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Grody spark plugs

I

iBrent

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
568
Location
Northborough, MA
So I've been having the hesitation issues as well. So today I pulled a spark plug just to check on it, and this is what I found...

The plugs and wires are only about 5k miles old. How do I go about getting all the crap out of the access tubes where the boot lies? Also, I put the dialectric grease on the boots and wires when I installed them, and now it appears the grease is all dried up and flaking out.
 

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Usually, the dielectric grease is the silicone type and won't do that. The firing end of the plug looks very clean, and that plug appears to not have any carbon tracks on the insulator. A vacuum cleaner might get the loose stuff, and maybe a shop rag wrapped around a stick could get in the wells. Make sure not to drop anything into the plug holes.
 
Sweet, thanks for the info. I knew you could tell a lot by the spark plug I just didn't know how. I remember just getting the cheap stuff at Autozone that came in little plastic envelope looking things. I wonder if that's silicone based...
 
the other day I pulled a plug out of the SVT and down the well looked brand new. then I looked at the plug, it looked like it might have been the original plug. LOL time to get some new autolites double plats.
 
FavoriteMystaque said:
Do you have any fault codes?
Click to expand...

The CEL light is not on, and when I got the shifter cables replaced about 2 weeks ago, they ran their scantool and said there were no trasmission codes, I'm assuming he would have told me there were other codes.

But this problem has gotten progressively worse since I bought the car in September of 05. It's really weird though, because its WORSE in third gear. Sometimes it almost feels like a mechanical imbalance, like something is not rotating in a perfect circle and causes the car to buck. But when I got the shifter cables replaced, the dude said the transmission and clutch were fine. I'm kinda at a wits end here. Its so annoying.
 
Does it do it at low RPM (2300) and 35-40 MPH. I had that, when accelerating mildly, was misfire from carbon tracked sparkplug on #2 rear center cylinder. Felt like fore and aft motion and smoothed out at higher revs.
 
FavoriteMystaque said:
Does it do it at low RPM (2300) and 35-40 MPH. I had that, when accelerating mildly, was misfire from carbon tracked sparkplug on #2 rear center cylinder. Felt like fore and aft motion and smoothed out at higher revs.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what is going on. How did you fix it? What causes carbon tracking? Last weekend I only pulled the one plug, in the front far right cylinder, which was the one I took a picture of. This weekend I can pull them all and look for it...or maybe tomorrow if its nice.
 
How I fixed it

How I fixed it

Fixed it by:

1. Inspecting spark plugs, I remember there was a code for Misfire on the Cylinder 2 to point me there.

2. Finding gray/black lines on the plug insulator for #2 (white part) that looked like pencil marks or cracks, that could not clean off.

3. Cleaned out plug boot spotless (was New wire set) and used clean silicone Permatex:cool:

4. Replaced plug, using a CLEAN socket wrench, be sure boot clicks on, I found them hard to attach. A boot not seated would cause misfires too.

Also, check your plug gaps are at .052 (I did mine .050) so it sparks easier in the engine cylinder. Wide gap=higher voltage buildup=greater likelihood of carbon tracking. Please check specification, I'm working out of my memory, @2AM:crazy:

Have fun, hopefully you will have it running right!

Note: If your wires are old/grungy or hardened, get new Motorcraft only. They cause misfires too.
 
Well, I pulled each spark plug and checked its gap and looked for carbon lines. They all looked exactly the same. So I put it all back together and started the car up.

But then something interesting happened. As I was sitting over the engine, I mashed the throttle a few times (from the engine bay) and a loud hum started. I think it may have been the moose, it was really loud and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It lasted about 3 seconds and then stopped, right after it stopped, the engine recovered from something causing a low idle and was back to normal. Is this the famous moose problem?
 
iBrent said:
...

But then something interesting happened. As I was sitting over the engine, I mashed the throttle a few times (from the engine bay) and a loud hum started. I think it may have been the moose, it was really loud and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It lasted about 3 seconds and then stopped, right after it stopped, the engine recovered from something causing a low idle and was back to normal. Is this the famous moose problem?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Read this.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/s...er=1148660&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1
 
FavoriteMystaque said:
Do you have stock air intake? Does the car run any differently, in case you redid a poor connection?
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It had made the noise before, it wasn't really a new development. But it usually only did it when it was cold outside, this is the first time in a long time. But no, the car is running the same. The intake is a K&N, not stock. I recently cleaned it (last weekend when I re-gooped the plug boots).
 
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