Ha, look at you being the one that uses " the speech". You know what they say about leading a horse to water....
For me,..it only takes hearing things one time after I start blowing up sht.
Back in the mid nineties when I was dumb( er). I had a stock 460 in a drag car that I ran (2) stacked cobbled together super powershot nitrous plates on.
I knew nothing about plug reading, I knew nothing about octane ( other than pump premium made more power than race gas if you could get away with it) I knew nothing about how much timing was too much timing.
When I first brought that thing to the track...The car would run 7.0's on the one plate, and as soon as I grabbed the second kit, it blew a pressed in freeze plug out of the side of the engine.
I replaced the freeze plug with an expando freeze plug at the track, went out the very next pass, grabbed the second kit blew a different freeze plug out of the other side of the engine, destroyed the car from a resulting wreck.
Nobody could tell me what or how that happened..Until I called Al Moody.
It was then that I learned that I couldn't expect 93 octane to work with 350hp of nitrous. It was then that I learned that I couldn't run 36 degrees of timing. It was then that I learned that I was lifting the head, pressurizing the water jacket, and blowing freeze plugs.
I listened, I learned, I changed things.
When people ignore my tuning advice I simply shake my head and move on.
Here's a couple of plugs, 5 and 6. Timing is 14 initial, 34 total, pulling 1 degree per lb of boost. Running 114 race fuel.
Why such a big difference in the two. Both pulled after the same run? Granted we idled back to the pits.
I take that advice as it was written by god! or whomever you consider a higher power lol
I've learned as i age to listen to people that know more than me. I've been around and built a ton of carbed N/A engines but with efi and boost i'm all ears because its like a foreign language and I'm not into splitting blocks or burning holes in pistons... I love this forum because so many are smarter than me!
Something else to consider...I would rely more on plug reading then AFR. With the overlap on the cam your pushing a fresh charge right out the exhaust. So you may see less the normal readings there. If you were pushing head gaskets it sounds like you were hydraulicing the thing which can be really hard on that top ring land.
For sure distribution is off at idle if you dont have a low compression cylinder.
For sure distribution is off at idle if you dont have a low compression cylinder.