No fire in cylinder 1, spark plug looks like new

[Steve o 77]

Hey all,

So I just did a full rebuild on my SETA with a bimmerheads head, o ring'd block, megasquirt running wasted spark.

Anyway the engine runs ok but has a miss and pops out the exhaust under load. I pulled all the plugs, 2-6 look normal but #1 looks brand new and wet with fuel when I pull it out after running. I unplugged the injectors and checked for spark during cranking on that plug and it has spark. So I'm getting fuel and spark yet the plug looks new.

Any ideas what could be wrong? I'm going to do a compression check later but it seems like even with no compression the plug would have some deposits on it.

Thanks.

[Steve o 77]

Just compression checked #1 and have about 140psi at wot and engine cold. That should be plenty, plus the engine only has about 10 miles on it so the rings aren't seated fully yet.

Any checks you guys can recommend from here? I'm so confused right now.

[Steve o 77]

Well in case anyone cares I figured it out. The plug wire was intermittently firing due to a bad crimp, after much trial and error I figured this out, fixed the wire, and the engine actually sounds like a 6cy again!

[crappycoco]

Did you do anything to the wires or was it just old?

[Steve o 77]

Did you do anything to the wires or was it just old?

I crimped the Chevy coil terminals on the wires which were the issue, I basically just crimped them with pliers which caused the intermittent connection. I'm going to go through and re-do them with the right tool to make sure it's reliable.