Sorry about the corny title - I'm just so excited
Just a quick comment on NGK sparkplugs.
I recently rebuild my Q's engine. Unfortunately It seems I know a lot more about pistons and valve lifters than I do about spark plugs and TBs.
At the time of the rebuild I replaced all the under plenum hoses and what not, but I just inspected the Autolite sparkplugs. To my carborator trained eye, they looked just fine so I reinstalled them.
A friend pointed me to this site and after reading some posts I did two things - changed the spark plugs to all new dealer-bought NGK's and did a 10 min scrub of the TB ... Oh my!
At 4000 rpms, it's the same car, not really any different. But at idle it is soooo much smoother. Still just a twitch of vibration, but so much less than before.
Especially Idle-under-load. Consider the following scenario - parallel parking with the AC and headlights on. Under the old plugs, the engine idle speed would drop real low under the strain of Reverse, AC, Alternator and power steering. So low that the power steering would be pretty much useless. The engine would miss and cough occasionally. Now I can do all that with ease - RPMs barely twitch when I shift into reverse with the wheel cranked!
I'm sold on NGK for this car. Sure it's $70 for a set but you only need to spend that once every 60K and enjoy a much happier Q the whole time.
Now, if I can only get me a pressure fuel rail scrubber, I'll have this thing not purring, but humming
Dan
sparkplugs, TB and idle ... oh my!
A Q iniside looks any other beast.
My Q died ... it saw the bright light and everything. A crankshaft connecting rod bearing went bad. Apparently very rare. I assume a previous owner just didn't change the oil often enough.
I took apart every bolt in the engine and torqued it all back together.
A machine shop did some work for me - $1700 worth (or about what fred wants for his fine tuned engine!) Hone cylinders, light machine of the head surfaces, grind valves and grind the crankshaft.
It took a fairly long time, 6 weeks. But I mostly just worked on it on the weekends.
If you'd like more details, I'll write up a short bit on, but it was much like other engines I've had apart. The Q did have a few eccentrices - reinforced main journal bearings, snap rings on the piston / connecting rod links and a very special "fillet roll" style crankshaft (for extra high strength said the machine shop manager) And of course the slightly genius/idiotic designed valve lifters.
dan
I took apart every bolt in the engine and torqued it all back together.
A machine shop did some work for me - $1700 worth (or about what fred wants for his fine tuned engine!) Hone cylinders, light machine of the head surfaces, grind valves and grind the crankshaft.
It took a fairly long time, 6 weeks. But I mostly just worked on it on the weekends.
If you'd like more details, I'll write up a short bit on, but it was much like other engines I've had apart. The Q did have a few eccentrices - reinforced main journal bearings, snap rings on the piston / connecting rod links and a very special "fillet roll" style crankshaft (for extra high strength said the machine shop manager) And of course the slightly genius/idiotic designed valve lifters.
dan
