Oh, my God, they caught me. I've got to get rid of my stock of proprietary
anti-freeze now!
Seriously, I recall a thread a month or so about modern plugs in some brands
no longer glazing the porcelain, thus making conductive debris buildup more
likely. I wasn't aware that the combustion chamber porcelain was ever
glazed, so this was a new thought to me, but it did sound plausible.
I don't recall every seeing a plug which was NOT glazed on the exterior
surface, nor one which WAS glazed inside the engine.
Certainly, any conductive deposit which forms a continuous path will stop a
plug from firing, whether it is inside or outside the combustion chamber.
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Hopkins" <mhoppy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 8:54 PM
Subject: IML: FW: plugs
> This is the reply I received from my 84 year old neighbor. I think he and
> Dick Benjamin are related.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Henry Phelps [mailto:hypel@xxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 9:30 PM
> To: Matt Hopkins
> Subject: plugs
>
>
> Matt, I can't believe the porcelain has gone bad. It's an impervious
> ceramic. I would look for a foreign substance shorting out the external
> porcelain. Some cases of this happened years back by shysters selling
cheap
> anti freeze which was nothing more than salt water and in a few days,
> particularlly under heavy humidity, the salt water seemed to seep through
> the cast iron engine and contaminated spark plugs, wires, distributor
caps,
> rotors and coils and even after heavy steam cleaning some of the parts
would
> have to be replaced. If the coil or distributor was involved there was no
> way you could start an engine so contaminated. Even a residue of unrinsed
> engine cleaning soaps could deliquesce (draw moisture) under high
humidity
> conditions and form an electrical path to ground on the outer porcelain of
> the spark plugs. If not this, then some other similar condition must
exist.
> The only other thing I can think of now is that glycol anti freeze leaked
> into a cylinder cavity. That would short out a plug.Go figure
>
>
> Henry.
>
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