Thank You Jay & Mr. Skinned Knuckle. Once again I've learned something from the videos .as the Guy said, some spark plugs are difficult to find making cleaning them a necessity . Jay, your the Best ! Thank You for keeping these Beautiful Old Machines Alive & Actually riding & driving them.
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does anybody know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account? I stupidly forgot my login password. I would appreciate any help you can give me
@Dallas Jayden thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm trying it out atm. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
Back when I was young a lived in MN I always owned old used cars and every fall it was check the plugs, new points and condenser. The years went by and I moved to a warmer climate. Cars no longer had points. My memory wasn't as good as it used to be. "Didn't I just put in new plugs a few years ago"? I thought as my vehicle started killing at the stop lights after it warmed up on the way to work. "Maybe I should check the distributer cap". It was worn. Later the same thing happened. It would stall at stop lights in the morning on my way to work. "Could use some new plug wires" I thought and yes, they were a bit old, and it ran fine for a while. But the old problem returned, only this time it wouldn't start at all. I called a tow truck. I was stalled at a busy intersection during rush hour traffic. It went to the shop. I told them about my troubles, saying it seemed to me to be an intermittent thing. They said they would "check it out." The next day they said it was running fine and I could pick it up if I wanted to. So I did. I caution you now about garages that also have a towing company. A week later I called them again with a stall at a stop light. It was back at their shop for days, and I called and they said "Well, it's not doing anything wrong now. You can pick it up if you want." I said there's something wrong. They said, "Well we can't diagnose it if it's not doing it now. We don't know what's wrong. I asked them what it could be. And told them to replace a few parts. I was back again for another tow. To make a long story short, $1500.00 dollars later, I told them that it wasn't running so well, and seemed like it was about to stall. On the phone they guy says, "Have you checked the spark plugs?" Turns out they all had worn down and all had about 52 thousands gap, and when the motor got warmed up, it must have just said it was tired of jumping all that .... Check yer plugs.
Because that's how you learn to not be a throw away society, we were growing up, us old timers learned how to break down an engine just so you would know how to fix things. Years ago guys took pride in maintaining there cars and trucks, from lubing to replacing valves. Now days they want you to believe that you need to throw away spark plugs in order to keep you coming back, of course if it needs new parts, by all means buy them.
It used to be pretty easy to 'read' plugs back in the day, but then they brought in unleaded fuel, and they don't 'read' so clearly after that, the fuel leaves almost no deposit or colour. That's here in Australia, I don't know how it works in the US but I can't see it being very different. So tetra-ethyl-lead is useful for improving the octane of the fuel, but it's also useful for leaving something on the plug that you can read.
I always used to stiff wire brush, and a soft wire brush. I used the tips of the Stiff wire brush needles to get the crowd out from the insulator coil Curve, and then soft wire brush to clean up and rap all of the dirt from the contacts. It always worked for me. And like are always ran perfect, or at least my bikes did anyway.. If anyone seen one of the new orbital multi point contact plugs, they are fabulous, used in high-performance racing bikes and Formula 1 engines with 8 contact electrodes orbiting the negatrode.
In general aviation, it's common practice to test and clean spark plugs instead of just replacing them with new ones. Recip engine plugs run anywhere from $25 to $100 each.
Glad I've been doing it right all these years. Thanks to my old high school auto shop teacher. I clean my spark plug electrodes with a small metal fingernail file and then gap them. I have brought cars back from the dead this way. Great video!.
maybe jay has found himself a mentor/father figure. it's his channel he can do whatever he wants. its clear they have good chemistry, they are both carguys.
When plugs were expensive.(70's) we sand blasted them and the cleaning machine had a spark tester as well...I yous'd to test all the new champion plugs and 50% of them were bad out of the box..I love those old cleaners.
ok go ahead, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Listen kid, when you have someone with plenty of experience who takes the time to teach you something, you should feel thankful and i hope you would reciprocate with something you can do well. So if you ever see your old kinder garden teachers or grade school teachers, thank them for teaching you to read and write today. This skinned knuckles guy knows his stuff, i bet he was working on cars when you were still in diapers .
And his comment about using resistor plugs in non resistor engines. I like how Jay called him out... You can run resistor plugs. It takes approximately 10,000 volts to make a resistor sparkplug spark. Most all magnetos produce over 30,000 volts.
in the old days before exhaust gas analyzers and inexpensive air/fuel gauges that use an o2 sensor, car tuners had to use their eyes, their brains and sometimes make guesses when tuning engines. and they usually fouled up sets of brand new plugs. so, sandblasting became a normal thing to do during that process. i did it when i was a teenager and still do it today and still have my vixen blaster on the wall of my garage, but i use ground walnut shells in a custom hopper that separates the powdered shell and keeps the blaster fed with ground shell. a set of plugs is too expensive to throw away when they are practically new.
Handy reading the plugs for when you're setting up your carb(s). Yes, doesn't apply to newer cars or ones that already have carbs jetted properly. Had a 2000 Toyota Sienna and had the plugs changed with a maintenance visit to the dealer at 130k miles - probably didn't need to be changed then.
It is recommended by Loctite themselves!! If you are that worried just buy the metal free version. Anti Seize on Spark Plus threads is a good idea IMO :)
if you torque it to the correct setting, usually around 14 foot pounds, there's no risk of breaking the plug, a correct toque setting will only turn the plug a further 1/4 to 1/2 turn from finger tight.
The wire feeler gauges were for when some cars had positive ground systems. The outer electrode eroded so there was a half round wear and a flat gauge gave a false reading Negative ground fixed it.Hal
For everyone commenting on just replacing the plug for $2, a lot of this has to do with older cars where you may not be able to get plugs readily. And some older cars also use plugs that are made to be taken apart, cleaned and reused instead of replaced. I know my friend's '31 model A is that way.
Jay, Now they are saying not to use anti-seize on plugs for newer cars unless the plug manufacturer states you should use anti-seize in their directions. They say the newer plugs, in the past 10 years, have a corrosion resistant coating already applied on the threads from the factory.
Why are people cleaning $1.50 spark plugs? It's like taking out a timing belt then putting it back into the car. If you are going to do the work of removing them, you might as well put new ones in.
It's important to know how the engine is running. If you're running rich, lean, condition of piston rings etc. Plugs don't cost $1.50 they cost more. Now multiply that by 8. Obviously non of this applies to your commuter car. This is for auto enthusiasts who make changes to their stock cars or have classic cars.
In my opinion, If you can't reuse a plug, either it is worn out or you have no need to own a tool box much less a car. Any one that relies on NEW will continue to NEED new. The great problem with modern PROGRESS is that folks are convinced that the NEW is best. LOL Meanwhile we have Millions of fixable cars scrapped each year for NEWER ones. A complete waste as far as I am concerned. The energy & $ to attain raw materials for the manufacturing of new vs fix old is easily four times as much.
As a tip for you ford guys, do not put anti-seize on your 2V/3V 5.4 or 4.6 engines. They are very touchy about torquing your spark plugs down to ford specified ratings, anti-seize will cause you to torque down your spark plugs to the incorrect torque which may cause the engine to blow the spark plugs out of the head.
On the contrary, i was under the impression that due to the difference in expansion rates of the plug and cyl. head, the threads in the head will gall unless anti-seize is used. This galling will eventually lead to the common problem of the blown out plug on these engines. Let me know what you think.
It's for old cars with oddball size spark plugs, not a newer car. For example, we have an old 1926 Nash that has spark plugs that we haven't been able to find new because of the size.
My '97 Geo Metro 3-cyl. was getting 41 mpg on copper plugs. Changed to Bosch Platinum+4 and over the next 10,000 miles my economy went up 14%. I thought it was all hype but since it only took 3 plugs I tried it. I figure I got my $24 back.
Cleaning plugs is not necessary. They are cheap enough to just replace them. Some companies are reproducing some plugs that are hard to find in some special applications or for originality sake. There is companies out there who make adapters to run more modern plugs in older cars.
I have heard people say that anti seize was bad because it demands less torque so people over torque them. I always use anti seize. I use anti seize on everything including wheel nuts which some people say is crazy. I say, it is anti seize, not lubricant. I never had a problem with it.
I once struggled to get a spark plug out of an aluminum head. It was a fine dancing act of loosen, briefly tighten, then loosen some more. The anxiety I felt was not cool. Anti-seize compound is the answer.
use anti seize especially on aluminum heads. Ever unscrew a spark plug out of an aluminum head and all the threads come out with it? it'll ruin your day.
Platinum and Iridium plugs deliver a stronger spark because they have less resistance, less resistance means more voltage for the spark, more voltage equals more heat. stronger sparks are stronger because they have more voltage, the reason a stronger spark works better is because it's hotter, it's the heat that ignites the fuel
Well, some plugs are like $10 a plug or more. Mine cost $6 and I need 8 of them. Some engines don't have new replacements available (few and far between). I could see having 2 sets and just clean one set while running another. But I tend to just buy another set because it'll still work better than just cleaning it.
I would have like to get his opinion on cleaning plugs using a propane or mag gas torch to burn carbon from the plug. It was a trick shown to me years ago while I was trying to keep a rich running BSA victor on the road.
I use the flat feeler gauges to gap my plugs. I always ensure the central and lateral electrodes are filed flat before I gap them...so the wire feeler gauge is not such a good idea in my mind because you can't always keep it flat. Where as the flat feeler gauge you can hold it up to the light to check if it's being held flat against the electrodes to get an accurate gap. Too much wriggle room with the wire gauges in my opinion.
Since the advent of spark plugs, mechanics have used spark plugs sand blasters and it works great. Then again, back in the '60's and '70's, spark plugs were cheap. The only reason I used the blaster was because I ran nitrous and could use the plugs longer.
Modern plugs come with a zinc coating on the threads so that they do not seize onto the Al block. Dont use anti-seize, throw off your torque reading and is not necessary anymore for modern plugs. Use the smallest number of prongs you can, four prongs are more likely to break off and damage the piston and cylinder. Four vs one prong isnt going to give you any more than 1 HP if you're lucky, just more failure points.
correct torque spec is the most important aspect of installing a spark plug aside from using the correct heat range and gap setting. I work for a manufacturer and have seen pre-ignition and or detonation occur and destroy engines because plugs were either over torqued or under torqued. For most OE non-modified applications you're not going to see this type of failure commonly but you're just dancing with the devil. Stop being lazy and giving people bad information - torque spec is crucial.
Just because you halfass the work on your car doesn’t mean everyone does. I use a torque wrench on damn near everything but I take pride in my work so...
i'm confused, aren't plugs cheap enough nowadays to buy replacements rather than clean them? what's the benefit of cleaning them aside from saving some cash?
so.. let me get this right.. if the spark plug smells of fuel... it much be getting past the rings?? so.. fuel in the sump?? ahhh.. NO, if they are wet then you have a plug thats not sparking/burning, if its wet and oiley THEN you have problems with your rings/valve stems
so why are you watching? these are good tips if you have an (really) old car that parts aren't made for anymore (even basic tune-up stuff). my grandfather had a 36 International pick-up. there were no parts being made for it when he restored it in the early 90s (may still not be today). old parts had to be either restored to work again or be made as a one-off (like the pistons).
On old cars you had to mess with spark plugs all the time. I've cleaned them more than once in a motel parking lot on a long trip. Nowadays with electronic ignitions and modern spark plugs you can get 100k on a set. Buying good quality spark plugs today is more important than in the old days. Sometimes they can cost $5-$6 a piece.
No doubt, I enjoy working on my cars, however I wouldn't spend 10+mins per plug cleaning (with possible internal plug damage) when i'd rather than 20mins changing all of them. I save the hearth by recycling all parts i've changed and not using ant-lag when it's not needed.
What car do you like would be a good start i don t buy a car because my friend tell me its good i buy it because i like it. for classic cars i would start buy looking the decades i like the 60s are probably the most popular i like the 50s all the way up to the early 70s. the brands of cars you like the design is it easy to find parts and so on. good luck
On NGK plugs, you do not want to put anti-seize on the plug if the threads are shiny. If the threads are shiny on an NGK plug, it already has anti-seize on it and NGK does not recommend more added to it. If the NGK plug is dull-colored, it does not have anti-seize on it and you can add some if you desire. If you go to the NGK site they will repeat these facts to you.
He said, do not use a wire brush, correct? In the same sentence he used a wire brush. In all my years I have never seen an outer electrode have a divit or a notch where the spark has worn a groove in the outer electrode but I have seen the center electrode get round and also loose several thousands of an inch. If the plug is wet with gas, change the plug. 90% of the time that plug is dead- it is not burning the fuel. It could be the wire also or the cap and so on. Advice, plugs are inexpensive.
But there's nothing wrong with copper plugs. The rare metal ones may have a place on modern very high horsepower/boost setups, but even then it's not mandatory. Copper plugs are troopers, and often simply don't need replacing, or can be filed down and repaired, with no ill-effect. Spark plugs used to be a cheap thing that lasted a long time, and they had spark plug cleaning machines at gas stations and such. Then the industry realized they could use hype to make you buy new irreparable ones.
If my plugs looked that bad, I'd replace them. NGK Laser Platinum take a long time to look bad, they never look that bad and I still replace them every 60000 to 70000 miles. Although if they look OK they can go 100,000 miles. They really are the best for longevity because there is a platinum center electrode and a dot of platinum on the ground electrode. Single platinum isn't as long lived because they don't have the dot of platinum on the ground electrode and I actually had a chunk of ground electrode break off on one of those. Probably any brand of double platinum is a good way to go. And I have gaped laser iridium plugs, you just have to be careful.
