personally just throw a new plug in and give it a shot, hell if it’s already broken what difference does it make?

 

[whitmanink]

164,000 i think,,

i will pull the valve cover ,, than i guess go from there.....

 

[whitmanink]

all looks good inside??

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

all looks good inside??View attachment 83109

The engine looks remarkably clean inside after 164k miles. You could almost eat your dinner off it.
Throw a new plug in the no.4 plug hole and see how it goes.

 

[Racer47]

Run a compression ck before putting a plug it. Borrow a scope too if you can.

 

[whitmanink]

thanks dino,, but truth be told i did just put new cams in and new roller follwers and vvt, as well as timing kit , sooo theres some movie magic as its not a fresh cracked valve cover @164,000,, in truth its about 1,000 miles old

 

[GlassTop09]

Run a compression ck before putting a plug it. Borrow a scope too if you can.

This...... Why I mentioned to pull valve cover is to verify\deny the issue w\ spark plug wasn't due to upper valve train issue causing valve drop.....even though you've already gone thru it.
I've learned to never assume anything w\ these 3V's...............

Something solid got into combustion chamber & took out spark plug tips.......that damage is not from detonation. Most likely came in thru intake side.........you don't recall any missing stuff when you did any work on engine prior? If it were me, I'd be pulling intake manifold off & checking it as well as intake ports on cyl heads for any more potential foreign materials.

A sucky question but its gotta get asked........the last thing you want to do is to take another chance w\o giving your engine a thorough inspection prior IMHO.

 

[whitmanink]

This......

Something solid got into combustion chamber & took out spark plug tips.......that damage is not from detonation. Most likely came in thru intake side.........you don't recall any missing stuff when you did any work on engine prior? If it were me, I'd be pulling intake manifold off & checking it as well as intake ports on cyl heads for any more potential foreign materials.

A sucky question but its gotta get asked........the last thing you want to do is to take another chance w\o giving your engine a thorough inspection prior IMHO.

i see your points , and very valid, but ,,,

the janky sct tune makes my car backfire on decel almost always, so im not gonna rule out crappy tune,,,
no Fastners or nuts were left behind when redoing the engine timing and all,,

looking at the piston it seems ok ,, now i can only see so much but does seem to be ok,,

seeing how i drove it a mile home like that and than shut it off at home than started it again for a moment , leads me to believe that if damage was done, than its done , and me throwing another plug in and seeing whats gonna happen aint gonna do much more,, if anything set me up for a mandatory .20 or .30 over on rebuild,,

to be honest,, i just got done a few months ago doing everything to the car and motor and the last thing i wanna do is pull the heads and than the motor again,, so for me ,, the risk vs reward is negligible...

i got the plug and rtv maker a little bit ago,,,

than tomorrow im gonna put her back together and let the rtv dry 24hrs,, than start her up and either be happy with a big weight lifted off my shoulders ,, or the harsh reality is about to set in on the task thats about to unfold with countless hours and more dollars spent when this great economy we have at the moment ,, all for the love of this 3v,,,, not to mention the longer it will be than till i can turbo it.. its a love hate really ,,, lol

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

thanks dino,, but truth be told i did just put new cams in and new roller follwers and vvt, as well as timing kit , sooo theres some movie magic as its not a fresh cracked valve cover @164,000,, in truth its about 1,000 miles old

OK, that explains the clean engine innards but this could be a game changer in terms of fault diagnosis and management, because I can't help feeling your problem is related to the recent valvetrain work.
The scary thing is that the electrode has completely separated from the rest of the plug along the weld line. Could this have been a manufacturing fault, or could the cam timing be off on bank 1 with the piston hitting the plug? Your car's an '09 model so it would have one-piece plugs, and a manufacturing fault would be a long shot. Therefore I'm leaning towards the latter. The cam timing could either be off due to a mechanical issue e.g. chain skipped on cam gear, phaser limiters or lockouts not installed when required (SPR cams), or tune related (incorrect programming of cam timing advance curve).
At this point you definitely need to look inside the cylinder with a borescope to see if there are witness marks on the piston and if there's damage caused by the broken piece of spark plug. You'd be a very lucky boy if it just disappeared into the exhaust without damaging anything e.g. exhaust valve on its way.

 

[bl817]

what plugs are those, I'll stay away from those.

 

[Andrey Sidorov]

Dino is totally right i think ^, 09 doesnt have the issues with plugs like earlier years with less threads (ive shot a plug out of the block one time) That said that looks very severe and broken so clean (if you know what i mean almost like its cut) buy or rent a borrowscope (they aint that pricey in 2022) and check if piston hit it, you will see right away, or was it a bad tune and plug just broke cause of detonation and heat , but then there is the question of where that piece went

 

[whitmanink]

i put a new plug in and tryed it,, still same result,

so im gonna pull all the plugs,,,
pull intake,,,
pull heads,,
hopefully not motor,

 

[07 Boss]

Are you getting the same misfire code? Here is my thought. Being down one cylinder is not that big of a deal because usually the car will still idle pretty decent and the power should not be that far down. I am thinking that maybe your cam timing is off. Whether the vct is working correctly or the chain may have jumped a tooth I couldn't tell you. But I would not expect such a huge power loss with just a bad plug or ignition on one cylinder.

 

[dark steed]

I have had a coil pack jar loose a couple of times and got a dead miss. But since you’ve replaced the plug I doubt loose is the issue. Could be a faulty coil though.
I may have a few coils laying around if that’s what it is…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[whitmanink]

i didnt get any codes while it was idling (only for 40 sec or so) ,but it wanted to die,, kinda like its missing on more than one cylinder,,

so i will pull the pulgs and see what i get,,

im thinking either somehow the timing jumped at idle?

or maybe the cmcv broke off and went in the intake?

i dont hear no metal on metal contact , or horrible noises ,,,

so im gonna see what plugs look like,,, see what intake looks like,,

pull heads ,if nothing is found,,,, and last resort,,,,, pull that b*tch out

 

[whitmanink]

would jumped timing hit the plug tho? i can see valves but the plug?

 

[whitmanink]

what plugs are those, I'll stay away from those.

motorcraft ones....... from LMR

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

i put a new plug in and tried it, still same result,

so im gonna pull all the plugs,,,
pull intake,,,
pull heads,,
hopefully not motor,

Now that I zoomed in more closely on that broken plug, I see that the electrode broke clean off at those two spot welds. Therefore it may have been a manufacturing fault after all.
Unfortunately you still have a problem. Whether that's due to any damage inside cylinder 4 caused by the rogue plug electrode or the cam timing being off, I can't say either way yet. The only way you're going to find out is to pull the front cover, intake manifold, and the passenger side head to perform a forensic examination.
Whatever you find, I suggest you throw all of those junky plugs into the trash and buy new ones from a different manufacturer. The last thing you want is another plug to break after you've fixed the engine.