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Black Goo around base of a spark plug.


48ply1stcar
Go to solution Solved by greg g,

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Just for giggles I searched "Black Goo".  None the 16 threads mentioned black goo at the base of a spark plug.  I have been running Champion plugs for years.  The engine was rebuilt about 4 years.  Aside from the antifreeze in the well of plug number three for over a year now last week I discovered that the base of the number 4 plug was filled with black goo. Can I assume that the plug just gave up and died?  I think the antifreeze is leaking from a head bolt and I'm going to talk to the rebuilder about the recommendations I received from this group to remedy that issue.  I'm hoping that the spark plug just died and is not related to the coolant leak.

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Well.dying IS what Champion spark plugs are known for doing best.

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I run Autolite A9s in my 39 Desoto not Champions because of the bad press that they get from being of poor quality. ALso try an Autolite 306 which is a resistor plug but the gap will be around 30-35

 

Rich Hartung

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11 minutes ago, Young Ed said:

Are you talking goo on the head at the base of the plug or at the tip of the plug on the combustion side?

It was on top of the head around the base. The plug electrode still looked good.  I may have pulled it in time.

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48 minutes ago, greg g said:

Take a pic.  Maybe the plug wasn't seated all the way and carbon tinged exhaust gasses were sneaking out.

That was my thought too. I'd suggest either cleaning that plug really good or replacing and make sure it's tight. See if that fixes it. 

 

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Oh wait he said Champion.  One of their QC issues was porcelain porosity so it could be blowby between the porcelain and the metal of the plug.  Dump the Champs.  I`ve been running the same set of AC 45R gapped at .030 for 45k miles.

Edited by greg g
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You mentioned coolant in plug wells #3 & 4 & leaking head bolt.

You're almost certainly talking about bolt # 1 in the torqueing

sequence. Maybe you will get real lucky & only have to retorque

that bolt or at worst the whole head. Do you see steam coming

out of your tail pipe? That could point to a leaking head gasket

caused by head not being properly torqued 

also causing an "end of life event" for your plugs, Champion or any

other brand for that matter.

 

 

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I think it's bolt #3. I couldn't tighten it any more by hand. Temp goes above 160, uses very little coolant.  I really haven't checked for steam.  

My oil leak from July of 2020 was fixed and replaced with this coolant leak. 

Capture.PNG.41072a08d3bced0ed8e3256ce06d56ac.PNG

 

Excerpt from thread below.

2105335648_Captureb.PNG.24b94e5dfee0edf6ccb237f768fc70b4.PNG

 

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