What's this spark plug telling me?

I've been troubleshooting rough idle, sluggishness, etc. Finally got around to pulling a spark plug.... I suck at reading them even with the handy charts. I can see this isn't good. Would someone please tell me what's up with it? I only changed them a couple of months ago & they looked ok then.... I only pulled the one so far.

 

Pull each one and label them.

You can see the difference in how each cylinder is doing; better yet, compression test.

Are you getting any pinging/knock/misfires?

Pulling spark plugs can say one thing, but everything else mentioned above can say so much more.

 

Looks like you're running a little rich to me.

 

I had some rough idle and sluggishness issues before and I thought It was my spark plugs too, so I swapped them out. It helped a little but after some searching around, I decided to clean my throttle body and boy, did it make a difference.

 

Go figure. I see super lean.

like melting things lean. I am wodering if you hear pinging?

 

Exhaust valves don't like white spark plugs

 

You do not say how many miles are on the engine. Looking at your pictures of The spark plug, it looks like there is oil on the compression washer. Is there oil down in the spark plug tubes? If so, clean out all the oil from the tubes, spark plug wires and coil spark plug wires. Replace the valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube seals. This will stop the oil from going down to the spark plugs. As far as the spark plug goes, it looks ok to me. Maybe running a little lean. The center porcelain looks very clean in the picture. Are you losing a little coolant over time, possibly burning it in the combustion chamber? Does it run rough cold and get better when it warms up leading to a gasket leak that seals up when the engine gets hot? These are a few things to check.

 

Ground strap .... not enough ignition timing , plugs to hot or lean a/f mixture

Porcelain .... lean fuel mixture

Fire ring .... excessive idling

 

This is 1, 3, 5 respectively.
Yes to the rough when cold & a little better when warmed up, however still lacking pep when at op temps.
I am not sure what pinging would sound like, however I did start hearing a slight rattle that was driving me nuts & with the aid of the handy stethoscope was able to narrow it down to the vicinity of the number one cylinder.

I wasn't necessarily thinking the plugs were the culprit so much as they would give some clues. I did clean the throttle body not long ago. I couldn't get the durned screws out of the IAC & finally managed to yesterday. It was pretty bad. Cleaned that up. I haven't had a chance yet to start the truck due to, well, the intake being removed.

I did the valve cover gaskets a couple? few? years ago. Would 30,000-ish be typical for replacement? I guess I've been into this long enough now where I need to start paying attention to maintenance intervals beyond things like oil & plugs....

 

yeah, the electrodes look that way, the threads look oily.. I was torn what to put.. 50/50 shot lol

 

So I am clear on this, I should not smell gas on a plug boot, correct?

 

They actually look pretty good, nothing to indicate a 'real' issue.

 

No you should not smell gas on your spark plug boot. Looking at your latest picture of the three spark plugs, it looks like cylinder three spark plug is the only one that has the compression washer crushed. Cylinder one spark plug looks partially crushed and cylinder five doesn’t look like it is crushed at all. You said the intake manifold is off. Make sure you replace any gaskets on components that are removed. Do not rely on old gaskets to seal everything tight. I would remove all six spark plugs and do a compression test. The Internet has a lot of good sites to see how to do it properly. Also with the intake manifold off, it would be a good time to replace your valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals inside of the valve covers. You don’t say if the seals were replaced 30,000 miles ago along with the valve cover gaskets. When you reinstall the spark plugs make sure they are torqued properly to crush the sealing washer. Look at the lower intake manifold where it meets the cylinder heads and see if you see any traces of a coolant leak. If you do that would be a good time to replace those gaskets. Again the Internet should have a step by step guide on how to replace them. Start with these items first and see how it runs. If you still have an issue continue on but don’t try too many things at once.

 

Funny, 5 was the one with the most resistance.
I couldn’t say for sure all that I replaced. It was one of my first more involved jobs & it sort of a blur.
I followed a vid, I believe Tim’s (timmah).
Oh, & sorry for not answering your previous. I have 240,000 or so. No loss of coolant.
I don’t have oil down the holes, as in moisture. & by that I mean there is a little black residue.
I pulled the number 2 boot & it smells like fuel.
& I may have misspoke. I don’t have the manifold off. I have the intake hose/tube off. I was trying the IAC again. & replacing the power steering pump.
So I get doing the valve cover gaskets for oil leaks. But fuel is a different story, correct? That would be the compression test, correct?

 

My posts are all funky on my phone. They’re all doing this.

 

April fools TW joke by moderators

 

Ha-ha! I might have caught on had I seen this on the computer as well. My phone is in rough shape (one to may drops), so I got a little worried. Not so funny....

 

Doing a compression test is going to give you some idea on how you engine is And able to combust the gas vapors. If you have a loose spark plug (not tightened down all the way and sealing in the cylinder head) you may smell fuel that is Being pushed out of the cylinder and up the threads. If the threads are tight and hard to tighten the spark plug, they do make spark plug hole thread chasers (a tool) to clean them up. They are not a tap to cut new threads but they clean up threads already there. If this needs to be done, research the proper way to do it as to not get debris in the cylinder. As for the residue, there should not be any oil residue in the tubes or in any liquid form. If it is dirt, blow out the tube with compressed air before removing spark plugs.

 

Ok. So since I have these plugs, air box, etc. already removed I can't warm up the engine prior to doing a compression. test. Is that going to be ok? I will put the plugs back in & blow out with air before proceeding. Also, double checking that I should be removing the EFI relay. The ignition is already disengaged.

 

A leaky valve cover gasket could allow oil to seep down on the spark plugs which may cause the issues you are experiencing. If you have the valve cover off, look for oil stains in places where the gasket should prevent oil seepage. I would also take a magnet to the debris on the plugs to see if any of it is metallic; unless it's obvious to you it's carbon (hard to tell from the pictures).