Cleaning spark plugs

[Soundguy]

i have a harbor freight abrasive cleaner.. I use black beauty... works awesome... then a dip in some naptha/laq thinner in a coffee can and swish around to celan off.. rebox and go.

I have a entire drawer full of old plugs for my old tractors. I swap a set every year.

havn't bought a plug in years...

 

[Code54]

I personally will not clean them. One or two grains of unnoticed sand or abrasive will tear the wall/rings in short order. For $2 or 3 bucks for a small engine plug it is not worth the chance

 

[Soundguy]

I personally will not clean them. One or two grains of unnoticed sand or abrasive will tear the wall/rings in short order. For $2 or 3 bucks for a small engine plug it is not worth the chance

i see you don't change plugs in engines that use more than 1 at a time.

PS. that's the whole point of 'cleaning' them. you actually. CLEAN them.. you don't stick em in the hole dirty.

 

[adirondackmtnman]

I have about twenty pounds of spark plugs sitting in an overflowing bowl in the parts storage area I have.
I have a lot of small engines and change the plugs usually once a year for some and once every other year for others that don't get used
very much.

so over the years I have quite a collection of not very dirty spark plugs. Growing up, there were always JC Whitney spark plug cleaners to ponder, but then someone said
the abrasive was bad for the conductor and someone else said something else they likely knew little about and the spark plug cleaners got a bad rap. Do they still?

It's kind of like sharpening knives. I wouldn't mind sitting down and recovering about three quarters of these. Not one of them shows any physical wear other
than the normal crud you get on plugs. Not for a car but for a lawn mower, where it will probably only be used one year?
I'm asking for reasons I suppose why not to...
thanks

let's see:
too cheap to worry about
won't come clean and crap will get in the engine
overheats the porcelain
breaks eleven OSHA rules...

Sounds like the makings of a good 'Red Green: Handyman Corner.' "Remember, if the women don't find ya handsome, they should at least find ya handy. I'm pullin' for ya, we're all in this together." ;-)

Sent from my LGL35G using TractorByNet

 

[ruffdog]

Old plugs with rounded off electrodes....just a waste of my time.

 

[Soundguy]

Old plugs with rounded off electrodes....just a waste of my time.

they make these new things nowadays called FILES.. and you can remove the round off the electrode, then regap.

lets do the math... I have 66 spark plugs to maintain. change those once per year at tune up time.. we can use the 3$ number someone posted.. that's 198$

for me.. since I'm not independently wealthy.... that's worth a few minutes and some air compressor time.

a quick tally of the money I have saved NOT buying new plugs for a few years.. and I have paid for 2 of my last 3 tractors i've aquired......free and clear... a farmall C and a case VAC

so.. lets rehash the math.... 'waste' some time and clean some plugs.. and get 2 tractors free? hmm.. don't need an accounting degree to figure that one out.

 

[ruffdog]

My wife keeps telling me we could get rich from making sweaters from my navel fuzz too.

 

[oldballs]

Then too, your navel base could get bombed. I've hand cleaned spark plugs for years on small engines and old cars. Works for me.

 

[RobertBrown]

too cheap to worry about

 

[daugen]

Old plugs with rounded off electrodes....just a waste of my time.
couldn't agree with you more, but hardly any of these show wear, just normal fouling.


i have a harbor freight abrasive cleaner.. I use black beauty... works awesome... then a dip in some naptha/laq thinner in a coffee can and swish around to clean off.. rebox and go.

Soundguy, black beauty is what kind of abrasive? why the choice of laq thinner vs something else? Just trying to understand what works, what to avoid.
Sunex 3912 Spark Plug Cleaner - Amazon.com
ALC Abrasive Media for Spark Plug Cleaner - 1-Lb. - Amazon.com (this stuff is aluminum oxide)

Today is my day to fire up the propane heater in the garage, since it's going to be pouring out, and get a year's worth of neglect organized.
And I'll be eyeing those plugs...

thanks for all the info.
So who do we know that works in a spark plug factory? I wonder if today's plugs are more durable than older ones, and more resistant to the type of damage
that abrasive cleaning creates.

I also have about half a dozen platinum plugs I pulled out. probably should have left them in...but I do let them go longer. If they'll last 100k miles in our cars, they
likely don't wear out too fast...but gunk is gunk.

I think it took this almost foot high pile of old plugs to wake me up, I need to do this differently. It's not the money, just trying to keep things out of the dump, and still have my equipment run fine. It's like throwing out a perfectly good tool...something bothers me about that.