What would you say about this plug? I’ve been reading that the red is somewhat “normal” from fuel additives…black buildup around the housing though. Is this normal, dry fouled, or what?
i’ve seen that link…but doesn’t exactly help. the ceramic area is part white…part red. black soot on the outside of the plug…not quite sure where mine fits in that gallery of photos. though it looks wet in the picture, it’s really only greasy on the threads.
i found a site that had a reference to red/pink color as normal due to fuel additives, …but there was no black residue on those images.
Still wondering if what I have is considered normal wear??
If i’m not mistaken you should check your plugs by going WOT in like 3rd gear, shut the motor off and coast to the roadside to check them. Never done it this way but I thought I read that somewhere.
There burning good with maybe a slight oil consumption. Thats what it looks like to me.
i was under the impression that you never change/check anything with the block hot…expanding/contracting threads and all.
Looks like you might have a bit leaky valve cover. For the combustion part its not too bad. Bit rich and the additives are making it red. Torco does that, ect.
rich I would believe. TRD supercharged and the Toyota reflash runs the car rich and conservative.
as far as leaky valve cover…other than smell and seeping oil (neither of which I have)…are there other symptoms?
Looks fine to me. Keep an eye on the crankcase oil volume.
I would run an AutoRX treatment through that motor.
The pink is from fuel octane boosters…
You won’t smell anything if the spark plug tubes are ingesting a bit of oil from the cover. You would see some oil in the tubes. Takes a flashlight and a few seconds with the plugs out.
After looking at it again (with a little more sleep) its probably not that. I can’t see any oil around the other parts except the threads. Probably just gunk that previous plugs pulled into the thread and got on there when the next plugs went in. No big deal.
As said before, reading a plug is only really accurate if you do a full throttle run and then immediately shut the car down and check the plug. Sometimes you’ll see drag racers shut down at the end of the run and get towed back to the pits so they can check them. Driving back to the pits will throw it off.
With that said, I still say you might want to try a plug one step colder. See where the color changes on the ground strap? You want the color change to be about halfway from the tip to the base ring. It’s a little too close to where it attaches to the base ring. This is caused by a plug being in a heat range that is “too hot”. Heat is not being transferred from the ground strap to the base ring fast enough. If the plug stays too hot it could cause preignition and possibly detonation. But from the pics it looks like neither of those are occuring at this time.
Yeah, but do you really want to remove the plugs while the motor is hot with a street motor?
Every book I’ve seen warns not to pull plugs out unless the motor was stone cold, and had sat overnight.
thats the only way to properly check plugs. although what gear to be in does not matter
:uhh: Thats ridiculous. In fact, thats retarded.
if the head is aluminum, I wouldn’t do it. I made that mistake once… bout a month later I blew a plug out of the head on NFB. I had to take apart the top end of the motor and re-tap 6 of the holes using “time-certs”.
took around a month or so from start to finish… not fun
If you have things expanding that much, you have other problems to worry about. Maybe I am lucky, but I have never had a problem getting a properly torqued spark plug out of a baking hot aluminum head before.
Ive changed tons of alum LS1 plugs, with the car on the dyno. No airflow like 30secs after WOT 5-6-850whp cars. Never a problem, welding gloves required. 
WOT…pull plug. also cutoff wheelin the thread body off is a must.
ya the color looks like torco, NOS+ junk, 104+, lucas in tank cleaner. Pull a 02 it will have the same color
If you’re worried about it you could always do a WOT pull, shut it down, wait for it to cool, then check the plug. If you’re making constant adjustments to a/f or timing this could take forever to get it dialed in. On a modern car with all sorts of electronic monitoring equipment there is easier ways to check for knock, a/f, etc…
What kind of car did these plugs come from?
well, the plug looks like its runnin overly rich. its hard to see how hot its runnin but sorta looks too hot. the browning on the porcelin almost looks like carbon melting and getting glass like or like stated before the fuel additives discoloring it. the strap is too discolored to tell you about heat range as well.
oh, and fix your oil leak. oil shouldnt be on the threads.
but in all out honesty, ive scene alot worse. those arent that bad.