Suppose an, "in a hurry guy", put his 331 Hemi in the bed of his P/U and didn't strap it down or tie in down. Suppose the headers were on the thing and using 2x4's under the outlets steadied it okay. Now imagine the shop he's taking it to is at closing time, (reason enough to be in a big hurry?), and are staying open until he get there, about four miles or so away. So then the journey begins. Going slow enough, (he thinks), he turns left. Holy crap, the Hemi rolls in the bed first to the right on to its side, then as the corner is completed it rolls upright, then to the left, and then rights its self to the upright position and comes to rest on the damper and the pan. Cussing, he pulls over, checks it out sees no external damage, figures it will ride in this position okay and takes it to the shop for mating with the transmission which was the intent of the trip. The distributor was in the block with out the cap and the intake/carbs were not on the block at the time of the rollover dance move. Now , "in a hurry dummy" after getting the car back on the road is having engine miss issues. He had this issue after reassembly and found a broken plug, presumably from the roll around in the bed, changed all plugs, it ran okay and now it reoccurred again yesterday. So now Mr. idiot is thinking maybe something internal happened when it was dancing around in the bed. I...........err.........he can't imagine what that might be. He's headed to the shop to go over the cap, wires and look again at the plugs. A thought that it could be the "Hot Heads" electronic distributor passes through his mini brain, but then it starts and maintains speed on what he believes to be seven cylinders. It starts and runs good, and it made about 20 miles back and forth at freeway speeds yesterday, with the miss pretty prevalent. So............could it be something internal causing the miss? If so my buddy really has a need to know. Maybe he needs to take up another hobby. I've mentioned knitting a couple of times, but he says needles scare him.
The sequence was: 1.) It had a miss 2.) It ran OK after changing the damaged plug 3.)Now it has a miss again. Definitely sounds like an ignition issue. Did the wire to the broken plug get damaged when it flopped around in the back of "your buddy's" pickup? A new plug will fire at a lower voltage, and after it gets a little age on it requires a bit more, so an injured plug wire could be the cause. How long did it run OK after the plug replacement?
How long did it run OK after the plug replacement? Put in terms of hours; less than (4). Now dummy is thinking electronic ignition maybe also. I really did not check the #4 wire that close on the damaged broken plug, but will for sure. Thinking of replacing distributor & wires from Hot Heads, after checking what you suggest Ebbsspeed
Best advice (sometimes) is...."don't go replacing stuff and throwing money at the problem". Best to figger out WHAT went worng and fix that....... Well, this time I would 'replace a bunch of stuff' electrical and then go from there! Doubt........anything inside is causing the issue you mentioned.(which is a good thang because THAT STUFF IS expen$ive!) 6sally6
Easy, plug wire hung, jerked plug to side when it rolled, broke plug, probably broke plug wire internally, now it won't fire at high speeds. Make sense?
NO! Not at all! Easy? explain........... o...... should've pulled off the plug. The plug is down in the tube by 4'' +I just checked myself.....+ THIS ^^^^^^^^...Now, how could this have occurred then?
The cap and wires were not on the distributor. Pulled plugs and tubes today, no visible damage. I'll order a new set of wires first of all from Bob at Hot Heads to begin with and a new set of tubes and seals, my tubes are shot. I'll get a new cap from my local speed shop also. Oh and another strange thing I think. It used a lot of gas in those twenty miles. I have just installed the new dual 4 bbls by Edelebrock , AVS 2 carbs a month or so back and they weren't using near the gas I did yesterday. That constant miss at freeway speeds could do this I think.
OK, I missed the part about cap and wires were off........ Sounded good to me at that time! So, how the hell do you damage a Hemi plug with no wires on it? Something in the truck bed jab down the plug tube?
So calling me a liar accomplishes exactly what????????? A picture of a spark plug with broken porcelain on the plug stem that could have come from my lawn mower, or one that could be damaged intentionally really proves nothing. How that happened down inside the head is a mystery but I assure you only that #4 plug was in the condition I described. Now that I give it some further thought I have known of plugs being installed and the porcelain being cracked up on installation, leaving the engine running okay but running rough. It is a possibility that that plug was damaged, but preformed okay until it got banged around. I'm not going to speculate any more and just get on with the "fix". "IF" I find time while out in the shop, and "IF" I remember to take a shot of the plug, and "IF" I load it into my computer files and "IF" I have nothing else to do I will certainly comply with the wish, "no pics, didn't happen." Leaving it up it up you to judge if the picture is real or a fabrication of the story just so I have something else in my busy schedule to do.
I'm going to send you some tie down straps so you can pass them on to your friend with the dented pickup bed
Just for you Joker, you special guy you. And like your kids might have told you when growing up: "It did its self Dad!"
not being a Hemi guy, I would first say that you cracked the porcelain at some point before/after rolling motor around - hard to tell but, seems washer missing from the damaged plug and two washers on next plug? don't the plug tubes seal plug without use of washers? condition of plug tube ends good? misfire? checked compression? damaged valve spring? hear noise? done visual of motor with valve covers off? checked for vacuum leak? run motor with new plugs to see if coloration is equal?
seems washer missing from the damaged plug and two washers on next plug? No neither is the case. Broken plug is in a shadow & has a washer & #5 plug has a broken part of the tube on it. New tubes and seals on order from Hot Heads. Discussion on HAMB gave info that washers are okay to use on the tubes, but I won't be with the new ones, my engine had been so I stayed with it. condition of plug tube ends good? No, not the best= reason for new tubes. checked compression? No. damaged valve spring? hear noise? Unknown at present, and no noise. done visual of motor with valve covers off? No not yet. checked for vacuum leak? No motor with new plugs to see if coloration is equal? Yes I have found a weird rotor with the contact curved up 90 deg. with the end corroded and the cap corroded as well a little. The rotor I believe is the handy work of some of my help back in the day. New cap and rotor in house as of this day. Distributor is a RW'd 34o from Hot Heads from back about 2000-2005 time frame I think. Now awaiting new plug tubes for installation and testing of all mentioned. Onward and upward.
Keep plugging on it, you'll get it worked out. Probably like you said Larry, plug was cracked when installed, then force of rollover dislodged that piece of porcelain. It might have been that way quite a while, just now showed up. Looks like your on the right track.
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