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Glowplug

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KnightAzul

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From the FAQ:
Keeping an Eye on your glowplug will help you to understand how you should adjust your carburation ...

Ok, so I noted that my glowplug falls into the 3rd category with the thread having a dark colour seeming wet. This was probably due to the engine run-in that I did with the rich fuel mixture fouling the plug.

My question is: if I now continue to use the car with the correct fuel/air mixture setting will the plug return back to a healthy state (the 4th category) after a few more runs with the dark colour clearing up, or should I be thinking about buying a new one.

Thanks,
KnightAzul
 
I would just spend a little money and buy a new one. Dont cost that much and you will know that everything is cool.
 
Hi Gutterboy!
I would tend to agree with you on that. However, with me being a newbie and all, and knowing that a lean mixture could damage the engine, I guess that I am going to have to go through a few glowplugs this way until I get used to adjusting the High Speed Carb needle correctly.

The question is really: if I get it wrong one day and have the mixture too rich (glowplug goes dark), then I get the mixture right the next 3 days will the glowplug change colour and tell me that everthing is ok?

The run-in period could be an exceptional case to all of this.

KnightAzul
 
Generally the breakin period is especially hard on plugs. Yes, the rich state of the mix will deposit more oil on the plug and will make it go bad. it will still glow, but it won't develope as much power, or in the worst case won't let the engine run right at all. To test if a plug is going bad, put the starter to it and see if the coil glows brightly and how far up the coil glows (looking at it from the coil side). A brand new plug will glow nearly to where it is attached to the threaded part. If more than 1 complete turn of the coil is dark, then it's definately on it's way to being bad. And no, plugs are not self healing. It's a shame, because I have a ton of bad ones. I don't know what manual you quoted from, but most of the ones I have seen will have a note in them saying that it is recommended that just after breakin you should change plugs. You will see a difference in performance.

I run duratrax gold racing plugs in my .21 and .26 engines because the big blocks need a cold plug and I have had good luck with the DT golds. OS makes some outstanding plugs, but are more expensive. Once you get the engine broken in, plan on changing plugs about every 3/4 to 1 1/2 gallons of fuel depending on how you tune. I generally tune for performance (more towards the lean side of things) and change up plugs about ever 3/4 of a gallon (give or take some).

Hope this helped.
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