So my wife was driving our '86 Camry grocery-getter (2SFE engine) and the idle smoothness and available power suddenly start to feel like it was hitting on three cylinders instead of the customary four.
I pulled the plugs and #3's spark gap is zero. Grounding bar mashed right down onto the center electrode, and a piece of its end seems to be missing too.
Since the engine (unopened original) doubtless has its share of carbon on and about the head -- it's a bit of a known predetonator under load on a hot day -- I'm guessing that a chunk came loose and bounced around until it smacked the plug. What do you think of that? Or do you think the bit of plug came off and then performed a friendly fire incident?
(Single-electrode Bosch Platinums, properly gapped, that had been sparking unremarkably along for many thousands of miles.)
My plan is to apply the Shop-Vac to each plug hole, just in case some bit of evil still lurks within, and replace all the plugs... Thoughts?
--Joe