So my wife was driving to work in her 2001 cavalier w/ 2.2l. She pulled over because the car was surging at high rpms. I checked it out and the car sounded like it was running on only 3 cylinders and when I pulled the #1 wire the car ran the same. We decided to limp the car back home. Once home pulled the #1 spark plug and noticed the the end of it was completely melted down including the threads, on one side all but a 1/4" of the threads was gone. This obviously stripped my head completely. I tried to turn a new plug into what was left of the threads and the compression just pushed the plug out. So I am going to replace the head. The cylinder walls and pistons look good, and the valves on that cylinder look good. The only possible reason that I can come up with for the plug to melt like it did is preignition. What should I check to find the cause of that? Coil packs? Cam or Crank position sensors? Timing chain? I'm considering replacing the timing chain anyway because the car has 150000 miles on it. Anything else I should change for maintenace while the engine is torn apart.
The timing set is a good idea since youre tearing it apart. The OHV motors last a long time, and Ive never heard of anything like what youre talking about. If it were a faulty sensor Id imagine there being a CEL, and the code would tell you the problem.
My vote goes to it having something to do with the plug being installed incorrectly, that might have caused it to detonate or something.
If youre replacing the head, and the rest of it looks good, id say youre in good shape.
As far as what else should you replace, I would say check the lifters, mine on 2 cars were noisy at 75xxx miles. Theyre right there in the open once the head is off, and you can get a full set relatively cheap.
Good luck
tune up the ignition while your at it. Plugs, wires, distributor etc...
Burnt electrode I believe means lean, so I'd check that #1 fuel injector too.
-Chris
have had the same thing happen to me in my 2001 2.2 twice now. Luckily it only blew out the electrode on the plug. Not sure what caused it but it's been about a year since it happened now.
I have heard I should check the injector from someone else also so I'm definently going to check that out. Should I replace all of the injectors or should I take them to get cleaned? The spark plug worked fine for 30000 miles so I doubt it wasn't installed properly. I am going to replace the wires and plugs but I'm going to leave the coils as long as they test good.
