Sick Cat!

Those motors were prone to injector problems. If one begins to act up, that cylinder can run lean and that drives temps through the roof. Probably should go to a shop unless you feel comfortable pulling that head to check the piston/cylinder for metal transfer, or unless you have a bore scope you can use to peek thru the spark plug hole to do the same thing. They had a well-known issue with running at fairly low engine speeds, where they produce a lot of soot which can lead to engine damage because the stuff absorbs oil and is also very abrasive. This led to a _ton_ of warranty issues on these motors. BRP seemed to have fixed the problem, but it seems to me that your motor is pre-BRP.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

Yes, and you might not have hurt anything other than the plugs, which need to be replaced. Im not a ficht expert of any kind, but did have a family member that bought one somewhere around 1997 or 1998 when they came out (he bought one of the BassMaster Classic rigs of that year). When you replace the plugs, I seem to remember that they have to be “indexed”, that is, they have to be turned the “right direction”. Ive done this in drag racing applications by using different thickness plug washers (shims, actually) but I believe that the early Fichts were simply indexed by torquing to some initial setting and then determining how the plug is indexed. You make a mark on the outside of the ceramic plug insulator that is in a direct line with where the electrode is welded to the plug body. You then torque to an initial spec (do not remember the number) and check where that mark sits. There are three “zones”. If it is in the correct zone, you are done. If it is in the next zone you ramp up the torque to the next setting and see if it will reach the correct zone at that torque setting. If you cant get it there, that plug will not work in that cylinder, although it might work in another when you try it. Pain, to be sure. And early Fichts had a host of head changes, the last fix being a “pinned” spark plug opening so that there was no direct flow from injector to the plug, which supposedly led to the excessive soot build up. Hopefully that will get you going in the right direction. This stuff was fixed somewhere around 2001-2002 or so when BRP took over, but the early motors definitely had this problem. Only problem is, are you the _original_ owner of this motor? If not, it takes some effort to determine whether you still have an OEM head or an updated head (or even a completely updated powerhead if the old motor blew up). The correct spark plug depends on the head being used…2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

it is not hard to damage plugs. My son has a 4.6 mustang that we race at the strip and he runs on the street. When we removed the heads early this year to replace some bent valves (from a missed 2-3 shift at the strip) we removed the EGR as well so that we could better tune and control the mixture. The default computer setting will open the EGR, which reduces the knock tendency, and then will advance the spark since it can. The first thing we noticed was breaking the center electrodes every now and then. We finally figured it out and discovered that we could run 89 octane rather than 87 and the plugs would last just fine. But drop to 87 and the preignition would bang em bad enough to break an electrode off. It is quite likely that you have the same issue. soot raises compression and also creates hot spots that can cause a cylinder to fire a little too soon, and this preignition produces a shock wave that can damage the plug and once it breaks / cracks, the spark will go thru the gap there and not go to the tip of the plug, causing significant misfiring and loss of power. Just be careful on the gas octane, and you might even try going up one grade for a test, as that will reduce the tendency to knock and damage the plugs (or worse). preignition is the 2-stroke motors worst nightmare, because it happens every revolution and can beat the motor to death, cause the top of the piston to erode, etc…2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200