So i proceeded to do a tuneup and ran into a seized spark plug and a mangled heat shield. i ended up breaking the spark plug trying to pull the heat shield out, but i finally got it out with some pb blaster which i am sure some soaked into the cylinder. so after finishing the tuneup i proceeded to start it and the motor shook like it was misfiring really bad and there was smoke coming heavy from the exhaust and alittle from the engine bay. after checking to make sure i didn't cross any wires i figured the pb blaster just had to burn out. after about 5 mins it returned to a somewhat normal idle and no more smoke.

when i went for a test drive it the acceleration is very lumpy and the engine starts to sputter. there didnt seem to be any loss of power though. so i bought new spark plugs thinking one may have a hair line crack as i remember dropping 2 of them. every plug i pulled out was covering in a oily substance and grit which smelled like pb blaster. so after putting the new plugs in it idled and accelerated slightly better. then i decided to try some sea foam which caused it to run at about 90% normal for about 10 mins before it went back to sputtering.

do you believe the pb blaster fouled my spark plugs and possibly ruined my engine? any ideas on what to do to fix it?

 

What all did you replace? How did it run before you started?

PB blaster won't do anything to your engine. Your plugs being fouled so quickly is really not a good sign though. What did the originals look like? What color smoke were you getting?

 

What does your oiil look like? I imagine not good.

Smoke coming FROM the engine bay is never a good sign

 

i replaced the cap and button and plugs and wires. it ran fine before i did the tune up. the smoke was white.

it's alittle dark but otherwise looks and smells normal. wasn't alot coming from the engine bay. i think i may have a slight exhaust manifold leak

 

Recheck your plug wires, and routing. There is a TSB in the faq section here for wire routing.
Did you gap your plugs?

 

i've checked them 3 times now. and i followed the tsb as well after i rigged my broken loom.


i'm starting to learn towards it might be out of time

 

Unless it's jumped a tooth on the timing chain, it's likely not out of time. And your positive you got all the new wires in the right spots on the distributor cap? Something is not right if it just acted up once you did all this.

 

Have you looked at the new plugs again to see if they are fouled?

 

yea i'm positive the wires are right. the 3rd time was a friend checking for me to verify

not yet, i will do it tomorrow along with checking the cap and button

 

Timing is pretty much fixed. It's all controlled by the PCM, and the distributor has basically nothing to do with it. Just doing wires and plugs isn't going to throw it off, and the timing chain would have to be REALLY bad before it would slip a tooth or so. (in fact, if it was that loose, you would have been having problems before now.....)

Check the plugs, see what they look like. Make sure cam and crank sensor are plugged in good.