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Spark plugs

PostPosted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 7:27 pm
by Lee Spuhler
I've run my car 2 weekends and test days, about 5 hours. When I pulled the plugs, 2 had cracks in the ceramic insulators.

Has anyone else seen this? Common or uncommon? Indicate a problem? Thoughts?

Thanks

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 4:56 pm
by sspano01
yes! two of mine had cracks, changed them around June 23rd and noticed it

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:35 am
by Jparris
Lee - I just changed my spark plugs in preparation for the Runoffs. This is the first time I've even had the plugs that originally came with the engine out (I now have 9 race weekends on the engine - roughly 35 hours). Other than a little brown around the electrodes, they looked as good as new! No cracks, no eroding of the electrodes, etc. The only curious thing I found was a very thin, clear, oily substance on the plugs themselves that I assumed was some sort of dielectric oil or something. Each plug had it, but it was above the electrode level and completely clear, so no indication of oil leak past the rings. If anyone knows what exactly this is, I'd be interested to know.

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:09 pm
by Jparris
Re-posting my question from my last post:

Does anyone know what the clear, light oily substance is on the sparkplugs that originally came with the GEN3 kit?

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 9:01 pm
by Racer X
Dielectric grease possibly?

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:41 am
by Jparris
Yeah, that's what I assumed, too. However, this stuff was clear and very thin - much like a clear household oil. It was hard to tell where it was applied to the plugs. I detected it when I pulled the plugs out of the plug socket and noticed that my fingertips were covered in some type of an oily substance. Since then, I have just been wondering if it's a treatment I should be using for replacement plugs.

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:36 am
by Lee Spuhler
Yeah Joel

Mine had that too. Enough it was puddled around the base of the plugs. Definitely not grease. Mine actually looked and had a consistency like mineral oil, very thin with low viscosity.

The one thought I had was it was put there to keep moisture from building up in those pockets and causing corrosion during shipmenet and storage, but that's just a wild ass guess

Re: Spark plugs

PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:30 pm
by Jparris
Lee Spuhler wrote:Yeah Joel

Mine had that too. Enough it was puddled around the base of the plugs. Definitely not grease. Mine actually looked and had a consistency like mineral oil, very thin with low viscosity.

The one thought I had was it was put there to keep moisture from building up in those pockets and causing corrosion during shipmenet and storage, but that's just a wild ass guess


It would be nice to find out for sure and if it's something we should be doing, wouldn't it?