running lean and sparkplugs ?
running lean and sparkplugs ?
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
From: Mobile, Alabama
If your running way to lean you will start melting the end off, if your rich they will have a lot of carbon biuld up on them, black sut, and maybe oily feeling.
Last edited by usahooters; Apr 3, 2002 at 08:45 PM.
Does it ping under load, hard uphill at speed staying in top gear?
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
From: Mobile, Alabama
Whites good. Remember your looking at plugs that have been just driving around town and idleing, if you were to be running the engine up at high rpm's and under boost and shut it off in those conditions the plugs would have most likely cleaned themselfs up some. If your running to lean you will hear a ticking sound while in the throttle. If you hear this your chip needs to be reburned. Check this out from a FAQ..
Q: I have a high compression engine and I was told to run a colder sparkplug or I might overheat it, is this true?
A: A sparkplug doesn't make heat, therefore it can't heat up the engine. Sparkplugs can not and will not make an engine run hot (or cold). The fire in the cylinder heats up the plug, not the other way around. Heat range simply means how hot the plug itself will be. If the plug is too cold, it won't be able to burn off the oil and fuel deposits that collect on it and it will foul. If it is too hot, the electrode can't cool fast enough and it may start to melt away. On high compression engines, there is more cylinder heat so a colder plug is usually used. Sometimes the heat on race engines is so great, even cold plugs melt-off the electrodes. This is a common problem when running nitrous oxide. Some top fuel engines don't even run electrodes. The ground electrode is simply cut-off and removed because it will melt-off! The spark from the magnetos on those kind of race engines has no problem at all jumping from the center electrode to the edge of the plug. The bottom line is, you want to run the hottest plug you can without melting the electrode. This just assures a clean plug that yields a good spark.
Q: I have a high compression engine and I was told to run a colder sparkplug or I might overheat it, is this true?
A: A sparkplug doesn't make heat, therefore it can't heat up the engine. Sparkplugs can not and will not make an engine run hot (or cold). The fire in the cylinder heats up the plug, not the other way around. Heat range simply means how hot the plug itself will be. If the plug is too cold, it won't be able to burn off the oil and fuel deposits that collect on it and it will foul. If it is too hot, the electrode can't cool fast enough and it may start to melt away. On high compression engines, there is more cylinder heat so a colder plug is usually used. Sometimes the heat on race engines is so great, even cold plugs melt-off the electrodes. This is a common problem when running nitrous oxide. Some top fuel engines don't even run electrodes. The ground electrode is simply cut-off and removed because it will melt-off! The spark from the magnetos on those kind of race engines has no problem at all jumping from the center electrode to the edge of the plug. The bottom line is, you want to run the hottest plug you can without melting the electrode. This just assures a clean plug that yields a good spark.
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
From: Mobile, Alabama
SVT-FL go to this link and check it out. Reading plugs.
http://www.centuryperformance.com/spark2.htm
http://www.centuryperformance.com/spark2.htm