my 11 cylinder boxer

So friday I was having fun on a nice sunny afternoon then near the end of the joy ride the old turd started running and sounding slightly different. Heard it before, no biggie, one cylinder down so I thought I would post my findings. You can see the plugs, pay attention to the left side bank #6 plug. I decided to yank them all, make sure there was no unwanted metallic stuff or a bent ground electrode on a plug telling me my engine is garbage. Im happy to see there was no bad news. I checked my extenders after the plug inspection expecting to find another burnt one, no problem there either but i did notice the Ohm readings were very different from the original ones to the replacement ones I got from ferrari. 12KOhms for the originals and about 5KOhms for the 2 new ones. I wonder what the spec is? Anyone know? Im debating tossing the extenders and going to a resistor plug. Anyone else here do that? So for the moment a fresh plug will do the trick and tomorrow I can go to the party in the boxer on 12 cylinders!
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Hi Paul,

When I did the engine rebuiild I ditched the plug extenders and used NGK BR8E7X Iridium plugs. Runs perfectly wit hno radio noise.

The 'Extenders' look like a problem waiting to happen, and can only be for radio suppression: Ditch 'em I say.

I also put a small gromet into the rubber boot over the plug holes to seal them against the HT cable, stop any detritus entering the whole (and especially water!)...I think when you remove the extenders, this hole is oversize for the covers.

Robert

 

How do you clip the wires on to the plugs without extenders?

 

The plugs come in the package with the standard size tip, we unscrew and toss them to use the extenders.

 

The extenders seem to go bad quite often on these cars. They also develop little hairline cracks which cause the car to start missing as the spark starts to arch off.

 

Nice write-up Paul! Your hands look a lot cleaner than mine were!
Getting those wiggly wires down into the hole and connecting to the spark plug might be tricky without the extenders. I replaced all mine when I replaced the plug wires. Don't remember them costing all that much.
I'm amazed at how clean your plugs are though! I know the carbed cars have to be set up richer than the injected ones, and after about 5 minutes, my plugs are black, black, black!
Next time I'll try the iridium ones.

 

Thanks John, just a little less writing than your clutch thread though, lol. Yes the plugs are clean, the ansa tips are a a dark grey and the car runs well....when it runs on all 12 that is. No more soot on the bumper either since I tuned it on the dyno at work. It may not be an issue to most but my boxer is amazing on fuel, better than the 308 with carbs and its the CIS to blame I suppose. I would like EFI though. Ill keep the extenders for now.

 

Good day Paul,

I had two of my extenders bail which frustrated me to no end, as I did not have any spares around. My solution was to use MSD 8mm wires (with Iridium resistor plugs) without the extenders. The MSD 8mm universal fit wires have a preformed boot on the spark plug side that is long enough that one does not need the extenders. In fact, the diameter of the boot is slightly larger than the extender so that the extender grommet actually fits the MSD boot and so it looks like OEM. I will take some pics this weekend so you get an idea of what I am talking about.

As for the MSD wires, I had to purchase one 8-cyl and one 6-cyl universal fit in order to get the lengths our cars need (you can't purchase two 6-cyl kits, as cylinder 1 and 2 need long wires...). At first I was skeptical of the little plastic anvil MSD includes with their cables (used to crimp the distributer cap connector). However it works excellently with a reasonable sized vice. I will take some pics of this two. The cost of the two sets of wires (8 and 6) was about $180.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Thanks Sam, now that the cars runs well with the extenders I thought it would be smooth sailing. Last night i fired it up with plans to go to a party in toronto and the clutch slave puked its guts out and p i s s e d fluid all over the left header, talk about smoke! So, the car runs well but doesnt drive so well, lol. Ill order a rebuild kit for it today.

P.

 

Gotta love em, huh!

 

POS at times

 

Good day Paul,

Well maybe not a good day considering your clutch slave... Anyway, don't bother rebuilding the clutch slave, as you can buy a new one for almost the price of the rebuilt... around $225 US or so. I had considered rebuilding as well, but it was recommended just to buy one. My slave is totally fine, but was considering rebuilding "just in case". Call AW Auto parts, as they had these in stock and the best price around. If you need the number let me know and I will dig it up for you.

As for mine, sadly the weather here has taken a turn for the worse and they are predicting rain with light snow over the next few days... The season may be done for me ...

Cheers,

Sam

 

What a motley crew. Pre-major service.
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your plugs suck big time, good thing you got them outta there!

Thanks Sam, the ferrari owners site offers a kit for about $60 so I thought I would try my hand at it first before buying the complete unit, Ill let you know how it works out.