white plug

[zenboy]

pulled the plugs today for a cleaning 86 280i. #2 plug very white others looked a little on the lean side. not seen any coolant loss that would make me suspect a head gasket was starting to fail. can you have one injecter that runs lean? or shoukd i be looking at the head gasket is the gasket a weak link. thanks mike

[grahamw48]

Mine always look a bit pale too, but the emissions were perfect,timing correct,no sign of pinking, and I have NGK BPR7ES plugs in, which should be able to cope.

I'm not aware of head gasket problems being an issue on the 'Cologne' engines, though I did have one go on an 'Essex'V6, and that was pretty obvious when it happened (down on power,overheating,missing).

I'm still not quite happy about the pale plugs though.

Edited to say:

If you've got one bad injector, then I guess I must have 6

>> Edited by grahamw48 on Saturday 11th June 10:06

[wedg1e]

You can have an injector that's stuck shut or one that has its inlet filter blocked.
I have plenty of spares if you have trouble.

[zenboy]

thanks for the info had a close look at the plugs this morning thay all look to be on the lean side with # 5 very lean [white] there is some sigs of deternation have made the mixture richer will check the timing and run a can of injector cleaner throu it and see what happens. will let you know the out come. cheers mike

[zenboy]

well the timing was spot on . i made it a little richer and put some injector cleaner in the gas tank. have not taken it out yet as the weather is too hot and stickey . 93 f should be cooler by wed. cheers mike

[grahamw48]

Good luck.

Hot and sticky weather is not too much of a problem here.

Mould growth, maybe.

[zenboy]

had a great run ,on sun. my fathers day present to my self did about 250 miles found out one thing you dont have to move the mixture control very much to get a change . got it running richer and put a can of injector cleaner in the gas . when i got home removed the plugs and all were a nice tan colour car ran great temp. was steady and had no coolant loss. hope this is the end of the problem. cheers mike

[grahamw48]

Well, that's good news. (must have a look at my mixture)

Now it's hot and sticky here !

I blame you.