Wrong Plugs And A Dirty Throttle Body

[randyreindeer]

For some obscure reason unbeknown to myself, I decided to have a little nose about the engine bay today. I took out the plugs just to check them and noticed they where fairly new. However, I also noticed that they weren't platinum tipped. Doh. This discovery along with an absolutely filthy Throttle body had me reaching for the carb Cleaner and my wallet.

I duly went out and bought the correct plugs and polished the inside of the throttle body and as much of the intake manifold as possible. It all went back together nice and easy.

Whilst all this was going on, I had the Battery disconnected to reset the ECU. I connected it up and took the car for a good hard thrashing. {after it came up to temp} The amount of smoke coming out of the rear was a bit scary at first and it idled and ran like a pig for a good 5 or so miles before it cleared itself and became alot more responsive right throughout the rev range.

Before I started this, the car started no problem and drove OK as far as I was concerned. Now its a completely diferent Kettle of porridge. Its hard to believe its the same car.

My next step is to remake the poor Adapter for the K&N type cone filter that came with the car and refit it. I only removed it because it didn't seem to make any difference at all to performance. Now I will re site it in a good airflow position and see what happens.

Anyway. I know the plugs are a pain to get to but its worth checking just for piece of mind. The plattys aren't cheap at about a fiver each so I guess quite a few lexxies without history won't have them. It would be a crime not to clean that throttle body while the plugs are out.

This feels like being 21 again but without fitting Musical horns and go faster stripes to a Capri :P