Cleaning spark plugs

[Tom Stein]

My Farmall A and my Case SC burn some oil and foul plugs faster than normal.
Can I clean them using one of those electric plug cleaners? Will they last a while after cleaning?

 

[glennster]

go a number or two hotter on the plugs, try a d-16, d-18 or d-21 in champion, or cross them over to autolite or a/c. i run autolite 3116's in my farmalls. they are non resistor plugs.

 

[I wanna Farmall]

Easy, just use a bench grinder with a wire wheel, or a wire brush.

 

[RobMD]

I just wire brush 'em. I don't fart around with spark plug cleaning tools. If you have to use these cleaning tools frequently, obviously it must be time to do some engine work.

 

[Gene Dotson]

I routinely use my glass bead blast cabinet to clean plugs. It gets all the soot and deposits from around the insulator... Gene

 

[buickanddeere]

A plug can not be cleaned any more than a burned set of points can be filed. Either case is just a emergency fix to get back to the shop.
When the glaze coating or the silver layer is gone. So is the plug or points.
Odds are if the engine isn't worn out. The plugs are fouling from putting around at low rpms and light loads. The rad shutters or thermostat in older equipment tend to get tossed behind the shed in the junk pile.
A cold running engine requires a richer mixture to start and idle. This just compounds the fouling problem adding the over rich mixture to a cold engine.
Try getting the coolant up to 195F or higher. Then getting the idle and high speed mixture as lean as possible.
As previously stated non resistor plugs such as the Autolite 216,437,3116 or 478. AC Delco C88L ( I think?) or Denso 3020's are great non resistor plugs.
Chucking the resistor wires for solid core wires isn't going to harm anything either. Unless you are running a 10M ham rig from your tractor.

 

[Doc Larry]

If you don't want to spend much money, try some purple pvc primer. You'll be surprised.

Larry

 

[Anonymous-0]

Never heard of that. Does it dissolve the soot and junk?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Remember it is just as important to clean the plug threads so it gets a good ground.

 

[CENTAUR]

I do not ever sand blast spark plugs as you cannot remove all the sand,no matter how much you hit them with air.The best way to get a plug firing again is to take an ignition file and grind the end to look like the end of a too pointed cold chisel.Then use this end to pry the electrodes apart so you can then file them to where they look like new ones again.THIS WORKS. CENTAUR

 

[Doc Larry]

The purple primer really does work pretty well on carbon and soot and oil. A neighbor told me about it, but I never believed him until I tried it.....

Larry

 

[37 chief]

They can be cleaned with bead blaster like someone else mentioned. They need to be carefully cleaned after doing this,to get all the glass beads from the bottom of the inside. They look like new again after this. I do have a tractor with a problem, that I am going to do something about this winter. Stan

 

[Walt Davies]

Harbor Freight has nice air spark plug cleaner I used mine a lot when my LA was running bad.
Walt

 

[noncompos]

If hotter plugs don't help your fouling you can buy or rig jump-sparks; they often help. Clean an extra set so when one fouls you've got a clean one to replace it, and can continue running.
Never realised there were so many strong opinions on how to clean plugs (or whether to); unfortunately, I was more often short of overhaul money than not, and a wire brush, sand/emory (emery?)paper and wash gas was usually all I had...

 

[RAB]

Remember there are other issues here. If you can reduce the oiling up (or down) you will reduce the problem.

As stated, run the engines hot, change the plugs to a higher heat range and do not run a too rich mixture.

But also consider stuck rings and type of lubricant.
If you are on non-detergent oil a change to detergent (with care as lots of sludge may be carried around the engine in short time) might improve things, or might make the oil burning worse!
Changing to a synthetic will reduce the losses too (I have found this to be the case in my daily transport).

Maybe new or just an addition of oil seals on the inlet valve stems is required, if the oil is going in that way.

Just some suggestions other than simply answering your question. I remember dismantling plugs for cleaning on a fairly regular basis. I still have some but do not use them now.

You may need to consider some form of overhaul soon, so it may be prudent to start to do regular compression tests to give a base-line figure before deciding how far the remedial work extends.

Regards, RAB

 

[super99]

Well, I'll probably catch H--- for this one, but here goes. Buy a set of non-foulers for the spark plugs. I got mine at Napa, seen em in JC Whitney catalog, etc. IH 400 with loader, not much hard use, would foul plugs in less than a day. Was tearing out some fence last fall[06] and put a set of them in it and haven't had to clean or change plugs yet. Haven't checked the compression, does use a little oil. I can't afford to overhaul it right now, so needed to do something to get it useable and this did the trick. I think it was around $5 for 2 of them. I always sprayed carb cleaner on them, blew off with air hose, use a wire wheel and air hose again, set gap and put back in. Chris

 

[Anonymous-0]

You can use the purple cleaner like for washing engines. Just soak the plugs in the cleaner for several hours or over night. Don't add water just use the pure stuff. Then take them out and spray some Deep Creep by Sea Foam on them and take a small torch and slowly warm them up until they are dry.

I have a 4 wheeler that I run short trips and carbon builds up. Not oil. Those cleaned plugs will last as long as a new on once I clean them. I went to a hotter plug but it still gets loaded with carbon given enough time.

 

[guido]

Hey Tom
Try setting the plug gap .005 more then the specs call for, they will take much longer to foul-up. And will run just as before, if not better. If you have electronic ignition set them at.040. Try it........
Guido.

 

[buickanddeere]

Good point about the oil.
If it's oil fouling, try the Detroit Diesel two stroke rated lube SF-2. It burns with very little ash/deposits compared to standard lube oils.

 

[Paul from MI]

I use my welding torch. Use the smallest tip you have and as small of a flame as possible. Set the flame heavy on oxygen. I stand the plugs upside down in a vise and use the flame to burn the carbon off the insulator. It will leave them white as snow and they will work good for a long time.
Paul