Spark Plug replacement

Ratistiss

Member
I was curious how often should you change the spark plug. We are not having any issues, the one in our animal motor is on 3 races and the one in our clone is on 2.
 
The animal on methanol should go much longer then a clone on gas .
If you race for points or series racing is a consideration . As is cost a concern ?
If your stretching it out keep a spare and a plug wrench handy at the grid .
 
I havent had a spark plug go bad in ages and I tend to run them until I think I have a miss or something, then its the first thing I change. More often than not its something else. I have a box thock, a clone, an alky small block open Animal, 2 Chinese open alky motors and a stock appearing so none of them gets run a whole lot. So theres that.
 
My view is that a spark plug is like a factory worker -- you replace them when they no longer do their job.
We replace them at every engine rebuild (some have been run a fulls season or more.)
Likewise, we have customers that replace them every race day.
I personally see no reason to replace a spark plug if it is sparking when it is told to.

🏁Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
33 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
a fouled plug can be cleaned and its good as new. hit it with some break/carb cleaner and wire brush that thing you will see it looks new add a little anti seize to the threads to lube it and be careful not to bugger up the alloy threads in the head. . fouled means the spark is not able to bridge the gap because of a contaminate on the metal. It's not worn out after 6 races. ac delco, ND, champion etc etc build the plugs to go a hundreds thousand miles. although they would be happy to sell you spark plugs all day long.
 
Replace it every few weekends. They last longer, but for $6, I don't want to find out where the line is with 3 to go in a feature that I'm leading.
 
Replace it every few weekends. They last longer, but for $6, I don't want to find out where the line is with 3 to go in a feature that I'm leading.
Thats what caused us to toss them after 2 or 3 weekends.
Leading the race with 2 to go, and.......@#$%^&.
I have had bad plugs right out of the package.
Like stated, plugs are a consumable in racing, we buy buches at a time, just like oil, filters etc.
 
Same here…. Our plate engines if it makes it through its race day it did its duty… in the trash and fresh one for next race day. The alky engines all depends how much idle time we had. I get NGK’s pretty cheap so I’m not risking a race over a 3 dollar plug.
 
how often do you all experience spark plug failure in your daily drivers? or your generators and lawn mowers? seems like you have bad luck in your racing engines.
 
FYI they don't make the 3910x anymore autolite stopped making the X plugs i guess you can use them till there gone
If they truly don't manufacture the Autolite 3910X spark plugs, then they will have to rewrite rules for Briggs L206 engines as that is the spark plug specified for that crate race engine package.
 
If they truly don't manufacture the Autolite 3910X spark plugs, then they will have to rewrite rules for Briggs L206 engines as that is the spark plug specified for that crate race engine package.
if you go to their website you will not find it. they make a 'racing' plug called the 3910 but it has a conventional electrode and ground. upon calling them they say it is no longer manufactured. but Jody at ARC said he had a warehouse of them.
 
how often do you all experience spark plug failure in your daily drivers? or your generators and lawn mowers? seems like you have bad luck in your racing engines.
Just before the recommended service interval. Manufacturers give suggested intervals based on best case scenario, which is why severe duty has quicker service intervals.

In an adult clone I'm not worried about fouling as much as I am the porcelain cracking. Its exposed to a very harsh environment from pulling/pushing the wire every time you hit the track, vibration, exposure in the pits, and flying rocks/dirt.
 
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