Simple Spark Plug Q
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 24,460
Likes: 7
From: sw Ohio
Simple Spark Plug Q
Can you reuse spark plugs that have been flooded with gas? I've got a brand new set of them and my engine flooded, it wont fire up and stay running now. A friend of mine says you can clean them up and they're good but I have my doubts. 
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,614
Likes: 163
From: Davis CA
Unless your only attempt to restart was immediately after the flooding, you have some other problem. Whatever gas was there has evaported.
May I ask about the flooding? Why do you think that happened? Why do you think that is what happened? and Why do you think that it is no longer happening?
May I ask about the flooding? Why do you think that happened? Why do you think that is what happened? and Why do you think that it is no longer happening?
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 24,460
Likes: 7
From: sw Ohio
Unless your only attempt to restart was immediately after the flooding, you have some other problem. Whatever gas was there has evaported.
May I ask about the flooding? Why do you think that happened? Why do you think that is what happened? and Why do you think that it is no longer happening?
May I ask about the flooding? Why do you think that happened? Why do you think that is what happened? and Why do you think that it is no longer happening?
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,614
Likes: 163
From: Davis CA
Interesting.
I have often used gasoline to help clean fouled plugs in motorcycles, lawn mowers and the like. A brass brush, a little fuel, put them back in and away you go. Basically, they always get "wet" until the fuel ignites.
I have often used gasoline to help clean fouled plugs in motorcycles, lawn mowers and the like. A brass brush, a little fuel, put them back in and away you go. Basically, they always get "wet" until the fuel ignites.
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 24,460
Likes: 7
From: sw Ohio
I need to diagnose the problem better first. I used a different brand of plugs than usual though, Denso.
Race Director
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 10,343
Likes: 668
From: Beverly Hills (Pine Ridge) Florida
However, never wire brush (Stainless Steel, brass, etc.) the plug insulators. Wire brushing will leave metallic "tracks" on the insulators, which will act as electrical shorts to the plugs (preventing the normal arc across the plug gap that ignites the fuel/air mixture).
During cold Chicago winters, if an engine did not start and got gas fouled, we would remove the plugs, dry them out (sometimes in the oven), reinstall, and the engine would start and run just fine.
Plasticman
Last edited by Plasticman; Nov 11, 2007 at 12:54 PM.
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