Would cleaning the spark plugs help?

Answer 1

This questions answer is debatable, but I'll give my two cents: It depends on your allowable time and money. There was a time around 30 years ago, when it was very common to see "Champion" brand Spark-plug Cleaning Machines in many shops. Those used compressed air to project a granular abrasive (sometimes common sand) against the underside of the spark-plug, so that all the carbon deposits that fouled the insulator sleeve or nose surrounding the central electrode could be removed. Then, it was a matter of slightly opening the ground electrode in order to have enough space to file the end of the central electrode flat, creating a sharp edge, and then bending back the ground electrode to perform the re-gapping to specification, and finally "testing" the cleaned plug with high voltage to check if the cleaning was successful. The complete procedure took around 10 to 12 minutes per plug, saving the price of a new one...

But it required a careful person, because it was possible to leave some hard abrasive or sand particles inside the plug, which would fall inside the cylinder, and if the central electrode was NOT filed square, the sand blast would round it even more than it was after being used for many miles, so that the "cleaned" but not filed plug would require MORE voltage to fire than before cleaning!

I would say that with present day standard plug prices, it is more practical to simply buy a new set of plugs instead of cleaning a used one. BUT... I also see ALL the time, that new plugs come from the factory with too widely varying gap openings, and with ground electrodes badly shaped, so that one still has to carefully check and CORRECT the sloppy factory made product! Only a few or the "new" spark plugs come correctly gapped and with the ground electrode correctly aligned and bent. It only takes a distracted or bored mechanic to install plugs with incorrect gaps or misaligned ground electrodes and the tune up is thrashed. I would do it myself only if it saved me from having to go to the parts store, otherwise I would get a new set; but a session with a magnifying glass and small tweezers still will take me about 5 minutes per plug to assure all of the set have exactly the same, proper gap and that the ground electrodes are perfectly aligned. I use two gap setting tools: a Champion "coin" type (which has a wedge around it) to quickly see how close or how bad the gap is, and a wire type one to set the gap precisely. But most importantly, I take the time and effort to care my car engine, and the money saved from avoiding paying for a tune-up mechanic has amounted a considerable sum. Amclaussen.