i have a ton of other data to go with these but i will put it together later tonight. just wondering what yall think about these..

 

what is causing the black buildup?

 

Oil.

Does it ping?

 

well by black build up i was refering to the carbon like stuff on the yellow exterior part of the plug (whatever its called). think thats caused by oil too?

and i get very little spark nock.. a WOT run i usualy get about 3-4 counts with a couple degrees of retard. but i do run pretty lean. BLMS like to stay at 160 most of the time. i need to get together alot of my data and post it here. i am going to try to do it tonight..

 

That buildup on the insulator is from gasses escaping past the seal where the ceramic goes to steel in the plug. Many plugs seem to leak a small amount there.

I had trouble with a set of AC's in a ford 4.6. The plugs are way down in a hole and the wire boot seals the hole up. Going up a hill enough gas would escape past the insulator it would blow the plug wires off!!. You could hear a loud pop then a cylinder would drop.. Would actually drop up to 4 cylinders on long hills.

Must be normal though because the plug wire company has now put a vent hole in their boots on that application.

 

The buildup on the electrode is from burning oil. It looks like some of those plugs got pretty hot.

 

i wanna agree with chevymad.. because it doesn't seem like its oil. plus its on the outside on the ceramic. i donn't have any external oil leaks..

 

they're oil fouled(oil on threads). the red coating is from fuel additives. i'd say the plugs with carbon on the insulator weren't torqued properly because you can also see scorch marks above the motor seat, meaning you had gases blowing on the outside of the shell and not through the internal seal.

 

Bingo,
IMO too much heat in the plug and too much slop in your valve guides.

I would put some new positive type seals on the valves and run a cooler plug.

 

could also be his piston rings. does the car smoke at all? if it does, is it only when you first start it? all the time? only when you hit the gas?

 

Is it me or does it seem that the two on the left in the top pic have some serious blister going on? I think it's a combo of oil fouling and overheating. A decent site to visit for some quickie pic references is:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/plugs.html

 

Are they in the order they were on your car? And is it just 1 side or all 8 cyclinders?

 

that is the drivers side. 1357

 

Its most likely just the plugs. After getting hot and cold etc the ceramic losens up from the metal allowing the carbon to blow by. Also if your running more compression they run a better chance of blowing the carbon and exhaust by. And im not sure but performance plugs dont seem to last as long. How old are they? If you take them in and out alot check the head seat to make sure it is free of grime ect. It can sometimes build up which causes the plug a bad seat. You can also put a small amount of silicone(copper) on the threads before you put the new ones in. They also look like they have been hot. I am sure your careful on how lean you go, I know its more power. I am going to disagree with some of the others IMO there would be alot more build up on the tip of the plugs if it was oil. Just been my experience.

 

yeah but you can see oil on the threads and the deposits are consistent with oil fouling. they do also look a tad hot, may want to go one heat range colder

 

When the rings are shot the combustion temps drop and you don't get the signs of heat like those plugs have.
It's probably not a serious problem, just needs good seals IMO.