• 2 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     WR = 2st Enduro & CR = 2st Cross

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125-200cc Cleaning fouled spark plugs?

jmetteer

jmetteer

Husqvarna
Pro Class
Has anyone had any luck cleaning fouled spark plugs? I have 7 that have less than 16 miles on them that my 125 has decided are no good.

I am tired of buying them 5 at a time and it is probably worth the time to clean them in this quantity.

What is the hot ticket?

Bead blaster?

Oven cleaner and self clean cycle?

Later,
 
I use some carb cleaner to spray it out and then blow the wetness off a bit so you dont light your hand on fire and then warm it up with a propane torch a little. Allways worked for me in a flooded no spark situation
 
if you get cuaght out in the bush use a twig make sure you clean down the sides between the insulator and the body.
 
I haven't fouled a plug in many years, but I have seen people use a bead blaster to get them really clean. Any fouled plug that I have ever cleaned with contact cleaner and the like has not lasted very long after a cleaning, before refouling.
 
Motosportz said:
Put them in a good running bike and run them til clean / usable.
Click to expand...

Tried that once, they would not start Shanes bike either. He said there was no way I fouled a plug in 2 miles, so he swapped that one into his bike and it would not start. I want to try this because I am not convinced it is fouling them, seems like it may be burning them up somehow. I am grasping at straws at this point.

Later,
 
post a picture of one fouled plug and one after a plug chop, issue must be jetting but sometimes is hard to read with unleaded petrol, i run a 15 pilot and 370 main which works well with my other mods but would probably be too lean on other bikes, reading the plug is the only way of seeing whats going on in the chamber,look at the 4 seconds flat site for some references.
 
I've cleaned and re-used them on my son's old CR80. I used a small wire wheel chucked in a hand drill then ran a small piece if emory cloth between the contact points. After that a blast of compressed air to make sure no particles from the emory cloth remain. It worked like a champ on that spark plug fouling machine :D. Hey Jake you can run autolite plugs until you sort that problem, they're only a $1.95 a piece. I ran them in my 08 Husky CR 125 for over a year. Good luck.
 
slo rider said:
I have one of these at home
http://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic-spark-plug-cleaner-32860.html
Click to expand...


So far it is not working great...

I cleaned 3 plugs, one lasted about 3 minutes the other two lasted about 30 seconds.

I am going to get some more compound from work tomorrow and see if it works better.

It would be nice if these could be used for something more than fishing weights...

522984_4523770062974_1291299797_n.jpg


Later,
 
baking soda is a great way to media blast carbon off pistons and stuff, give that a test in the blaster.
 
Weird. How do they look after cleaning? Maybe try hitting them with some carb cleaner or something before use?
 
86 400 XC said:
baking soda is a great way to media blast carbon off pistons and stuff, give that a test in the blaster.
Click to expand...

I will give that a try.

slo rider said:
Weird. How do they look after cleaning? Maybe try hitting them with some carb cleaner or something before use?
Click to expand...

Thet looked pretty good, not new but the white came back on the center electrode.

I soaked them in brake cleaner overnight before putting them in the spark plug cleaner, then cleaned them off with PJ1 Super cleaner and compressed air after they came out of the spark plug blaster.

Later,
 
When a plug fuel fouls the spark path goes down the porcelain and burns carbon on and in the surface. Each time it does this it makes the path easier to follow so under a load it is more likely to follow the carbon trail than jump the gap and ignite the air fuel mixture. This also is true when a plug boot or connection at the coil gets wet and the engine misfires by arcing inside the boot and down the outside of the plug to ground. You can try but you can never get it completely clean which is why it will foul again in a lot less time. If the plug and insulated boot has carbon tracked you must replace both at the same time or the spark will follow the track in the part you did not replace and ruin the new part in short notice. You can successfully clean a plug that has bridged the gap with crusted oil but other than that you are wasting your time IMO. If it gets you out of the woods then go for it. A plug can miss-fire about 5% of the time and you will not notice but it would show up on a dyno or an ET slip if you were drag racing. Here is the real gem, your plug is fouling by simply sitting out in your garage with fuel vapor on it from the last ride. Just by sitting around fuel will compromise the plug but if you start it correctly and once warmed up clean out the engine by a hard pull in high gear it will help get the most out of a plug. This is so so critical that we used to have a set of plugs for our drag car we used only to cold start the car and unload it off the trailer then once warmed up we would change to a new set of plugs. This would make a measurable difference of about .05 sec. sometimes more if the engine got loaded up with fuel and blubbered when cold. These are reasons why all plugs will eventually succumb to fouling, every cold start combined with sitting in the garage or stalling it when cold takes it's toll. So what of this long winded explanation... IMO save money you were going to spend on the fancy plug cleaning machine and buy an extra box or two of spark plugs.
 
lankydoug said:
When a plug fuel fouls the spark path goes down the porcelain and burns carbon on and in the surface. Each time it does this it makes the path easier to follow so under a load it is more likely to follow the carbon trail than jump the gap and ignite the air fuel mixture. This also is true when a plug boot or connection at the coil gets wet and the engine misfires by arcing inside the boot and down the outside of the plug to ground. You can try but you can never get it completely clean which is why it will foul again in a lot less time. If the plug and insulated boot has carbon tracked you must replace both at the same time or the spark will follow the track in the part you did not replace and ruin the new part in short notice. You can successfully clean a plug that has bridged the gap with crusted oil but other than that you are wasting your time IMO. If it gets you out of the woods then go for it. A plug can miss-fire about 5% of the time and you will not notice but it would show up on a dyno or an ET slip if you were drag racing. Here is the real gem, your plug is fouling by simply sitting out in your garage with fuel vapor on it from the last ride. Just by sitting around fuel will compromise the plug but if you start it correctly and once warmed up clean out the engine by a hard pull in high gear it will help get the most out of a plug. This is so so critical that we used to have a set of plugs for our drag car we used only to cold start the car and unload it off the trailer then once warmed up we would change to a new set of plugs. This would make a measurable difference of about .05 sec. sometimes more if the engine got loaded up with fuel and blubbered when cold. These are reasons why all plugs will eventually succumb to fouling, every cold start combined with sitting in the garage or stalling it when cold takes it's toll. So what of this long winded explanation... IMO save money you were going to spend on the fancy plug cleaning machine and buy an extra box or two of spark plugs.
Click to expand...


great info. I always figured something was up more than just a dirty plug as you can never seen to get a fouled plug to work right again.
 
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