[RESOLVED] Wet Plugs from a cold start

[DSM1G90]

Looked in the forums for this topic but didn't find any, so here goes:

Still in the cold of winter in this part of the nation - sitting in the 20's.

Car sits outside out - exposed to these elements of winter.

..yet, the car can still fire up with no problems in this cold weather ...until today...

(And it's a nice sunny day with temps in the lower 40's) Hit the key for 10 seconds and no catch. Just some balking and a little bucking...like a choked up motor would act. Got off the starter, wait a few seconds then back on the starter, this time holding the pedal down to get some air to get pulled down to see if that helps...no catch - just an occasional bucking and a hit here and there.

Heck with this...Open hood.."Whew!" fuel odor was pretty strong-knew I had a flooded motor.
I pulled the plugs. All totally wet with fuel. Sprayed starter fluid on them to dry them out and reinstalled. Hit the key and it took a bit, but motor fired up blowing out black smoke from way too much fuel sitting on top of the pistions.

Car ran great for the rest of the day in going to work, and when getting off work, motor fired right up idled smoothly at 750rpms without a notion of any problems - ran like it supposed to do.

Any members had any similar problems like this, or any tips for me to poke into that can be shared?

Much THX, all! - DSM

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

Sounds like your injectors might be starting to leak. When they sit overnight, all the pressure and fuel in the rail leaks through into the combustion chamber. So when you go to start it in the morning there is a bunch of fuel sitting on the pistons before you even start to crank the motor over. It isn't an overly uncommon problem but it does happen. I would let it sit for a while again and then pull a plug before you try to start it to see if you can smell fuel down in the cylinder before cranking. Wouldn't be a bad idea to throw a new set of NGK BPR6ES plugs in there either since yours are probably toast now.

 

[DSM1G90]

"Wow!" and tonnage of "THX" for this recommendation to try this procedure out to see if I do have leaky injectors.

For this isn't the first time this happened. Even during the summer, it acted like it was having a bad case of 'hot start' disease on rare occasion.

thx-DSM

 

[DSM1G90]

Did the suggestion after the car sit for over 24hrs: pulled the plugs and 3 pistons are dry with no fuel leakage, but No.3 was a little wet with oil on the top of the piston.

I made a swab by taking a long straw and taped a small wad of paper towel to the end so I could poke the straw though the sparkplug hole and wipe the top of the piston and see what the wetness looked and smelled like .. which was oil.. (bummer, another little condition or potiental problem - prob a leaky valve seal since the plug wasn't fouled or anything ..)

Guess, it's a go-figure thing when it wants and chooses when to..

-DSM

 

[crazyfwd]

hi, my experience with leaking valve seals is that after sitting overnight my car smokes when i start it in the morning...the brown kind with the distinctive odor of fresh 10-40wt.

pull out your plugs and disable your pump then hook up the plugs to the plug wires and position them in such a way that you can verify spark. then crank the motor...could be your not getting spark among other things

 

[DSM1G90]

Thx for the added tip, Mr."Crazy" - give that a whirl in seeing if I am getting spark...

Also, this could be pointing to a vacuum leak around the EGR valve-being that the valve itself could be leaking, r stuck open causing more air than anything causing these hard starts - for I disconnected the EGR by plugging up the two vacuum lines with golf tees, and that seemed to cure the problem for now.

.another go-figure thing to poke out of the woodwork. thx-DSM