How do these plugs look? They're about 2 years old, maybe 20k miles or so on them. I'm trying to figure out why I'm getting alot of soot (and sometimes liquid) in the exhaust.

 

I'm no expert but they look pretty good.

 

Look good except the 4 on the right the head connectors do not match the body. Maybe photo angle? Plug wires good? Good Luck!

 

Do you mean the white stuff on the tip (top of the photo)? I think that's just from the stuff you put in the wire boot before putting it on the plug. The four plugs on the right did come from the left bank, but I probably just rubbed the stuff off of the other ones while spinning them out with my left hand.

Plug wires seemed ok, but I'm putting new Taylor wires on. So what can cause a bunch of soot to come out of the exhaust?

 

Black smoke is running rich. Liquid? Condensation may be coming out of the pipes in the morning.

 

That's what I dont understand. If the plugs dont look rich, why am I getting so much soot and a strong gas smell? It actually was a really humid day last time I saw liquid, so it could have been condensation.

What does incomplete combustion or a weak ignition system look like?

 

Looking at the plugs and reading your fault topic, it appears problem at Idle or startup and clears or burns off under power. A suggestion appearing odd, change fuel filter(in line). Follow up on cold start procedures if necessary. Others may offer
additional suggestions. Good Luck!

 

Those plugs look like they've seen there last days to me

 

Could you please elaborate? What looks bad about them? They still have the proper gap, dont look fouled, no chips. I'm not being sarcastic or anything, I'm really trying to figure out what's going on.

 

Look at the elctrods. They are pretty rounded out and they should be square. Now after some usage they will become rounded out a little but those look like there pretty old and quit a bit rounded

 

2nd from the right seems awful dark compared to the rest.

 

we did a carb swap on friends 73 vette last summer. The car was running relatively bad. It was popping and black stuff was coming out the tail pipes.

We changed the carb figuring it was at the end of its lifetime whether or not that was the problem. It ran a little better but soot was still there.

We also noticed that smoke from right tailpipe was much darker than from the left one. Later on he took it to a real mechanic and they found that intake seal was bad under the right head and it was leaking coolant into the cylinders on that side. The car also had slight gas smell apparently because we didn't adjust the carb right.

You could try pressure testing the cooling system just to be safe.

 

This is easy...

They

look

two

years

old.

You can't read two year old plugs. It's like sticking your finger up your *** to determine what you ate for dinner on10/10/2002. Doesn't work like that, install new plugs, run it or drive it, whatever you are diagnosing for and then pull those plugs and read them. You are wasting your time fiddling with the two year old turds.

 

bomber has a good point


... so what about last nights dinner?

 

Know what's bad? I can remember what I had for dinner 10/10/02...man, I've got issues.

 

Fixed it for ya thief! Though his point is correct.

 

ok, interesting analogy

I just did all the standard tune up stuff (including plugs obviously). How far should I go before I check the new ones? I can get to #1 from the top so I can easily pull that one to get a general idea.