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| white sparkplug electrodes? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 20 2012, 07:42 AM (696 Views) | |
| MarkyMayhem | Aug 20 2012, 07:42 AM Post #1 |
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Just checking stuff persuant to a slight miss at idle, and I pulled the plugs last night. All the groundstrap electrodes were WHITE, although it rubbed off, and all of the plugs white insulator had a little bit of a brown spot on [I assume] the exhause valve side of the plug. They didn't look any where CLOSE to as bad as the pics in the back of Haynes or Chiltons for burned plugs, but obviously they are getting burned a bit. checked the easy stuff last night, vac. leaks at intake or TB etc. All good. Was going to retard the timing a smidge, but couldnt get the lower dist. bolt out without taking the cap off, and it was 7:30 at night soo..... Any suggestions? don't want to burn a valve -m |
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| starscream5000 | Aug 20 2012, 09:11 AM Post #2 |
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Got 70 MPG?
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That lower bolt should have no problem being loosened with the cap on, otherwise, how would you time the car? |
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| cwatkin | Aug 20 2012, 09:52 AM Post #3 |
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You might need a socket extension to loosen this bolt. Conor |
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| MarkyMayhem | Aug 20 2012, 06:32 PM Post #4 |
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Yea my problem with the lower bolt is that I don't have a star socket, I have one of those things with 8 bits in like a swiss army knife kinda arrangement. Can't fit it past the cap. Guess I need a 3/8" #40 star bit huh? so, are we thinking timing then? |
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| starscream5000 | Aug 21 2012, 09:36 AM Post #5 |
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Got 70 MPG?
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I have a 3/8th star socket set and my #40 fits in just fine... Check your timing with a light. Most people can get by with 8BTDC without ping. The most timing without ping should be best on exhaust valve life. |
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| MarkyMayhem | Aug 21 2012, 11:38 AM Post #6 |
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Well, I don't have a light, guess I need to borrow one to get this perfect, but for now, I'll go 'by ear' Speaking of which, I read another thread on here that described pinging in our cars as a kind of grindy sound. Well, I had been noticing a grindy sound, kind of like a tin can scraping the ground, at certian power setting when accelerating, or when goosing it in park. Assumed it was timing, and it looks like I was right I ended up getting a pair of small vice grips on the lower bolt, and getting it loosened enough that I didn't have to torque my 'swiss army' star wrench to hard, and got to where I could move the dizzy. Haynes, BTW says to turn clockwise to retard. We know that's incorrect.... anyway, I retarded the timing some, and the grindy noise is gone. Perhaps I went to far though? Now when I accelerate from a stop, with the AC on, I've got no power, almost like I was trying to start in 2nd or 3rd, even if I manually put it in 1st [auto tranny] Fine with the AC off. Soooo I guess I will advance a tiny bit and see what's up. Or borrow a light. |
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| starscream5000 | Aug 21 2012, 12:40 PM Post #7 |
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Got 70 MPG?
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The light makes it much easier. An almost inconceivable movement back or forth on the distributor will changing timing by 1 degrees. Doing it by ear can be done, but there's a lot of adjusting and testing that needs to be done with it to make it just right. |
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9:35 AM Jul 11