Did I Mess Up My Engine....Help Curtis..

[solaris=amazing]

Ok, so an hour ago i cleaned the throttle plate with stp throttle body cleaner, i sprayed it..wiped it.. Some fluid had to seep down into the crankcase, but someone told me thats ok..it gets burnt up..?

Now, along with that i changed all 8 spark plugs. The motorcraft ones that where in there where gapped at .056-all of them, and they where normally worn..no oil or sludge or anything on them. I then put new plugs in, autolite platinum's that i gapped at .054, everything going well...everything done.

I start her up, and my car was running, and felt like a freakin funny car, the engine was shaking..making a knocking noises...pretty bad. I shut it off after like 10 seconds. I then made sure everything was on tight/in it's correct firing order....everything fine. I start her up again, the same thing...but alittle less.

Now, accross the street there is a mechanic that i walked to for advice, he told me MAKE SURE the gap is correct, and everything is connected to it's proper firing order-which it was/is. Then i go back, remove every plug, and i find that they are slightly brownish-and have a small coat of oil on them...very little oil. I run to autozone, get 8 new plugs, gap them at .056 exactly, put them in....NOW everything is fine, idle good..runs good etc. No engine noise/knocking etc.

Could this be a reaction from the throttle body cleaner..? In the past after i cleaned the carbon buildup on the throttle plate, the car idled rough for a couple minutes....but it didn't sound and feel like a 1500hp funny car ready to explode..?

What the hell happened..? BTW, i bought new plugs just to be safe..

[curtis73]

I think you're fine. If you overdo the TB cleaner it can temporarily foul up things. Chances are you saturated a sensor, or just "flooded" the engine with TB cleaner. Hence why the plugs were coated and things weren't firing right.

My guess is that things would have smoothed out in a few minutes after the plugs burnt off, but you were wise to get new ones. Sometimes once plugs get soaked they're never quite right again. That was something I learned on motorcycles. They don't have the high sparking energy that cars do and if you flood it once and soak the plugs, its usually time for new ones.

You didn't permanently damage anything if its running smoothly again. The worst that could happen is a sensor will be out of spec, but I doubt it. Most of those TB cleaners are designed to be sensor-safe. I say drive it and let us know if any more symptoms crop up, but I doubt they will.

Hey, look at the bright side. Now you know what its like to have a top fuel car in your garage

[solaris=amazing]

Thanks alot curtis, yeah everything is fine..infact the car runs very well. Last night i was driving for like 2 hours... I also went to the same mechanic and had him change my fuel filter-the old one was filthy.

I gotta tell you though, that SCARED THE SH*T out of me..i thought i killed my engine somehow.

[curtis73]

Don't ask me how many times I've hit the dirt waiting for an explosion

[sierrap615]

did you replace with platium or standard plugs?

[RandomTask]

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I thought platinum plugs to be pre-gapped. Don't they have their own specified gap other than the car manufacturers?

[sierrap615]

they are pre-gaped to the same specificion as standard plug, because if joe smoe had to gap them chances are if would damage the very thin platium plating.

[jveik]

yeah just like they all said, its just the carb cleaner stuff. it runs crappy for about half a minute probly as you first start it and you have to keep it revved up a little or it will die on ya until it gets all the cleaner out of the system. the popping noise i dunno what that would be maybe it was backfiring? i dunno... my truck has a 4 barrel holley carb on it instead of injection so it does that a lot when the air cleaner is removed. (doesn't help that i have a flat cam lol)