08riocr

Have not seen a recent post on this in a while so I thought I would share recent success I had with using Time Sert to repair spark plug threads. Was at a track event when engine started running terrible and sounded even worse. CE light started flashing and smoke came into the cabin. Pulled off and shut down. When I was able to look under the hood there was fresh oil dripping off the under side of the hood and also sprayed on the fire wall. Also noticed black soot-like stuff around the edge of the coil cover. Pulled the coil cover and the entire underside was covered with the black stuff. Noticed the #2 coil was raised and the wiring was melted. Was able to extract the #2 coil and it was completely destroyed (melted) but the sparkplug came out with it! The plug was more/less intact but clearly had been exposed to hot gases. Trailered home and took to great S mechanic. He looked over carefully and used boroscope to inspect the cylinder. All looked good so he recommended a time cert repair. He also concluded that the oil was from the valve cover seal being blown out from the overpressure when the plug came out. He completed the repair without pulling the head and replaced the valve cover seals. Also checked the compression on all four cylinders which was OK. Picked the car up over the weekend and it is running great as good as before. Time will tell about the longevity of the time sert repair but research says they are reliable. No matter will now check the tightness of the plugs a lot more often.

Slowcrash_101

At least 20 ft lbs fsm says 18, billman says 24, but I've yet to have a problem at 20, I wouldn't go higher than 26 though.

flanders

The time sert insert should be much stronger than the original threads.
You're lucky that you didn't loose your engine

Billman250

Direct result of improperly tightened spark plug. Glad it was saleable.

24 ft-lbs and you'll never have an issue.

windhund116

Billman, do you recommend re-checking the torque on new spark plugs after so many miles?


Much thanks, again!
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Slowcrash_101

If you torque them down right you'll never have to check them. Partly due to the thread count contributing very good clamping, as long as your tighten the spark plug enough so that it doesn't back out you won't have any problems. This will definitely happen if you follow the FSM, and will need to be rechecked periodically.