Dicky Posted June 4, 2017 Share Posted June 4, 2017 Just finished the cars service. Checked and cleaned the plugs and noticed something a bit odd on cylinder 4. The plug electrode tip (pointy bit) seemed a bit more worn down than any of the other plugs even though it had the light fawn colouring as it should. When I looked at the plugs last year cylinder plug 4 again look the worst for wear compared to the others in fact it looked a bit sooty so I changed it at the time. Just wondering if anyone might be able to suggest why one cylinder could be performing worse than the others.?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted June 4, 2017 Share Posted June 4, 2017 When you say worn down, what exactly do you mean? does the electrode look like the edges are rounded? also what type of plugs are you using? it could be down to an injector not supplying the correct amount of fuel at high load,so slight overheating or det, or even bad valve or ring seal, The plug colour is not a very good indicator unless you cut the engine at the RPM/load your trying to read, once its been at idle the reading colour will be contaminated and incorrect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzman Posted June 4, 2017 Share Posted June 4, 2017 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted June 4, 2017 Author Share Posted June 4, 2017 Oops looks like I've some how posted this in the wrong section. If moderators can move it into General I'd be obliged. For Tricky Ricky... Well the centre electrode appears a bit flatter than the rest, not so much of a point. The plugs are the Platinum type. Hope it's not valve or seal problems. Wonder if it's worth putting Redex in the fuel to aid cleaning the injectors, although I've heard that Optimax fuel( which I always use) contains stuff that kerps the injectors clean. Can the injectors be tested in any way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ioneabee Posted June 4, 2017 Share Posted June 4, 2017 moved to 350 technical Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted June 4, 2017 Share Posted June 4, 2017 Oops looks like I've some how posted this in the wrong section. If moderators can move it into General I'd be obliged. For Tricky Ricky... Well the centre electrode appears a bit flatter than the rest, not so much of a point. The plugs are the Platinum type. Hope it's not valve or seal problems. Wonder if it's worth putting Redex in the fuel to aid cleaning the injectors, although I've heard that Optimax fuel( which I always use) contains stuff that kerps the injectors clean. Can the injectors be tested in any way? Well the center electrode of the plugs should have a flat end with reasonable well defined edges anyway, did you check to see if the gap had opened up in comparison with the others? When you say it looked worse than the others and sooty, that could just mean that its running a little rich at idle which could just be down to bad injector spray pattern, doesn't sound like a lot to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted June 5, 2017 Author Share Posted June 5, 2017 Oops looks like I've some how posted this in the wrong section. If moderators can move it into General I'd be obliged. For Tricky Ricky... Well the centre electrode appears a bit flatter than the rest, not so much of a point. The plugs are the Platinum type. Hope it's not valve or seal problems. Wonder if it's worth putting Redex in the fuel to aid cleaning the injectors, although I've heard that Optimax fuel( which I always use) contains stuff that kerps the injectors clean. Can the injectors be tested in any way? Well the center electrode of the plugs should have a flat end with reasonable well defined edges anyway, did you check to see if the gap had opened up in comparison with the others? When you say it looked worse than the others and sooty, that could just mean that its running a little rich at idle which could just be down to bad injector spray pattern, doesn't sound like a lot to worry about. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a bit paranoid now Tricky, the sooty looking plug was what I found during servicing last year, at the time I thought the plug itself may have been malfunctioning because the cars performance seemed to improve following servicing (although their wasn't any rough running noticed Prior to servicing) This time I got concerned because the plug tip looked more disfigured or squashed down (only slightly) than the others (didn't know they were supposed to have a flatter tip). The electrode gaps on all plugs looked to be fine. I agree I might be jumping the gun here, think I'll run it for a few months and check it again to see how it looks. I'll also do a bit of research into checking injector operation as I don't know much about them (I'm an old school carb guy you see ha ha). Thanks for your input though young man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 No worries! i think you may be right about the paranoia and thanks! its a long time since i was called a young man. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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