1995 SeaRay with 4.3L - First time look at plugs!

[stephenson]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share recent experience.

I am always a maintenance first kind of guy, but knowing my boat was only used on a lake, I decided to ignore the ignition system ... perfect running, always ... never a hiccup. But, I figured - after 21 years, why not pull a plug and see what it looks like.

So, was winterizing last weekend and pulled one ...photo attached.

I was kinda surprised, but with only unleaded fuel used perhaps this is what most plugs will look like well past their normal life ... measured at 0.040" ... no pitting, burning, hot spots ... it looks like fuel is a bit rich, but is carbureted so is reasonable.

 

[harleyman1975]

WOW!

 

[alldodge]

IMO plugs in a motor which is running correctly will never need to be changed, "unless" something happens to cause an issue. Bought my Rinker new, and changed the plugs for the first time a couple years ago along with cap and rotor. The cap showed the most wear but it didn't need replacing, and plugs looked great. These were also the original Champion plugs.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Looks fine to me, the electrode is still nice, 'n square,....

Put it back in, 'n run 'em another 10 years,....

 

[Rick Stephens]

put em back in after clean and gap.

 

[SeaDooSam]

How many hours did you run a seaso?

 

[Silvertip]

For proper reading, run the engine wide open (on the water of course) for a mile and then stop. Immediately pull a plug and check it. It should be a very nice clean tan color. The plug you show looks like it was removed after prolonged idling, perhaps with a malfunctioning choke, or improperly set idle mixture screws. For high speed operation that is NOT a normal plug and installing new ones does not fix the issue as it would look the same in a short time under the same conditions.

 

[Lou C]

That looks good!
Here in the salt pond we pull em out just to make sure the salt air does not rust em in place.

 

[Oshkosh1]

I bought my Celebrity(engine is my profile pic) with 350 hrs on it. When I was cleaning it up and checking things over I noticed that the cap, rotor, wires and plugs are all still factory installed. The plugs (AC's) still have a dot on them and all basically looked like yours...just a bit lighter. Checked one from each bank, they were still "new"(electrode square and very little gap erosion)so back in they went. I'd already bought a new cap and rotor but the originals still looked so good I simply cleaned up the contact points and re installed them.

Plugs are needlessly replaced way too often. You can do wonders with a points file and spark plug tool. A Dremel to clean them up if they're dirty and they'll work just fine.

Nothing wrong with those plugs...they'll run for another 500 hrs without needing to be checked.