oily/burned spark plugs

Just took the plugs out of my 95 ej22 that has been sitting on a pallet for a couple months, I wanted to get a look at them since I may be trading them for some wrx seats. The motor has about 193k mostly unknown history except the motor was running really sluggish before I swapped for a newer motor. I had originally though the heads needed a little bit of work (two spark plug tubes to be chased with helicoils). Turned out to be one tube needs repair so that's good...

 

Any way long story short, I got the plugs out and all of them have oil caked on them and the electrodes are dark brown...the plugs are ngk iridiums, (I know overkill) the plugs have maybe 4k miles on them and look as if they have 20k. I'm now thinking I shouldn't have put those plugs in because they are basically racing plugs and the meager 2.2 didn't like them too much...I have never in my car owning/modding life have seen plugs that fouled. I just am amazed and would love to know what would cause that...anybody?

Try comparing them to these:

 

http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/spark/spark.html

Nice link, thanks Hemingway, kinda leads me to the piston rings with that, the motor ran and had some power still just a little sluggish like driving through thick mud. Its been a good six months since I last drove it with that motor, makes sense because all the plugs looked like a mix between the dry and wet firing ends but motor has sitting for a while.

 

 

The only other thing I can think of is the valve seals but the plugs I took out too replace them with the iridiums were in pretty good shape other than the ceramic around the firing end was pitting a bit, I had the car for three months before I changed plugs because a full tuneup was done just a week before I got the car (had reciept from hi-tech auto service in town) the #3 cylinder had been crossthreaded in. Guessing they were lazy and didn't want to remove the wiper res. I fixed it with a tap and punch insert.

Hello;

I run the stock V-Power plugs in mine, the gap is .037-.043 inch. I am thinking that the iridiums have a larger gap and the stock coil does not have enough power to use these correctly, hence the colder burn. Just guessing, Steven.

Great thought and very possible, I wonder if they would work better with an msd coil...I don't know the condition of the combustion chamber I'm going to be taking the heads off the block next weekend sometime. I'm wondering if that insert hung up on the plug too or scooted farther down the tube than I wanted, I tried to run another plug into the one that I needed a breaker for and it was instantly difficult to thread in. When I backed it off the threads on the plug started flattening out and pushed the ground strap into the electrode

Hello;

I run the stock V-Power plugs in mine, the gap is .037-.043 inch. I am thinking that the iridiums have a larger gap and the stock coil does not have enough power to use these correctly, hence the colder burn. Just guessing, Steven.

 

I have been using those plugs since I put the new motor in and I like them too, took them out to look at them after 2k on the swap and they are still brand new looking.

I've used the NGK V-powers successfully for about 30K miles. Recently put on the 'G-power' version and it seems to start and purr nicely also.

 

Previously tried Bosch plugs, having used them successfully in my Honda, prior to the V-powers and had horrible results. switching back to NGKs was like night and day. Seems the Subie likes NGKs.

Hello;

Most of the cars that run the iridiums usually have ignitors (coil) on each plug. Steven.

Yeah, I kind of bought those before I thought about it, iridiums probably fare better with low compression turbo motors, and like you said direct coil on plug setups...that is a mistake that won't be forgotten because of my machine shop bill...

 

When I get my invoice from the machine shop I'm probably going to either frame it or clear coat it to the underside of my hood as a reminder.

Great thought and very possible, I wonder if they would work better with an msd coil...I don't know the condition of the combustion chamber I'm going to be taking the heads off the block next weekend sometime. I'm wondering if that insert hung up on the plug too or scooted farther down the tube than I wanted, I tried to run another plug into the one that I needed a breaker for and it was instantly difficult to thread in. When I backed it off the threads on the plug started flattening out and pushed the ground strap into the electrode

 

i have the iridium plugs and the MSD coil, they looked new still last time i pulled them, i have maybe 15k on them so far.

i have the iridium plugs and the MSD coil, they looked new still last time i pulled them, i have maybe 15k on them so far.

 

Hey twisty, are you running the original motor in your 95 with the msd and iridiums? Reason I'm asking is because the compression is slightly lower in the 95 2.2, when I first put those plugs in my car it idled better and felt like it was pretty healthy. After that I didn't have much power.

ya, its the 95 2.2 still in it. it seems to idle fine, but i havent seen much difference in power afterwards. that i can notice, that is... even buttdyno didnt change.

Lol, butt dyno. Hilarious, the changes I noticed were a few mpg (6), slightly different sound, very clean idle, and a little better low end power. I swapped my motor for the mixed 98 motor, out of an impreza obs. That motor has all of those qualities in them as opposed to the 95 2.2.. the only thing I used from the 95 motor was my I/m because the car I pulled it out of was a 5 speed. Mine sadly is 4eatMe.