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Spark plugs?!

D

D13

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
107
Been tracking down a stuttering issue like many of us have.

Today I decided to go through the upper half of the engine and see what I could find.

First, I found that the intake manifold and runners are nasty. Cleaning soon...

Second, I pulled the plugs and the all looked good. Until I looked closer. I found that 4 of the 6 have shortened grounds (opposite the electrode). I bent the grounds in slightly to shorten the gap and took the car for a test drive. Wow, what an improvement. I have purchased new plugs and will be installing tomorrow.

My question is, has anyone seen the ground melt? away like that?

1

|----|
|
------


2

|----|
|
----


Pardon the simplistic drawing above. Assume 1 is a normal plug. 2 would be what the bad plugs looked like from the side. They are missing the last portion of the ground piece.

Any ideas? I have never seen anything like it.
 
is it at all possible that those plugs that are worn are a different kind then the rest? i know some grounds are different then others. just a thought.
 
The plugs were swapped about 2 years ago. I check them at about 6 month intervals, but usually only for color.

All plugs are swapped at the same time with the same kind regardless of need. If one is bad, they all go.
 
ouch..

when you replace those, go ahead and get Autolite Double Plats (APP-764) and gap them to 0.054 (spec is 0.052-0.056)
 
Agreed!

Just got done replacing the plugs with the Autolites. Wow, my car is back. Those old plugs had more wrong with them then I could see...
 
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