In anycase, I got some new plugs this afternoon and put them in. The plugs were already in the motor when I dropped the motor into the engine bay. So this was the 1st time I'd messed with the plugs since the motor went in. I figured the driver's side would be the easiest since I can see every plug without much trouble. I was really not looking forward to trying to get the #4 on the passenger side. But to my surprise, the passenger's side plugs were 10x easier to get out. The #4 was nearly impossible to get to from above, however from the wheel well, a long 3/8" extension landed right on it and it was probably the easiest.
Every plug looked pretty much just alike which I guess is a good thing. But the interesting thing is on one side of each plug, looks very nice and clean. The other side though is coated with some kind of black glaze. This is what they looked like:
Notice how the particulate looks caked on, but only on 1 side. On the clean plug, notice the cupping of the ground electrode due to the wear. I didn't get a good shot of the ground electrode but they are all obviously eroded...far more eroded I'd expect for only 29kmiles. I guess that MSD box is really hard on plugs.
This doesn't look too bad to me. This is what I'd expect the plug to look like all over. But it's only on 1 side.
Notice how the platinum electrode isn't there anymore. When I installed these plugs, the center electrode was flush with the porcelain. Now there's an obvious receding of the electrode. I can't see the electrode on any of the plugs. From what I understand, the platinum electrode isn't very large.
So what can I learn about these plugs? What are they trying to tell me? Is the MSD box causing more problems than it is helping since this is only a stock motor or is the MSD box the only reason the engine ran as good as it did?
As for the loaded misfires, I didn't drive it out of the neighborhood and I couldn't really get the motor loaded since it is raining right now. I'll know more on that tomorrow.
