kwahamot

Replaced blown gasket and mechanic cleaned out EGR...still running poorly. Finally got it to my wife's Thai mechanic and he found the problem right away. The new E3 spark plugs had failed miserably. Replaced them with stock Denso plugs, as well as the cap, rotor, and wires I had replace with cheapo Kragen parts, and it's running great.
Tough lesson to "re-learn" (same thing happened to me about 20 years ago with Diamond Fire plugs in a Ford Fiesta). Looks like stock Honda iginition systems are fairly sensitive and really hot spark plugs can cause other components to fail... that explains why my primary O2 Sensor suddenly went bad a little while after putting the E3 plugs in, then all these other parts started failing... Expensive lesson this time!

kwahamot

In fact, just found out my niece's Audi had the same problem recently, coil failure caused by the E3 spark plugs. I wish I had known that! The plugs are guaranted for 5 years or 100,000 miles, but they don't warn about possible damage to the ignition system.

Targa250R

The only spark plug brands that should ever be used in a Honda are NGK and Denso. Anything else is likely to cause problems.

kwahamot

So true. My nephew won't listen to reason and is still running the E3s in his '04 Element. We'll see what part dies first.