carbon on plugs
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- Patron 2018
- Posts: 294
- Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:40 pm
- Your car is a: 1980 spider [carb]
- Location: Hamilton. MA
carbon on plugs
What amount of carbon is acceptable/typical on sparkplugs? I've adjusted the mixture screw on my 32/36 Weber but, still, pulling the plugs shows black, not the grey color that I had expected because the car does run fine.
1979 Spider
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
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- Posts: 748
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2017 6:39 pm
- Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider 1800
Re: carbon on plugs
Got a picture?
In general plugs of older carbureted engines will never look like plugs out of a fuel injected engine.
Rich in general runs OK at the expense of some peak power.
Extremely rich can cause valve seat damage and bore wear.
At idle, can you smell unburned flammables at the tailpipe?
In general plugs of older carbureted engines will never look like plugs out of a fuel injected engine.
Rich in general runs OK at the expense of some peak power.
Extremely rich can cause valve seat damage and bore wear.
At idle, can you smell unburned flammables at the tailpipe?
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- Patron 2018
- Posts: 294
- Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:40 pm
- Your car is a: 1980 spider [carb]
- Location: Hamilton. MA
Re: carbon on plugs
Nope, no pix; the car is put away until Spring but I don't recall any unusual smells although the inside of the tale pipe seems very dirty. Maybe I should try closing down the mixture screw a bit?
1979 Spider
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
-
- Posts: 748
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2017 6:39 pm
- Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider 1800
Re: carbon on plugs
The mix screw is for the idle circuit only. The rest of the operation is controlled by the jets.
Plug heat range is a factor as well. Plugs that are too cold for the application will always have a black center electrode.
Dirty air filter can make it run richer.
Plug heat range is a factor as well. Plugs that are too cold for the application will always have a black center electrode.
Dirty air filter can make it run richer.
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- Patron 2018
- Posts: 294
- Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:40 pm
- Your car is a: 1980 spider [carb]
- Location: Hamilton. MA
Re: carbon on plugs
Thanks. I know the filter is clean. I think I have Bosch plugs in there now. What plugs would you recommend?
1979 Spider
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars
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- Posts: 748
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2017 6:39 pm
- Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider 1800
Re: carbon on plugs
NGK BPR6ES is the same heat range as the factory plug. Bosch heat range numbers work the opposite way but the comparable Bosch heat number would be 6 or 7.
Google reading spark plugs for mixture. It's quite a science and more complicated than I realized.
Google reading spark plugs for mixture. It's quite a science and more complicated than I realized.
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- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:33 am
- Your car is a: fiat spider 1977
Re: carbon on plugs
Hi have the same problem really blackened after about 15 minutes.ticks over nicely but sluggish trying to accelerate. Car was running good before went into 2year storage. Has good compression on all cylinders.has the 32 adfa.carb with just the mix screw that dose not seem to be much use will try the plugs mentioned above.
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- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:33 am
- Your car is a: fiat spider 1977
Re: carbon on plugs
Also forgot to mention fair amount of unburnt fuel at exhaust pipe. Could my problem be the carb? What could I use as a after market carb.