Old spark plugs

[EventH]

Came off a nissan sunny FL

 

w/ a little bit of WD40 action.

 

I wonder whether they can be re-used, say replacing your expensive iridiums b4 sending in to dealer/scrap.

 

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[Seaweed]

looks fine externally..

[Chucky2007]

if you have used WD40 to clean it up, my advice would be DO NOT put it back and use, throw them away.

 

next time if you wanna clean the soot and carbon off a sparkplug and intend to reuse, use petrol to soak and a soft brush to clean it.

[EventH]

is it because the wd40 will contaminate the engine?

[Octopus]

[reply]

if you have used WD40 to clean it up, my advice would be DO NOT put it back and use, throw them away.

 

next time if you wanna clean the soot and carbon off a sparkplug and intend to reuse, use petrol to soak and a soft brush to clean it.

Why not?

[Chucky2007]

WD40 leaves a residue on yr sparkplug (that's what WD40 are for. WD40 are primarily used for lubrication, and prevent rust). so u may not see it but it's there.

 

i am not sure if WD40 will contaminate the engine but i would not wanna have any type of chemical mixture inside my car combustion chamber other than air and petrol.

 

in another forum, a guy's van's old van's engine was damaged when he used WD40 to clean up the sparkplug then reuse them. We had this discussion about reusing old spark plug and the general advice was to use water+brush, or petrol+brush.

 

i would not wanna try using WD40.. life is more importtant.

Edited July 2, 2007 by Chucky2007

[Chucky2007]

u dare try using WD40 on yr combustion chamber?

[Seaweed]

the car is on its way to the dealer/scrap yard

[Thestig]

Use a non-residue contact cleaner instead of WD40, WD40 leaves a residue, its true, but I believe that you can follow up with a contact cleaner and you should be able to use it to drive the veh to the dealers.

[Chucky2007]

ok get what u mean.. but if car is on the way to scrapyard, might as well not clean up the old sparkplug in the 1st place? before changing to the iridium plugs, keep the old plugs for future use, dun throw them away.

 

what if half way thru when driving to scrapyard or to dealer's place, car combustion chamber got problem? minimize risk lah..

[Pisces69]

But won't any residue of the WD-40 b burned off after a few seconds in the hot combustion chamber once u start the engine?

[Seaweed]

yup...best choice is not to clean up and just plug it in...that's it...if it works..then just drive it to the dealer/scrap yard...done

[Yeobh]

Try dry the plugs with a hot air blower or under the sun - should be safe to use so long as the WD40 is no dripping.

[Yeobh]

I believe WD40 presence in the form of liquid or vapour in the combustion chambers will cause a second explosion as they are burnt very much high temp than petrol. The sudden second explosion ( intense shock)during power stroke can be damaging to the crankshaft bearings

[Tigershark1976]

u can actually refurbish ur sparkplug by cleaning it with petrol + brush, follow by re-gappingthe sparkplug. It will not be as good as new set of spark plug but very close... if u know how to do it correctly. By doing this, it can save a few bucks and most importantly, save the environment.... A set of sparkplug can last for around 60K to 80K km by performing such cleaning and re-gapping process...

[Yeobh]

Yes I am old hand in this type of business, use to market and sell alot of Champion and Japanese spark plug cleaner and testers to surrounding countries. Many buyers used them to recond used expensive spark plugs in the 80's. Such machine are still being used in Military Org and Light aircraft service industry.

[EventH]

Will "re-soaking" these plugs in petrol help to displace the WD40?

 

Anyway these cheap copper plug were not worth the effort in reusing them.Actually I was trying out to see whether it is possible to alternate between 2 sets of plug every 5-10k, keeping the plugs clean in the process. Is there actually a shelf life for spark plugs? It seems like a waste to retire the expensive iridium/platinum plugs every 30k. (I know they are supposed to last at least 50k, but.......)

Edited July 2, 2007 by EventH

[Octopus]

u dare try using WD40 on yr combustion chamber?

 

I believe you're exaggerating, just cleaning the spark plug with WD40 and later wipe it clean will have no significant effect on the combustion chamber, unless you spray alot of WD40 directly into the combustion chamber.