Okay... I was driving home from visiting my parents for Xmas. About thirty miles out, I had a huge backfire and the engine started to misfire. Luckily I was close to an exit, where I was able to get the car parked. I looked to see if I were leaking fluids or any parts missing and found nothing. so, I decided to look underneath the coil cover and found one of the packs completely destroyed. After I removed the damaged pack, I found the #4 spark plug loose. It appeared that the plug was shot out of the head into the pack ( I tried to put in a new plug but, there seems to be no threads in the head).

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing happening?

Over 85miles from home, the car has to be towed, and it is snowing... Merry freakin' Xmas.

Noted, on the way to my parents, I had an intermittent issue with the car sputtering whenever I got the car close to 80mph but, eventually the issue went away. The same thing happened before the 'fail'.

Link to photos below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredi..._QE&feat=email

 

Impressive, I've never seen that before. Can you post a mod list? The only way I can imagine that happening is if you experienced severe detonation (which shouldn't even be a concern at cruise).

 

only heard of that happening to f150's.. had it happed to me twice!! sorry about your luck

 

This happened to someone I know when they pumped 87 octane and hit boost, and they were tuned for 93.

 

Daaamn, sorry to hear that man...
Would severe detonation really cause this?
Have you pulled the other plugs to see what's their condition.

 

^^ check that and see if they are gaped correctly.

 

Mods on the Evo 8 are light:

Evo IX Turbo
HKS downpipe
HKS Hi Power Exhaust
Halman Manual Boost Controller
( Professionally Tuned )

As for pulling the plugs and checking them.... I have not gotten to it yet ( also, not enough light at the time of the incident. I will pull them out later on today ( if it stops snowing ) and post pics.

 

You might be able to save the head using a helicoil or having a machine shop fix it. I dont think you would have to replace the head but then again we cant see the damage that was caused.

 

Seen several times. The plug was not tight. Aluminum heads only. The plug is of course steel and it over time being loose worked on the threads and had nothing to hold it in. The tip of the plug looks good, not detonation. If you lived closer I could repair w-o removing head.
Don

 

Sorry to see this, did you recently change the plugs?

 

loose spark plug will cause this in aluminum heads

 

Why are you running 6's?? Stock is 7's and you shouldnt run a hotter plug (lower number) then that.

 

happened to my buddy. dealer forgot to tighten #4

 

Happened to #3 for me a few years back. Was fine, stopped at a light and when I went.. POP.. ran on 3 cylinders. The plug actually shot up and cracked the plastic piece that is on the valve cover. I was fortunate enough that the block was still hot enough to get another plug in with only minor damage to the threads on the head. Just make sure those plugs are tightened down.

 

To be honest, when I had my annual tune-up ( in Florida at the time ), they were changed out supposedly for new ones (supposedly the same IGR7A-G). Until you mentioned it, I never noticed.

Normally I get all of the work on my car done by Atlantic Motorsports in MD. but, my job requires a lot of travelling so, I visited another tuner (name shall not be mentioned), located where I was at the time.

"Good attention detail"