Spark plug wear and condition.

[rascole]

What are your thoughts on the condition of this plug? I replaced all and they did look the same. I never used the iridium before so not sure how they should look after 100k miles.

 

[Sneakysilver]

I just changed mine an try look the same, and I'm wondering also!

 

[Kyle]

they dont look to dirty at all! just recently someone brought in there 2000 windstar van with over 390k miles on it, when i pulled the plugs out i was shocked, ive never seen plugs that bad, they had never been changed. the center electrode had crazy carbon build up and was contacting the top electrode thing. it was insane!

 

[Kyle]

it looked something like this

 

[Scarsman]

it looked something like this View attachment 10522

That is what happens when you have bad rings and or valves and you're burning oil bad.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk

 

[Kyle]

That is what happens when you have bad rings and or valves and you're burning oil bad.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk

yea you should have seen the cylinder walls and piston rings, the person ended up buying a new engine for it.

 

[alrock]

Rascole that's a healthy looking plug

 

[hummech]

i don't see anything wrong with those sparkplugs, if they were black or had oil burned on them then there would be a problem. the things that used to ware spark plugs would be vehicle running too rich ( black chalky coating ) engine running too lean ( lighter color with the center electrode almost burned off ) or black oil coated ( worn piston rings or valve seals). with the cleaner burning engines today the computer knows how the cyclinders are burning the fuel with the use of oxygen sensors, cyclinder misfire sensors and knock sensors it would have triggered a check engine light if there was a problem. also you can read the sparkplug and see if the customer is running top tear fuel or lower end and what kind of additives the fuel companies are using. for example if the sparkplugs have a redish color to them, the customer is most likely using shell gas and the red color is their additive that is used.

 

[rascole]

My concern was mostly with the iridium electrode. Seems to have burned away compared to the new ones. As far as the red additive, that is strictly a color used for off road fuels, it is used to determine if a fuel is tax exempt. all fuel additives must meet certain regulations and most of them are BS. all fuel must meet minimum federal standards and it is heavily tested, additives are more of a marketing scam than actual performance issue. Yes, after 200k miles there may be a difference but I have run 99% ARCO gas with never an issue. Working in a refinery for 24 years gives me a little insight.

 

[hummech]

i was not talking about the red dye fuel for farm equipment and off road use, i am talking about the additive in the shell gas that is Vektron, when used leaves a redish color on the spark plug and cheveron uses Techron which leaves a greyish color on the sparkplugs. i know that all of that is snake oil and i use Arco fuel in my vehicles. my uncle is a chemist for one of the major oil companies and he said basiclly all fuel produced is set up to meet or exceed frederal standards. General motors came out with a bulletin that said they have had some runability issues with some engines that run the non top teir gas in their vehicles. Hummer h2 and Hummer h3 being two of them. the bulletin number is 04-06-04-0471 you can look it up and read it. of coarse a lot of people pay more for primium gas which serves as no benefit to their engine but cost them more per gallon, and yes the sparkplug still looks normal to me with the amount of ware at the electrode for the mileage when replaced.

 

[rascole]

Cool, thanks for the help. I didn't want to knock (pun intended) on your assessment of the color. Just wanted to clarify for the uninformed that due to modern engine controls and stricter federal regulations, our fuels are much better and the engines run much better and cleaner.
This comment has been brought to you by Chevron with Techron.....Simply smarter!