Your Spark Plug Can Tell You A Lot About Your Engine


For those car tuning enthusiasts that are trying to diagnose an engine problem, one tell tale sign is the spark plugs.  A spark plug, while a relatively inexpensive item compared to the rest of your engine is absolutely essential firing up the mixture of gas and air.  What most car tuning enthusiasts overlook the plugs, they can be a great way to diagnose a problem with your engine.  Here are some tips.

Looking at Your Spark Plugs

If you are having some difficulties with your engine, one of the things you should look at are your spark plugs.  Here are some tell tale signs and what they mean:

Obviously, you know what a normal spark plug should look like, if not have a new one handy to compare against.  One of things you should look at is the color of the head.  If the head is red-almost a rust color it probably has to do with a fuel additive.  If you are adding some kind of product like STP fuel additive to your vehicle, nothing to worry about, however if your spark plug is red in color and you are using regular fuel, you may want to buy your fuel from a different gas station.

Spark Plug

If your plug head has fuel all over the top, this probably means that your vehicle is burning an overly rich mixture of fuel.  You may need to set the choke.  Another type of problem is that your spark plug head has oil all over it- obviously an oil problem, check the rest of the engine for poor oil control.

If your plug simply looks worn out, there is probably nothing wrong with your engine and your car simply needs some fresh plugs.  Keep in mind your spark plugs say a lot about your engine and examining them is a great way to diagnose a problem.

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  1. […] you think that you can get at the spark plugs without harming your car, assemble the necessary […]

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