HELP! Need answer Blown Spark Plug

Blew the # 3 plug right outta the car. Yes, i know i need to fix it, the question is,, Can I drive it home? as is! I am 45 minutes from home..

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:07:33 -0700, vwluvrs ran around screaming and yelling:

i don't think i would drive it that far....i have driven one about thirty minutes with the number 3 hanging on the end of a plug wire, but it was a hipo motor and i had the (young and dumb)attitude of "go or blow bit**.....i did jam one in "crossthreaded" once to get home also..... J

No.

Simple math: Plug hole open, piston pumping gasoline mist back and forth, distributor and generator creating sparks right next to it in a closed space....?

Jan

Can't you fill the plug hole with something? a screw? an old plug? etc.. I've driven a couple of times with three working plugs (one disconnected), the car looses power, but can do it. Now, if you have the open hole I refer to the unrestling post by Jan....

Ant

vwluvrs wrote:

How about when you just plug it. Then the air-gas-mixture will flow into the exhaust system and propably burn there heating up the exhaust. Will that be a danger to the engine?=20

If there is one plug not firing at all, the points may suffer some arching (I'm not sure of this, but I recall I've heard so).=20 A cheap part to replace though.

...now, I'm not endorsing driving it, but couldn't you just pop out the pushrods on that cylinder to eliminate this risk....closed valves= no pumping action....

...Gareth

Well, I don't know in the long run, but for a day or two I know you can do it. I did it! One of my sparkplugs was disconnected on the middle of the highway and I couldn't stop, later on that day (kilometres later) I realized what was it. Besides I know of people running in non-ACVW with only 3 cylinders for days and days (what I don't know is the amount in the final bill).

Ant

Olli Lammi wrote:

Is that a sport of some kind ;)

Well, I know it certainly would bust any catalytic converter. Apparently this beetle has no such thing so maybe fuel going into the exhaust is not such a big deal.

What if you could just walk across the street to a parts store and get a slightly larger diameter spark plug that you could just screw in and go? Jp73vwbttl

Uhhh.. .what?

There aren't that many spark plug sizes out there. I know three. VW is the most common, middle size diemeter.

There's one size larger, and it's MUCH larger at 18mm x 1.5mm pitch. Same as most O2 sensors. Ford plug maybe. Won't fit.

Jan

Well, I went ahead and limped Betty home. She made it fine.. I bought a 72 super when I got home, and yanked the motors from both, replacing betty's 'heart' with the one from the 72 super. Betty is my daily driver, so we needed her to be fixed NOW! It was a long night for this old man, and I'm feeling it today (3 am is LATE for me!) We will either fix the motor, and put it back in the super (I don't know why I would do that, its a stuper after all !?), or maybe I'll part out the Super...(named Caddy)

Pictures of Betty are on the samba today..

I wouldn't recommend it. Even V8s are known to throw the lifters out of their bores when you do that, and *those* lifters are a lot closer to vertical... when you throw a lifter, suddenly you have no oil pressure...

nate

...they also *can* come out of thier bores...a type one lifter has a cap end...it cannot enter the bore....hence it cannot get thrown out. Since the lifter sits vertical....with no spring prtessure it should just sit there out of the way of the cam after the first revolution....buyt not sure....i am sure it won't get thrown out though. ;-)

..Gareth

Isn't the lifter essentially `captured' by the cam on one side and the case (bore) on the other? Wouldn't the lifter just be pushed back in the bore and then just sit there? (still learning here)

You can remove only the inlet valve pushrod. If you remove both pushrods and both valves are closed the vacum though the cylinder will slowlly suck fuell or oil, and after a while you will have a hydro-lock. You also have to plug the spark plug hole, by using the old spark-plug with thin copper wires wound arround the threads in order to jam it in it's hole. This is just to eliminate the noise from the sparkplug hole and to prevent dust to be sucked into the cylinder. If the sparkplug cannot fit snuggly there, just leave it open.

Bill, '67 bug.