stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

mr2mk1hero
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stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby mr2mk1hero » Wed May 31, 2017 5:34 am

https://youtu.be/thF8b9XtZKU

What do you guys think? Good? Bad?

The thing that worries me are the white specs or whatever they are, can't really identify them. Signs of knock? Overheating?

Piston looks pretty dirty for only 1000 miles. Must be running rich right?

Cylinder bores look nice and mirror like, no signs of scoring as far as I can tell, so that's good I guess.

Anything else you notice and can comment would really be appreciated.
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Rogue-AE95
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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Wed May 31, 2017 3:59 pm

Those look like smallport pistons. Are the piston domes coated (OEM or aftermarket)?
'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)

mr2mk1hero
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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby mr2mk1hero » Wed May 31, 2017 11:18 pm

Rogue-AE95 wrote:Those look like smallport pistons. Are the piston domes coated (OEM or aftermarket)?


Yup smallport pistons in a bigport. I put em in there :) Aftermarket, not coated.
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jondee86
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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby jondee86 » Thu Jun 01, 2017 1:37 am

It is always a good idea to take a close look at your spark plugs any time you
have them out of the engine. In particular, if you have been out for a decent
high speed run with a bit of a load on the engine, pull them as soon as you get
back to your garage, and before you spend time driving at low speed/stuck in
traffic etc.

The colour and general condition of the plug will tell you something about how
your engine is running. Only in general terms as to get quality information you
need to use new plugs, do a couple of hard WOT runs through the gears and
then pull the car up/turn the engine off as quickly as you can in safety. Take
the plugs out using gloves and/or a suitable tool, and inspect the plug with
something like a jewellers loupe.

If you think that you may be getting some detonation, look for "salt and pepper"
on the porcelein insulator. These are black and silver specks of carbon and
aluminum fused to the surface. The silver specks may appear as tiny metallic
balls when examined under magnification. This picture shows the kind of
markings that are typical of incipient detonation.

Image

Detonation can remove bits of carbon from the piston top, and will usually be
seen as "sandblasting" or surface pitting in the squish areas. I can't remember
if you have an aftermarket ECU ? If you do you might want to take a look at
how much ignition advance you are running.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

mr2mk1hero
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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby mr2mk1hero » Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:41 am

Thank you jondee86

I kept my old spark plugs, I'll post a picture of them today.
Did you take a look at the video? How does the piston look to to you? I know the image quality is nothing amazing, but maybe you can spot something?
I got a suggestion on the mr2 forums that the shiny flakes are actually aluminum from the spark plug threads which does make sense.

I have a stock ECU, but what I did recently is adjust my cam pulleys to 107-108 LSA, so that might be causing the knock. I will adjust it back to 110 and give it a go.
Check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwosUn ... xtqkNJ3Fbg
Check out my blog: http://www.driving4answers.com/
Heaps of 4A-GE and MR2 mk1 aw11 content on both.

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jondee86
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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby jondee86 » Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:58 am

I don't see anything alarming. As has been suggested, the white specs look like
they are just lying on the surface, so could be something that fell in when you were
taking the plugs out or putting the camera down the hole.

Everything in the combustion chamber is exposed to flame and will get a coating
of carbon. The colour will vary from black (rich) to almost white (lean) and I like
to see shades of brown. Usually the valve heads will be lighter coloured as they get
a bit hotter than the other surfaces. The layer of carbon should be thin and dry if
the engine is in good condition and does a reasonable amount of highway running.
Thick black wet or oily looking carbon means the engine is either well worn or it
is not getting up to normal operating temperature to burn off the deposits.

Image

This is a pic of the pistons out of the low km Jap import engine I recently rebuilt.
The engine was in great condition but it is clear that the car did a lot of low speed
running.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: stuck a cheap endoscope camera down my spark plug hole - here's what I saw

Postby Rwddriftsvx » Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:11 am

This seems totally fine. All depending on cruising, throttle, etc on a daily basis. if concerned on a/f run a wideband