Spark plugs - not what I expected.

[Ralph]

These plugs have been in the car for about a year and a half with a couple hundred miles on them. Previous plugs were worse.

71 challenger 383 stock rebuild by previous owner with 5,500 miles on the engine.

Quick fuel 650 mech carb, 4 speed car.

Doesn't smoke, no smells. Passenger side worse than drivers side. See # 2 spark plug photo and then plugs 4,6,8 a little worse. Car has alot of leaks fixing them one by one.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[fasjac]

There’s a few sites out there that go into depth on plugs. Here’s an example. Hope it helps.

 

[Ralph]

thanks will start looking into this to diagnose the problem

 

[70chall440]

Based on the pic, I would say slightly rich with perhaps a little blow by (or a valve cover is leaking oil down onto the plug)

 

[Ralph]

What does blow by mean ?

Thanks

 

[Chryco Psycho]

Well first question is what happened just before yopu pulled the plugs , was it run for a good distance or was it just started & running with the choke on ? , plug color is best determined after running 10 -15 mins on the highway , shut it down coasting to a stop & then read the plugs .
To me they don't look bad , as above slightly rich but if the engine was just idling before the shut down it could be just a tweak of the mixture screws .
Blow by is oil so the rings may not have fully seated if it is only 5000 miles on it or you are pulling excessive fumes through the PCV especially if there is no baffle under the PCV valve in the valve cover

 

[Ralph]

Got it, was cold when checked. PVC is baffled.
Will tweak the mixture screws a bit.
Thanks to all.

 

[moparleo]

The short answer is to drive the car for farther distance giving the car enough time to warm up properly and self clean the plugs. Not complicated. These cars are not driven enough, they were designed to be driven 10k + miles plus per year.

 

[Ralph]

thanks for the comments

 

[i_taz]

Per your previous post on your leaking intake bolt, you might as well take the intake off and see what's going on with all your bolts.... i had oil all ovr my head runners, plugs and valves.

The oil wicked it's way up all 8 bolts and dissolved the RTV that was used around the ports.
Mind you, when you torque the intake down the thickness of the rtv can be measured in microns.
You shouldn't have to seal the valley pan to the heads but the bolts definitely need to be...

 

[Ralph]

Thanks for the input. Makes sense to me.

I think the Edelbrock intake I have is aluminum do I need the 4 gasket and valley pan setup.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

IF you decide to pull the intake install a Fel Pro 1215 gasket & block the heat crossover ports too .
I would use 2 paper gaskets under the pan only

 

[Ralph]

When the car sits overnight the antifreeze is green but when hot it looks orange or brown.
Does that mean rust in the system or air or oil in the system - no visible smoke from exhaust.

Planning on pilling the intake based on i_taz recommendation anyway.

 

[fasjac]

That doesn’t sound good. How’s the dip stick look?

 

[fasjac]

And is an automatic trans? Check that fluid as well if so.

 

[Ralph]

Dipstick is good. No sludge and the oil was changed a month ago and did not notice anything odd. Its still clean and its been started up 3 to 4 times since changing. Its a 4 speed car.
Best I can tell its rust since maybe the rust settles to the bottom of radiator when it sits.

 

[fasjac]

Well...definitely needs the cooling system flushed if you’re seeing all that rusty looking coolant. Be sure and get the heater core good as well. May take more than one flush too. JMO
Let us know.