Holed Piston Question

The hot plugs by themselves won't hole the pistons. What holes pistons is predetonation and hotter plugs are more apt to predetonate.

However in your case the extra engine heat that would normally be in the hotter plug tip is going to be carried off by all the oil that the plug apparently is going to be burning off.

A more pertinent question is if your plugs are being fouled out, what does the top of your pistons look like? There's probably lots of carbon buildiup which also can contribute to pinging

Ted

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote in article ...

"Detonation" and "pre-ignition" are two different things.

Detonation happens when combustion chamber conditions and temperatures coupled with fuel quality are such that the fuel detonates from the resultant heat and compression alone. A diesel engine fires its fuel with detonation by compressing it so tightly that the resulting heat fires the fuel off

Pre-ignition - as the name implies - results when a hot spot such as a piece of carbon - or the glowing tip of an incorrectly selected heat range spark plug that is running too hot - ignites the fuel before the spark plug fires....pre-, as in "before", ignition.

There is, likely, a measureable, definable "pre-detonation" condition, but the conditions inside a cylinder prior to detonation - or pre-ignition for that matter - are not likely to be damaging. After all, they are the conditions that exist BEFORE an undesireable condition manifests itself.

An engine running in "pre-detonation" condition (before detonation occurs), will run all day with no problems. However, once the crossover takes place, an engine that is experiencing detonation or pre-ignition could easily be in serious risk of suffering extensive, hole-in-piston sorts of damage.

Bob Paulin - R.A.C.E. Chassis Analysis Services