spark plug cleaner at Harbor Freight

[eyhonda]

If anyone doesn't have one yet to clean their plugs, they are on sale at HF for only $10! It even has the abrasive media included.

http://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic- ... 32860.html

Eric

[brewsky]

Looks like a deal. Says they are on back order.

[eyhonda]

That's the online store. My local store has 12 in stock. Heck, it's about the same cost as a set of plugs!

[FAST FRED]

Eric, when I was a younger man I worked my way thru high school at a union 76 gas station we had a spark plug cleaner like this one and it did clean the plugs really well. Years later I learned a few things about plugs that made me think this is not a good way to clean plugs. If you look at a new plug you will see that all the edges of the electrodes are sharp and square, next look at a plug that has been cleaned with one of these sand blaster plug cleaners and you will see that the edges of the electrodes are now smooth and rounded. when the electrodes are like this it takes a lot more electric current to get the plug to spark. what the plug cleaner is doing is not only cleaning the plug but also wearing it out.
Fast Fred

[eyhonda]

Is the media that hard? Can I use a softer media (glass or ?).

Ok, then, what is the best way to clean fouled plugs? I have a small nail file I cut down for clean the points. Will that do? Can I just clean the two surfaces between the electrodes or do I have to clean all of the surfaces?

I'm thinking the spark only happens between the two parallel surfaces. Is that true?

Eric

[Spargett]

Some carb cleaner and a brass brush works just fine for me.

[brewsky]

Some carb cleaner and a brass brush works just fine for me.

That's what I've been doing, but I think I'm going to try soda blasting them and see what happens.