As I've posted several times here my car has had cold startup, misfiring, knock and idle problems for a very long time now that I have never been able to fix. The problems have gotten worse and worse over the last few weeks even after I installed new plugs, Denso IK-22's gapped at .030". They seemed to help for a while but, the idle and start problems came back with in a day or so. Over the last week or so the car would struggle to even turn over, I had to crank it for about 20 seconds to get the motor started. So, I went ahead and ordered a new set of coil packs and went to install them today. While I had them off I figured I may as well take a look at my plugs and see how they look. This is where it gets very very bad. On cylinder 2 and 3 parts of the plugs have broken off and fallen into the cylinders. I dont know what the part is called exactly, but its not the tip, or the part the spark comes out of, its the part around the area that sends the spark. I'll put some pictures up when I can get my hands on a camera. I don't even know where to start now. I don't know whether to claim I'm another victim of PES's tuning or that I received faulty plugs or what. I'm assuming at the least I am going to have to pull my head and have all the cylinders rehoned and possibly buy new pistons. What should I do in this situation? Should I not even bother working on it myself and just send it to the shop? Or should I check my compression and see if I may have gotten lucky and install my new packs and new plugs before sending it in? The worst part is, I'm a broke ass college student who really can't afford to rebuild a motor right now, or go without a car for more than a few days :(

EDIT: I forgot to mention the plugs have no more than 150 miles on them.

Your stumbling/cold start/misfire issue is probably from the deteriorating spark plugs. You can inspect the cylinder walls & piston tops with a borescope, they'll probably be fine. I've rebuilt two heads from spark plug deterioration, and the pistons & cylinders were fine.

I'm hoping youre right though.

did you hear any?

I checked the compression the other night and the numbers were awful in 3 of 4 cylinders. 170-40-60-120. I found a pretty good deal on a long block out of a 2001 beetle and went ahead and bought it. Our the heads going to be identical or should I go ahead and put my head on it? I know different versions of the 1.8t have different heads and mine may flow better.

But this is all part of the game. Hope you can get out of this fine without any major sweat. I'm always here if you need anything. Obviously if you're in Miami. =P

Mau

Thanks for the offer, but I'm out in Dallas now... Im strongly considering going with a stand alone and drive by cable conversion so the next few weeks should be pretty interesting.

Since the motor mount positions are different.

hard time starting.. i've cracked several insulators on Iridium plugs, IK20's and IK-22's... Car ran on the lean side. Anyway, my #4 cyl has 70psi compression so i figure it's time for rebuild. I just took my motor out today. I want to mount it on a engine stand to start taking it apart for inspection... does anyone know how i can get the 12 point bolts off for the flywheel? (2001 1.8t A4). Where can I get this socket, or what else works?

well, time for some upgrades!~

I think you ill find some valve damage, not just probs in bottom end.

transverse mount may not work identical to yours

It sounds like you might just have a bad head gasket.

There was oil in the throttle body. If the block won't fit I'll probably have to find a shop that has a longitudal motor that is willing to trade.