Cleaning Spark Plugs

[Anonymous-0]

Is there anything Plugs can be soaked in to clean them? Thanks.

 

[rustyfarmall]

Aerosal carb cleaner will take the gooey stuff off. A wire brush or sandblasting is about the only way to remove the burnt on stuff.

 

[Revredneck]

I have found that a propane torch will burn the carbon off the inner electrode and insulator better than anything I have tried. It takes a little while to get it hot, but once it glows red for a minute or so, you should be good to go.
Good Luck and God Bless,
Tommy

 

[Anonymous-0]

Soak in a closed jar of lacquer thinner.Lead deposits are no longer a problem.

 

[JT]

Not a good idea to clean spark plugs, Why you ask, because if you do not get all the small pieces of dislodged carbon out of the plug, or sand if you sand blast them, it can get into the cylinder and do the same damage as thowing a handful of dirt in the cylinder. Especially when you can buy a spark plug for less than $3.00 most of the time. Not trying to be a SA.
Jim

 

[Walt Davies]

Harbor freight has a nice little air sand blaster for cleaning plugs I think it was $10 works great use mine a lot on the old Case LA until I finally got things setup correct. New head new pistons hotter plugs and cleaned the carb will ave a lot of plug cleaning.
Walt

 

[Alex-41JDb]

My dad said they used to have a sand blaster cleaner from an old old car dealership and it had a little gizmo to hook up to the plug and test it for spark. One guy got drunk and slept it off in the shop. Sure as sh*t they hooked that thing up to him and let him have it.Said he jumped higher than you could imagine. lol
In my opinion get a new plug or if it is a reocurring problem figure out what is going on like what walt said. Alex

 

[NawlensGator]

I've always used a wire brush followed by a dry rag. Any damage they get replaced.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I kinda find it ironic, that when I was a kid and spark plugs could be bought for a dollar [or less] apiece, that just about every garage had a machine for cleaning spark plugs.

Now that spark plugs are more specialized, with platinum and other exotic alloys, and sometimes cost as much as $15 apiece, only the "eccentric" among us want to clean and reuse their plugs.

Back in the '60's and '70's, we'd clean plugs on the [unshielded] wire wheel of a bench grinder, and the rule of thumb was to clean and regap at 5,000 miles, and replace at 10,000.

Never heard of anything that was liquid that was effective on the baked-on deposits on spark plugs. Might be something, but I just never heard of it.

 

[L.C.Gray]

Best stuff I have found for cleaning plugs is Castrol Super Clean. I pour some in a cup,, immerse the electrode ends in to soak for a bit, rinse with water and blow with air. Has never failed to bring one back to life no matter hou fouled they were.

 

[RodinNS]

Platinum plugs also last 120 thousand miles today, without cleaning. When they spark that long they're about buggered anyway. Throw a new set in and forget them for another 5 years. If you go to a shop for that work, you're money ahead to replace them anyway...

Rod