Uh oh.... plug smells like oil

[Motor60]

Ok so I've been playing with jetting for a while now. I idled for 20 seconds and pulled plugs. #3 was wet and smelled like oil. So I shined a light down the plug hole and the pistons top looks moist and black. Does that mean my rings are leaking?? This can't be normal. I just pulled plugs yesterday and this plug was showing dark brown. But was a dry brown. I drove bug about 60 miles today and waited 5 hrs for it to cool down to pull plugs and this is what I found. Not the smartest thing to do but I stuck a screwdriver in the hole and scraped off some of the black stuff on piston. It was oily mush. What does this mean?

[busdaddy]

Doesn't sound good but before you freak out do some basic diagnosis like a compression test, also try pulling the plug wire to that cylinder out of the distributor cap as it idles and see if the engine slows or the sound changes, a valve adjustment never makes it worse either.
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[Motor60]

Well, that plug was misfiring earlier. But cleared out idle jet and did a balance test on the wires. And all misfired the same.
I've changed couple things recently
NGK BP6HS TO BP5HS
60/145/200 to 57/130/200 jetting

Could being too lean cause overheat on #3 cylinder to shed some oil into combustion chamber??

[[email protected]]

First thing is a compression test, to find out if the engine is hurt.
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[HRVW]

A mis firing plug will leave a WET oil spk plug. Clean the plug and exchange cyl spk plugs. I use NGK BP7HS in my Turbo.

I use a small trigger pump bottle filled 50/50 water and gas spraying into the air cleaner to clean/wash out the piston/cyl. I don't drive too much and this mixture helps to clean away the varnish that sits in the Carb from the crappy gas we have today.

Just a thought.

[Motor60]

Water?? With gas?? Mine is a daily driver. The water won't hurt the motor? Spraying on AIR FILTER only?

[mark tucker]

a plug thet dosent fire will pull oil up past the rings due to no pressure in the cylinder when it is going down on the power stroke,inwitch both valves are closed...and that creates a vacume/negitive pressure in the cylinder so....it pulls oil past all 4 rings easely .and thus a wet situation. you may need wires,or just plugs and a good tune. might need hoter plugs,might work better with platinum borschs plugs.. even a vac leek can cause this. any thing to keep that cylinder from producing power can do it.....even...carbs out of sync.

[Motor60]

Copy all that!! Ok waiting on my jets from aircooled then will start over. Cuz this is the first time I've seen a wet plug on this motor. But that all makes sense. Will also do the compression test as soon as I get the gauge tool.

[HRVW]

Very OLD SCHOOL use of water in to a Carb that was done by many used car lots to clean the carbon from the combustion chamber.

I use the 50/50 so as not to kill the engine when holding the throttle RPM high.

This was a trick I learned from my mechanic/dad/ business owner who showed it to me some 75 plus years ago when I was a small kiddo.....never fails.

[[email protected]]

If the compression is good then the engine is mechanically ok. This would also mean the problem is a carb or more likely an ignition issue.
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[Motor60]

Do I spray water/gas onto the outside of air cleaner while engine is running?? I have K&N filters. Will that destroy the filters?

[Dr OnHolliday]

Typically, you spray / trickle the water directly into the carburetor throat while you rev up the engine (because water makes it want to die)
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[Motor60]

Ok update

Got 55s and 57s from aircooled. 57s was easier to set up and get it to run but it smelled rich bad!! So while it was idling
, I swapped out to the 55s and went for a drive. Hesitation. Popping out carbs. Same dance. Brought it back because I forgot to do LBI. Sat there for 20 mins doing mixture screws. And bug finally ran decent with the 55s. I'm at about
Almost 2 turns out, including the extra half turn. But it smells rich bad. Is that normal? I could smell the exhaust at a stop light. That's how bad it is. Or could it be I'm burning off the built up carbon from #3 cylinder?
And my timimg is 2 degrees at idle and 28 at 3500 rpm, hose off. If I use 8 degrees at idle that bumps up my max timimg to like 34 degrees. How do I fix that? Or is that even a problem.
So just to confirm, for my MIXTURE SCREWS, I'm supposed to find HIGHEST idle then go another half turn? Or I back it off till it drops then turn it out till it starts to pick up again, then another half turn? Or find smoothest idle (I use the shaking of my radio antenna or feel my steering wheel) then another half turn??
I'm also using 87 gas for 8.65:1 CR. AND BP6HS plugs. Is this right combo? I can climb a steep long hill, punch it in 3rd gear and no ping.

I know it's a lot of questions. But I'm close to getting bug to run off the 55 jets. I'm learning as I go.....thx in advance.

[[email protected]]

2nd thing is to tell us what kind of carburetor(s) you have.
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[Motor60]

High Performance Model X carbs.....AKA, HPMX 44s

[[email protected]]

also know that a misfiring cylinder will smell rich, even if the engine is lean.

If you did the compression test and it's ok, I'd do a RPM Drop Test at idle. Remove one plug wire at a time from the cap, and you are looking for the same RPM drop on each cylinder. If one doesn't drop, it's not firing off properly at idle. Figure out why.
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[Motor60]

Yes sir.....did the idle drop. #3 is only one that was giving me troubles. I'd remove that wire no rpm would slightly drop but would raise back up when I reattached the wire. So I know it's firing. So I gave that barrel another quarter turn of richness till it sounded same as others. Which puts it at about 2 turns out

[Motor60]

Plug 1

Plug 2

Plug 3

Plug 4

This is after LBI (if I'm doing it correctly)

[Motor60]

It got pretty late last night. But I got it to where each barrel ended up being just 1/8 more than 1.5 turns out. And I wasn't even counting turns. Just listening to motor and doing load test with wires. Haven't got to test drive yet. Will take it for long cruise and see what plugs look like afterwards.
Any recommendations on octane for my compression 8.65.

[Motor60]

TTT