Having some trouble with my car - ignition related I think?

[CaptainFail]

Hey all, I recently changed my spark plugs from Champion plugs to some old NGK's that were in my car when I first bought it just to test the differences after reading up on the NGK's being basically the only plugs that should be used in the F4R engine. I bought the champion plugs straight after buying my car not knowing that the NGK's were best, but the champions seemed fine when they've been in my car, I was just curious as to the differences...which is then were my issues started.

Now this is were my troubles started, I cleaned/degreased my inlet manifold a few weeks ago and tried my best not to drown the bay in water etc, just enough for the degreaser to do it's thing. Now a few days ago I went to swap out the Champion plugs and ended up finding water had gotten into the sections where the plugs sit, which worried me a little as the plugs had gunk on them. (terrible idea cleaning the engine bay) :dead:

I took them out and dried the engine out as best as I could and put the old NGK's in, which made the car run fine for during my 20 minute drive/quick blast. After returning home and going out again later my car started running terribly and was on 3 cylinders, so I then decided those plugs were most likely past their best and promptly went and bought some brand new NGK Platinum's (PFR6E-10)

After having these new ones fitted it seemed to have sorted it out and the car was running great, which I was really pleased about. I went out for a good long drive to test them out and then after 20 or so minutes felt confident that giving the car a good thrashing wouldn't do it any harm. The car felt much smoother at high revs compared to the champion plugs. :evil:

But now after slowing down I noticed my car now stutters and struggles to get going from traffic lights and during slow moving traffic, sort of like it is going to stall and seems to lack the urge it once had at lower revs...but the car seems to run fine above 2500rpm. What I find strange though is this only happens when the car has been warmed up and thrashed, it's perfectly normal from cold and doesn't stutter or judder.

My car history states it has had a new coilpack and leads in mid 2009 but I'm just wondering if me swapping around the plugs/leads I have damaged something?

Has anyone got any ideas as to what might be happening? It's really starting to annoy me after having spent days trying to figure out what may be wrong with it :dead: My guess would be the ignition leads not liking the constant unplugging, so maybe one of my leads has become faulty? I honestly just want to go out and punch the engine block through frustration :rasp:

Sorry for the epic story length too! I'd really appreciate input and help!

 

[CaptainFail]

Nobody?

Turns out it just stutters at low revs when it has been ran for about 15-20 mins regardless of ragging it or not....seems like it reaches a certain temperature and then decides to kick off :S

 

[Dblock]

Just some guesses here, coilpack ok? check HT leads arent being snagged? plugs propperly installed? Ht leads on in the right order? Is your maf thing (top right of the manifold) clean and plugged in propperly?

 

[CaptainFail]

The coilpack seems fine as do the HT leads, I've cleaned the leads with electrical contact cleaner...I'll clean the coilpack tomorrow with the cleaner to see if it does anything, can't do any warm I suppose, the leads are numbered so they've been put in the right order

As for the plugs themselves they are fitted correctly and not overly tightened, think tomorrow I'll use the electrical contact cleaner on a few of the sensor things or whatever they are on the manifold and hope for the best, it's becoming quite embarrassing driving around because I'm having to over rev the car to prevent it stalling and chugging too much :dapprove: looks like I can't drive haha

 

[Fred@BTM]

water near an engine? madness

did you torque the plugs down?

it could be anything at fault, normally low rpm misfires are either duff injectors or lambda

 

[CaptainFail]

Yeah, I certainly wont be putting water anywhere near it again....noob mistake! :dapprove:

I put the plugs in hand tight then a little more, I'll get my brother to route out the torque wrench and tighten them to the correct level...I don't know what it is though? could it be the engine heat causing an expansion then causing the plugs to play up because of the incorrect tightness? I'm not very mechanically minded I'm hoping it's going to be simple to resolve anyway...if I can't fix it myself I'll probably end up taking it to the Renault specialist around here.

 

[CaptainFail]

Just another thing, if my injectors or lambda were faulty, wouldn't that make the car stuttery even when cold? it's fine until the engine is warm :S