I noticed last night that it seemed like it was running badly, and at idle it would jerk with intermitant misfires. I am getting this noise too, sounds valvetrain-ish. I've noticed a lil tick very slightly before and let it go, but it is a lil more pronounced and when you rev it up to 3500+ I would say it makes a bad loud sound that I just can't describe. The best way to descrive it is loud tapping I guess. And then, my TC wouldn't lock up on the way home from school. What is happening?

Help please!

I got a torque wrench from work and I am about to go in and check my valvetrain preload, but other than that, I don't know. And no torque converter unlock? I have heard that misfires will make the PCM prevent lockup..... but constantly (about 20 minutes) prevent lockup?!?!?!?!?

The motor doesn't seem like it is as strong as usual, but doesn't feel like it has 100hp or anything.

Help me please!

 

I can't help you much with the noise without hearing it, but if it sounds "valve trainish" then it probably is. The misfires will definitely prevent the lockup-clear the codes after you fix the problem and the lockup will magically come back.

 

I am not getting any codes related to missfire....

 

While reseting my valvetrain preload I decided to pull the plugs and have a look. So far, I've pulled 1 and 3.

One was pretty fricking black, and three had red deposits on it.

Black means detonation ... but I don't know what red means?

Any ideas WTF is going on inside my engine/with my ignition?

 

Black means you're running rich. Not detonation. Don't know what red means.

 

Or detonation....

I'm comparing it to the haynes plug manual.

 

a slight red tint on the plugs means they are burning correctly last time i checked.

 

if there red there burning correctly, the red is just from the additives in the fuel

 

If the gap is still within spec and theres no portion of the plug melted away, and no spatters of aluminum anywhere on the plug, then I don't think you need to worry. The detonation example plug in the haynes manual is black, but a black plug doesn't necessarily mean detonation.

 

Maybe you had a loose plug wire. Is that possible?