Blew Plug Twice, Time For Heads?

[StanglovR1]

Hi guys still kinda new to the scene, so i appoligize in advance for my lack of knowledge.

Bought this late model 01 last year bone stock 5sd with 75k, since then im at 93k ive added a CIA, BBK LT's, Off road X, flo weld ins, 3.73, SCT tuner and some other non preformance mods.

Took it to the track last year and ended up blowing a plug. a selive was put in and then ended up coming out when i changed the plugs a few months ago guess i shouldnt have changed them... it hasnt blown out yet put makes me nervious

I was looking at the cheap way out, just finding a stock head and bolting that in but everything im finding isnt very reassuring... so i looking at the Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads. I would like to run a new, bit more agressive cam without lossing my drivablitly and not having such a lopey idel and still make some power.

My research is confusing me more than helping and i know there are lot of threads but i need some direct help!

Valve clearence seems to be a hot topic especially with the year of the car. if i run a mild cam (.550 lift is mild?) would i need springs, rollers, etc PTV an issue?

 

[1low03gt]

I would always say yes to springs! Safe insurance!
Piston to valve clearances, i've read so many different things in the past before i made the move to cams years ago, and i still went with the then VT stage II N/A cams (now Cushman cams), and never had an issue.
Degreeing them will insure a proper set up, but with stage I style cams, you should be safe with the PI engine. The pistons are not flat top stock.

 

[StanglovR1]

good to know. Are you using your stock heads with those cams?

 

[1low03gt]

I have stock 2004 PI heads.

 

[Deleted member 38176]

I am a little confused by your wording. How did you repair the blown plug? Did you use a helicoil? Helicoils are stronger than the stock threads and never blow another plug.

 

[Rick 91GT]

Sounds like a threadsert was installed and came unscrewed when he swapped plugs.

You can red loctite the insert back in place and make sure you use anti seize on the plugs. I prefer to break them loose when the motor is warm...install when cooler

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[StanglovR1]

Rick 91 nailed it. i did reinstall with the red loctite and have driven in 8k miles since without an issue. Do you think its somthing to worrie about?

Got the car torn apart right now installing BBK LTs, holy crap this job sucks, funny how the supplied head bolts dont even fit into the manifold, they had to be cut and in some cases i had to drill out the holes more... took me 4 hours alone to get the bolts in.

 

[Deleted member 38176]

Rick 91 nailed it.

He pretty much always does lol