60,000mi Spark Plug Change

[jjvincent]

I have a bunch of friends all buying range rovers and merc g-class. I tell them they're throwing money away but they don't listen.

One this morning was asking me about a special tool for his catalytic converter.. I don't know!

Range Rovers. We had one in a while back that needed airbags. $10K just for the parts new and $5k for them rebuilt. Customer had enough and traded it in on a Honda pilot. Funny part is the new airbags we could have had in about an hour as the parts distrubition for Range Rover is about 5 miles from us.

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[nU7OuxIx]

My connector broke. Anyone know what to do? Where I can order a new piece to install. Anything?

I'm curious about this too, as I know, when the time comes, I'm going to break a connector. So I did a search... I found this page:

http://connectors.dcctools.com/home.htm

Which after you put in your vehicle, it brings you to the results. I did a search for coil and it popped up with this:

Full Repair Kit: 68364262AB

Now that may not be what you're looking for. But it looks like they have pigtail repair kits available. It's not cheap, but if you break one, it's nice to know there IS a solution rather than replacing the entire loom.

 

[Old Jeeper]

Some suggest Sea Foam, do you have an opinion?

I have tried Sea Foam and it seems to work well enough, you just want to buy and pour. There are several others that do the same thing, they have you pour it in the fuel tank and drive.

if you want a 100% solution then it's a can o water. The reason why is simply thermodynamics. ambient temp water poured as you race the engine causes and explosion (sorta) of the water. What does it do? Changes from water to steam and the internal temp in the combustion chamber can reach up to 4500 F. Everything is plated with carbon and the steam hits the carbon and it is cold thus the carbon rapidly expands and breaks off the combustion chamber walls.

I did this on all the Corvettes I owned over the years about every other oil change. Back in those days it was carbon and lead build-up. They used to put lead in gasoline.

I sold one of my Vettes withj 103k miles on it. The guy asked if it had ever had a Valve and head job, I said no, never. He did live far from and called me one Sat and asked if would come over, he a question. I did and the head off and laying a workbench. He showed to me and asked WTH do you do to have the internals so clean.

I worked as a mechanic, I owned ½ interest in a garage and our customer base was mostly older folks, last car, drive slow, no or little highway and after a while, the carbon build-up will get so bad that you lose compression, power, engine runs rough and most garages will send out the head for a valve grind and a head job which cleans with a steel rotor brush on the end of a big drill. Back then that would cost $125 for a V8 engine without AC or $150 with. We only charged that to customers that were young and had a job. The old folks got the can 0 water for $25 which included fresh spark plugs and points.

Today's modern fuels don't carbon up like they did back in the Lead days, when you had deposits of Lead & Carbon!

 

[SadboiJL]

I'm curious about this too, as I know, when the time comes, I'm going to break a connector. So I did a search... I found this page:

http://connectors.dcctools.com/home.htm

Which after you put in your vehicle, it brings you to the results. I did a search for coil and it popped up with this:

Full Repair Kit: 68364262AB

Now that may not be what you're looking for. But it looks like they have pigtail repair kits available. It's not cheap, but if you break one, it's nice to know there IS a solution rather than replacing the entire loom.

I searched and couldn’t find anything. After about 2 days I ended up just buying an entire wiring harness from an Alfa Romeo Giulia, being they are the same engine and sure enough now I have replacements to spare.

 

[Rodeoflyer]

bottom line,.. if can't work don't buy

 

[Old Jeeper]

Very cool, great response.

I’m thinking I’ll borescope when I change the plugs to see.
I’m likely being over cautious as I’m trying to get as much life out of this engine as possible. I’m hearing stories of warped heads, bad rollers, broken valve springs etc. Just making sure I do my part. I’ll likely end up with a top end rebuild eventually as I plan to keep it forever (ish).

I’ve had shops over fill on oil changes also.

In all my years and cars only once did I come across broken valve springs and that was on my '69 Corvette 427/435 Hp. I did need to replace a few of them. We had a ranch truck and the speedo broke somewhere past 200k mi and we figured when we went to sell it it had about 300k mi. It was all original, we never did an oil change on the engine or a fluid change on the auto trans. Never an engine or trans failure of any kind.

The only thing that happened was the day I went with dad to buy it on the way home it overheated. We got of the truck and lifted the hood and a tiny leak in the radiator.. We had pulled over less than a block from a gas station. Dad told me to walk over and get a bucket of water and he went into a Mesquite tree thicket alongside the road where we stopped. Dad pointed up a Mesquite branch and shoved it in the hole on the radiator. Every once in a while it overheat again and Dad would reach in the glove box and get another branch of Mesquite, point it up and push it in the hole. Dad did that for about 24 years and that is how he sold it.

I was there when dad sold that truck he paid $600 bucks for and he sold for $750 and he pointed out to the buyer the leak in the radiator and gave him a bag of Mesquite branches and told him to carry a knife and point it up and keep driving for about a years before you need to do it again. '54 Chevy 5 window truck.

 

[failsafe306]

You got some carbon build-up for sure.

If your plugs look like that you valves have carbon and so does the combustion chamber.

3 ways to mitigate:

1) Pull heads and get a valve job and clean the combustion chamber using a solvent (don't to change oil when you are finished.

2). Look for a lonely highway. Come to a full stop then nail the go pedal to the firewall, watch the temp gage and when it begins to rise back on off and most of the carbon should be gone, or you can turn around and repeat.

3). 12 oz can of water, engine FULL operating temps under the hood. with the engine running and someone in the driver's seat revving the engine slowly pour the can of water into the engine.. Looking at your plugs and thinking on the combustion chamber I do it twice. If the engine stalls because you poured to fast don't worry just start and keep going.

I am thinking of looking at the plugs and with 60k You make want to remove the cat if you can. All you need to do is separate the exhaust from the CAT pipe and that is, no need to remove anything, you should have enough play unless your cat is perm connected to the exhaust pipe.

NOTHING will clean out you combustion chamber and valves like it a double dose of ExLax.

How does it work? Thermodynamics.

This is a great way for someone inexperienced to hydrolock their engine. I would advise against this.

 

[failsafe306]

What’s you opinion of sea foam?

I think a capful of sea foam is a lot safer than several ounces of water. If using water it would have to be at a very slow rate on these newer high compression motors.

 

[Old Jeeper]

I think a capful of sea foam is a lot safer than several ounces of water. If using water it would have to be at a very slow rate on these newer high compression motors.

12:1 high enough?

I did this on my 427 Corvette every other oil change for 169,XXX miles and my other 7 Corvettes over the years and they all were 10:5 : 1 or better. Been doing it 59 years, never hydro locked did it on my Jeeps, my Dad's Caddies and hundreds of cars when I owned an Auto shop in Dallas.

Back in the old days when planes had gas engines, a lot of them used water injection systems to give more power and clean the engine.

They have been doing this since the 1920s.

1 other thing...I am not trying to sell you anything!

 

[failsafe306]

12:1 high enough?

I did this on my 427 Corvette every other oil change for 169,XXX miles and my other 7 Corvettes over the years and they all were 10:5 : 1 or better. Been doing it 59 years, never hydro locked did it on my Jeeps, my Dad's Caddies and hundreds of cars when I owned an Auto shop in Dallas.

Back in the old days when planes had gas engines, a lot of them used water injection systems to give more power and clean the engine.

They have been doing this since the 1920s.

1 other thing...I am not trying to sell you anything!

I’m not saying it does or does not work. I’ve never done it myself, but have only heard about it being done on old SBC motors. I also implied that, if done too fast, too much water too fast can and will destroy an engine.

 

[Old Jeeper]

I’m not saying it does or does not work. I’ve never done it myself, but have only heard about it being done on old SBC motors. I also implied that, if done too fast, too much water too fast can and will destroy an engine.

If someone is so stupid as to dump a gallon of water down the pipe, they deserve a locked engine, thus a 12 oz can and even if you dump it you still have 6 or 8 runners it needs to go down. In addition when the water hits the combustion chamber it instantly turns to steam. Hence you need to do this on a fully hot engine bay. When I did it on my engines I did a hard run out the hwy, I wanted that engine HOT! So I set up a table of a couple of cans of water in the old days I used a church key to open the can and later on they were tab tops. They don't dump water in.

Helps if you have a friend. You come in HOT and pull the air filter or the hose and have you friend rev the engine. I tell them, WATCH ME. OK REV NOW to about 3k rpm, as they do I pur and as soon as he lets off I stop.

Why I tell folks to disconnect the exhaust is because chunks of carbon will spit out and you don't want it go into your CAT. IF you can get at it drop the pipe at the exhaust manifold, and wear ear protection.

 

[unsavory]

I have tried Sea Foam and it seems to work well enough, you just want to buy and pour. There are several others that do the same thing, they have you pour it in the fuel tank and drive.

if you want a 100% solution then it's a can o water. The reason why is simply thermodynamics. ambient temp water poured as you race the engine causes and explosion (sorta) of the water. What does it do? Changes from water to steam and the internal temp in the combustion chamber can reach up to 4500 F. Everything is plated with carbon and the steam hits the carbon and it is cold thus the carbon rapidly expands and breaks off the combustion chamber walls.

I did this on all the Corvettes I owned over the years about every other oil change. Back in those days it was carbon and lead build-up. They used to put lead in gasoline.

I sold one of my Vettes withj 103k miles on it. The guy asked if it had ever had a Valve and head job, I said no, never. He did live far from and called me one Sat and asked if would come over, he a question. I did and the head off and laying a workbench. He showed to me and asked WTH do you do to have the internals so clean.

I worked as a mechanic, I owned ½ interest in a garage and our customer base was mostly older folks, last car, drive slow, no or little highway and after a while, the carbon build-up will get so bad that you lose compression, power, engine runs rough and most garages will send out the head for a valve grind and a head job which cleans with a steel rotor brush on the end of a big drill. Back then that would cost $125 for a V8 engine without AC or $150 with. We only charged that to customers that were young and had a job. The old folks got the can 0 water for $25 which included fresh spark plugs and points.

Today's modern fuels don't carbon up like they did back in the Lead days, when you had deposits of Lead & Carbon!

How does one pour water into the engine while it's running? Through the air intake? And if so, do you remove the entire intake line first?

Edit: Nevermind, you answered my question before I asked it, lol.

 

[failsafe306]

If someone is so stupid as to dump a gallon of water down the pipe, they deserve a locked engine, thus a 12 oz can and even if you dump it you still have 6 or 8 runners it needs to go down. In addition when the water hits the combustion chamber it instantly turns to steam. Hence you need to do this on a fully hot engine bay. When I did it on my engines I did a hard run out the hwy, I wanted that engine HOT! So I set up a table of a couple of cans of water in the old days I used a church key to open the can and later on they were tab tops. They don't dump water in.

Helps if you have a friend. You come in HOT and pull the air filter or the hose and have you friend rev the engine. I tell them, WATCH ME. OK REV NOW to about 3k rpm, as they do I pur and as soon as he lets off I stop.

Why I tell folks to disconnect the exhaust is because chunks of carbon will spit out and you don't want it go into your CAT. IF you can get at it drop the pipe at the exhaust manifold, and wear ear protection.

I get it man. When I read your post though, I immediately imagined some dim 20-something bro just dumping it on in there, then complaining that his engine is making funny sounds. ?

 

[Old Jeeper]

So guys do I have a problem here with the amount of carbon on the heads? (I feel like that’s gonna be a dumb question….) the air intake has carbon, the egr tube and valve were FILTHY, the valves sitting with some cleaner in it over nite.

Note the piston walls do look very clean. I put in new plugs.

Im thinking carryon with the sea foam, more frequent oil changes and add a catch can. Thinking down the road of the catalytic converter….

Thoughts? Trying to make this engine last!

Anything you can get at with a rag use a chemical to remove. Back in the Carb days, I would pull my Holley 800 CFM, double pumper off the manifold and use a spray can of Carb cleaner, bingo, carb as good as new. Those days are mostly gone. Heck, I don't even know if they sell carb cleaner anymore.

If you use SeaFoam then you need to be addicted to it. Use it regularly and often. Its not cheap, but it works and there are others that do the same, none are cheap. GM used to sell a carbon remover. It worked better than anything I have ever seen. Pour on got to lunch, come back and carbon is completely dissolved. Go to a NAPA auto parts store, a big one and see what they have on the shelf.

 

[JL.FR]

the NGK 90219 spark plug is the equivalent of the original Mopar (68292346AA) it has an iridium electrode. It is the same as Alfa Romeo Stelvio or Guilia.

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