Hey, this isn't an auto news group. So, maybe there is an active news group for autos?
I did have a look, but didn't see any that looked active.
My Dodge van has 8 cylinders. Eight plugs. Two bucks each. $16. I know that's not a heck of a lot of money, but it hurts to throw them out just cause they have a little bit of carbon on them.
How to clean spark plugs? Ideas?
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Wire brush or sand blast. Newer cars will go 50 to 100,000 with a set of plugs and it is better to toss them at that point. Maybe you need a tuneup.
A startling revelation ???
Hint--the keywords "auto" and "autos" brings up well over a 2 dozen........
Pure bullshit, likely......
ANOTHER startling revelation--will miracles never cease ???
Cheapskate--then just stick em back in there, and continue to spend your life in dicking away yours and your parts house's time and effort in buying and then returning parts......
I dunno--seems too much like rocket science to me !!!
file them flat and square. spark likes to jump between sharp edges. don't scratch or nick the insulator
Carbon means , a weak spark , running rich or oil burning. Go to hotter plugs
Wrong. Wire brushing leaves metal particles on the insulator and shorts out the spark. Sand blasting with the usual silica sand or silicon carbide tears up the ceramic insulator and erodes and rounds off the electrodes. Professionals use glass bead blasting to restore plugs if replacements are an impossibilty at the time. HTH
Joe
Definitely need a tune up. The last fellow who had the van, I don't think he did much maint. I did get the timing set (took some doing). And the plugs were all coated with carbon. A 87 Dodge van isn't going to do 50K on a set of plugs.
I have done wire brush before (spray it out with STP carb cleaner) and they look pretty good. Don't have access to sand or glass bead blaster.
There is a small electric spark plug cleaner that you insert a plug, turn it on and it cleans it just fine. Do some googling...
They work, sorta. The cleaned plugs do not last long, the sandblasting leaves the ceramic too porous.
I used to double the life of plugs that way. Of course, doubling meant another 1200 miles or so in the old Merc flathead. Back then, 5000 miles on a set of tires was considered average.
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