Tune-up with E3 Plugs.. DONT!!! (pics)

[scottg918514]

So, I did a tune-up on my Tahoe last Friday (7-19-13) and decided to get the E3 plugs to treat her right.. Plus they claim better gas mileage! Well, I am an example of the “more expensive is not better”.
Well, truck ran great….. for 5 mins. Then she started sputtering, misfiring, choking and plainly just didn’t want to idle correctly at all. So, scratching my head I though since the truck had 250K on it, maybe the Fuel pump was going. Tested the fuel pressure.. It was fine.Had the EGR ckecked.. Fine IAC motor cleaned of all carbon and checked.. Perfect.. nothing wrong with the IAC. Fuel Pressure regulator checked out fine as well. Which lead me to believe it was cap and rotor or timing. Changed the cap & Rotor again. Still ran crappy.. Had it timed. Guy charged me $15 because he didn’t have to do anything. It was at 0 deg. Mindboggled, I decided to make sure all plugs were tight once again.. they were. So I pulled #2 cylinder plug out JUST to take a peak to see if the plug was wet, oily etc and got the surprise of my life! See photos.

Bought plugs last week. Was going to put in e3s, but read a few bad reviews, so played it safe and got AcDelco Iridiums. Sounds like a good decision.

 

[95TahoePA]

Bought plugs last week. Was going to put in e3s, but read a few bad reviews, so played it safe and got AcDelco Iridiums. Sounds like a good decision.

Glad I reinforced your judgement on that! I only read one bad review about them and that was that their claim of lasting alot longer then other plugs. I change my plugs every year, so that didnt matter anyways.

---------- Post added at 07:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:29 PM ----------

Sent to E3:
Evening,

I purchaced your plugs for my 95 Chevy Tahoe 5.7L V8 motor (E3.42's) from (local store) in my town. I got to say, that was the WORST mistake I have EVER done! obviously your company sells things they do NOT test on regular vehicles! Whatever you guys did on extending the plug into the chamber was the dumbest idea ever. And I will warn you now, if there is ANY internal damage to my motor, you WILL be replacing any damaged parts PLUS paying for the labor! These plugs extend into an area obviosly that is in the way of other moving parts (pistons/valves) because they were hit by one of those. They went in clean and sparkly new, came out gouged and gap closed. If my Tahoe didntrun like complete crap after putting these plugs in, i would of never known they were doing damage to my motor. I can not send you photos here, but I can once I receive a reply.
I would like someone to contact me VIA email so i can send these photos to you and also would like to find out what is going to be done to make sure no damage has been done. Please respond within a timely manner.

Thank you,

 

[07Burb]

this is why i always stick with AC Delco plugs

 

[livingez_123]

I have E3's in my Denali and it runs great. They have been in there for 20k miles so far.

 

[95TahoePA]

07Burb I am from now on!

 

[95TahoePA]

Ok.. Got a response from E3.
They are looking into what happened and completely confused of why this happened. The tech I spoke to actually runs them in his fullsize Blazer and never seen it. The only thing they can think of is that the plugs were mis-boxed somehow and sold to me. They are going to check back with me in a couple days to make sure the motor is not damaged and willing to have the place I bought them from split the cost to have my motor compression tested as they cant tell where they were mis-boxed. But as I told the guy, it left me with a very weary feeling about trying them again. Keep ya's posted!

 

[07Burb]

i'm impressed they even replied back

 

[95TahoePA]

I'm not surprised. But at least the mystery is solved of why it happened. They are being really cool about it too..

 

[sumo]

is that even the right plug? Looks like they were getting hit by the pistons.

 

[95TahoePA]

They were Sumo. They sold me the wrong plugs. Packaged wrong. Threading depth is a bit longer then stock, but the ones sold to me were way to long...