V1 Kyle's Street Goblin #228- 07 SS/SC Donor

[Robinjo]

Getting the Goblin out for the first time this year (it has been a very long winter in Southern Utah). Sadly I discovered my hood mounts were broken I guess I'm going hoodless for a bit.

Mine did the same thing. It has 3k miles on it. I think this has happened to others as well, I've seen a couple comments on The Facebook Goblin groups.

 

[Rauq]

I and a few others have put hinges at the front of the hood. Super solid, quick to flip up. I will either hold it in position with a carefully calibrated length of string trimmer wire (lol) tied to the frame or a block of wood on the ground with a clean microfiber towel on it.

 

[Kyle]

Oh, that's awesome! I might need to figure out a way for that to work with my set up. My headlights would get in the way as is.

 

[Scott #321]

I highly recommend the hinges. unless you have a splitter that interferes with tilting it is a game changer for getting under the hood.

 

[Kyle]

Won't clear lights.

 

[Sluggonaut]

Those with NACA ducts may have issues with a hinged setup as well.

 

[Kyle]

Car started running really rough
These plugs are only 18 months old. What could be the underlying issue? Bad o2? My car always runs between 180-185 F.

 

[Gtstorey]

Any chance they are Amazon/eBay sourced plugs?

 

[Kyle]

Any chance they are Amazon/eBay sourced plugs?

No... AC Delco from Napa

 

[Gtstorey]

The only time I’ve seen pictures of plugs that look like that has been counterfeit. I have heard of people getting “returned” plugs from parts stores where people realize they have counterfeit plugs and stick them in the replacement boxes.
Beyond that, maybe running lean or detonation? But I’ve never seen a plug loose the ceramic like the bottom one appears to have done.

 

[Robinjo]

Maybe just a crappy batch of product?

 

[Kyle]

Here's what I've found out. The plugs they gave me a year ago were off by a heat range. (I had 800's instead of 801's). I got new iridium plugs installed and the car definitely runs better, but it isn't idling perfectly and it seems to be stuck in open loop.

 

[Mahkoi]

Out of caution I'd run a compression check and take a look at the cylinder/valves with a boroscope if you have one available. Ceramic is pretty hard and there are things that could have been damaged from it coming off the plug and traveling through the engine.

 

[Gtstorey]

One heat range on a plug isn’t enough to cause that damage, I don’t know that being way off on heat range could cause that.

 

[Kyle]

Out of caution I'd run a compression check and take a look at the cylinder/valves with a boroscope if you have one available. Ceramic is pretty hard and there are things that could have been damaged from it coming off the plug and traveling through the engine.

That's not a bad idea, but I don't know if I'd do anything if there was low compression.

 

[Kyle]

One heat range on a plug isn’t enough to cause that damage, I don’t know that being way off on heat range could cause that.

Agreed, you and I are on the same page. However, the guys at the part store disagree.

 

[Rttoys]

If off by one heat range did that, they would have all done that. One is destroyed, one is near destroyed and 2 look fine. Doesn’t make sense. Bad or counterfeit part is top of my list too, although I would be checking compression as others said.

 

[Robinjo]

Agreed, you and I are on the same page. However, the guys at the part store disagree.

I’ve found I know more that most ‘guys at the parts store’ these days. They used to be super knowledgeable but most now don’t know much.

I have 1-step colder plugs in my LSJ and haven't seen anything like what your seeing. According to the parts store guys my engine should have exploded by now.

 

[Kyle]

****.

 

[Ross]

A piece of a ring squished out the edge of a piston?