Banshee8

Like tea leaves:

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

How many miles on the plug? Are you experiencing any drivability issues? They look somewhat "normal" but in need of replacement.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

I find the globular deposits a little weird. Scales are fine, but the droplet thing you have going on makes me think of a mix of oil- and water-soluble deposits, with the water-borne stuff arriving after the normal oily carbon deposits. Plus the green is a bit unusual. This is not a confident guess, but could be worth investigating for small coolant seal leaks.

An alternative explanation could be ethanol-mixed fuels and short distance driving.

But take this with an asteroid of salt, we're looking at a spark plug here...

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

A picture with the electrode would help ;-) There seems to be a lot of colored deposits...maybe crap gas?

I can't see enough..but I would bet that that plug missfires because of all the crap on the electrode tip

Banshee8

Interesting, it's possible I have a MINUTE coolant leak. The last fill was in the spring as was the new sparkplug install. The coolant was low, but not low enough to trip the sensor.

The reason i'm showing you this is B/C the car is becoming VERY smokey. This is 95% white 5% blue smoke. It lasts for 10 minutes idle following startup. The smell is raw fuel. The idle is smooth. The car pulls well. There is a power hesitation between 5.0k and 5.5k on hard accel on the first hard accel but smooth power ramp up on subsequent accels. Upon warmup the car smokes only with hard decel. and high-rev engine back-pressure. It is apparent by smell that the car continuously runs VERY rich. The car has no cat.

I'm hoping all of this is a rich ECM mix due to a faulty CTS (coolant temp)

Loki

iTrader: (1)

As pointed out above, this spark plug probably isn't firing so yeah, there would be much unburnt fuel.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

White smoke. .. coolant seal likely.... not good

B1RDMAN

iTrader: (2)

I just replaced mine today, here's what they looked like. I was also getting a random misfire code from the front rotor mainly, and sometimes rear. Idled fine, pulled fine from what I can tell, and smells rich (no cat, midpipe and catback).

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Those are quite different than the last picture...the electrodes aren't fouled....and they have all been firing

Banshee8

Well, that image is a kinda-hijack. Not me (the OP). My image is the solo plug.

I cleaned that and the other three five-month old plugs and re-installed them. Ran the car... it ran smoothly but still the smoke. I turned the car off and left it alone for a day.

This morning it was 38 degrees outside.. started the car and "clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug-clug"

I thought I'd give it a little gas:
"KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-KLIG-clugclugclug"

Then, knowing a commute wasn't in the cards, I turned it off and opened my door to gaze outside at the wonderland of a smog bank that had enveloped my car.

Damn

So. Who do you know near 24014 (Roanoke, VA) That does rebuilds?

B1RDMAN

iTrader: (2)

Sorry about that man, was trying to piggyback your thread lol.

It definitely sounds like to me that your coolant seals went bad, but I'm no RX8 expert. Your next step could be to check the compression..