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fouling spark plugs gone through 4 sets of plugs this year

adamforsythe

adamforsythe

1/2 ton status
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Hello,
What could be causing me to foul all of my plugs up in a matter of a few days. My carb is preatty leaned out right now. So it's not because i'm dumping to much fuel into the system. But yet again I can spell a good amount of gas fumes coming out of the tail pipe.
Tell me what I should do.
Thanks
Adam
 
Waht kind of carb? If you have a holley could be bad power valve.
Are the floats adjusted properly? or maby saturated?
If Q-jet maby the bowl plugs are leaking. Is it hard to start after sitting awhile?

As said above Hotter plug? What spark plugs are you running?
 
Hello,
I was thinking about that. I replaced the carb. (FREE Bran new out of the box 600cfm edelbrock carb.)
It helped a little but I'm still fouling my plugs up. I'm going to replace the wires and get a hotter plug to run with the motor. If that does not help I will be replacing the dizzy. It is 21 years old.
Thanks
Adam

jms said:
If it's not too much fuel, it's probably not enough spark...time to check the ignition system. If you think dizzy/coil/wires are in good shape, how about using a hotter spark plug?
Click to expand...
 
By the way the truck will run strong for 30 min to 1 hour then it will start dropping cylinders.:mad:
 
On the old carb I use the air/fuel mix screws. I have not touched the screws on this new carb. I have olnly adjusted the idel.
Thanks
Adam
4xcrazy said:
i am just curious,,,how did you adjust to lean the carb out?
Click to expand...
 
Well yeah i understand you would use the air/fuel mixture screws, which way did you turn them, in or out?
 
I believe it was in. Clockwise.

4xcrazy said:
Well yeah i understand you would use the air/fuel mixture screws, which way did you turn them, in or out?
Click to expand...
 
hmm, may want to double check with this adjustment, i am NOT a carb guy, hate them, i have had some in the past, and have always been told that adjusting the screw IN, is actually giving it MORE fuel, ,,,,the screws are actually air metering rods, adjusting the amount of air going past them, your fuel is metered with the rods inside the carb...

Turning them in, is actually giving it MORE fuel, with less air..

not really MORE fuel, but less air, which in turn seems like more fuel....weird
 
4xcrazy said:
hmm, may want to double check with this adjustment, i am NOT a carb guy, hate them, i have had some in the past, and have always been told that adjusting the screw IN, is actually giving it MORE fuel, ,,,,the screws are actually air metering rods, adjusting the amount of air going past them, your fuel is metered with the rods inside the carb...

Turning them in, is actually giving it MORE fuel, with less air..

not really MORE fuel, but less air, which in turn seems like more fuel....weird
Click to expand...
Are you 100% sure? I'm going to talk to a mechanic on monday and call edelbrock about the problem. See what they say.
Thanks
Adam
 
adamforsythe said:
Are you 100% sure? I'm going to talk to a mechanic on monday and call edelbrock about the problem. See what they say.
Thanks
Adam
Click to expand...

that's why i say double check, i never really got into the carbs all that much when i was younger, didn't have the car very long honestly before it was traded off for TPI INJECTION BABY!!!

i miss that car:(

then it had been some sort of fuel injection since then,,,,as i mention i do still have a couple of carb'd cars here, and i really hate dealing with them, but this is what i have been told, and shown....
 
What gets me is the engine was running great then just starting fouling up plugs. I don't get it. This is a new carb right out of the box. I don't think I should have to adjust the air/fuel mix screwes. But I don't know for sure.

4xcrazy said:
that's why i say double check, i never really got into the carbs all that much when i was younger, didn't have the car very long honestly before it was traded off for TPI INJECTION BABY!!!

i miss that car:(

then it had been some sort of fuel injection since then,,,,as i mention i do still have a couple of carb'd cars here, and i really hate dealing with them, but this is what i have been told, and shown....
Click to expand...
 
you will always have to adjust some,,,,all motors are not the same, altitudes, air temps, mileage all affect it.

What i have been doing with mine, is adjust the screw in and out with the motor running, with a vacuum gauge, watching it while i am ajusting each one, listen to the way the engine is running, when the motor starts to change like idle down, i would stop, and go back the other direction about a half turn,,,,,,do this with both screws, then adjust your idle screw for the right idle speed......kind of a back and forth situation...

I primarily start with running the screws IN while the motor is running, when the motor starts to idle down, back the screws out that half turn, or so till you get a nice "sound" idle....:crazy: :o
 
4xcrazy said:
hmm, may want to double check with this adjustment, i am NOT a carb guy, hate them, i have had some in the past, and have always been told that adjusting the screw IN, is actually giving it MORE fuel, ,,,,the screws are actually air metering rods, adjusting the amount of air going past them, your fuel is metered with the rods inside the carb...

Turning them in, is actually giving it MORE fuel, with less air..

not really MORE fuel, but less air, which in turn seems like more fuel....weird
Click to expand...


I need to clear this up. The mixture adjusting screws are FUEL metering NOT AIR.
Screwing them in leans. Out for rich. The only adjustment for air at idle is done with the idle adjustment screw on the throttle plate stop. At idle there is not enough air flow to pull fuel thru the main jets. So carbs have a idle circuit that flows fuel thru a tiny hole below the throttle plates. This fuel flow is controlled by turning the screws in and out.
Here is a good read for basic carb adjustment:http://www.recarbco.com/technical/idle/idle_adjust.html

Adam. Edelbrock carbs don't have exactly the best quality control. They do not come properly adjusted from the factory. You need to do that. Also It is not uncommon for them to have metal filings in them from production. These filings can cause the metering rods to stick open or the floats to stick causing a rich mixture. This happed to a guy on a trail run I went on a while back. He had just put a new Edelbrock carb on. Jeep ran fine till about half way thru the run. He started running real rich missing excessive fuel ect.. We tore the carb apart and it had a bunch of filings from production in it. Cleaned it out and it ran fine.
One other thing to check is the distributor module and pick up coil. Running fine until the engine gets hot then missing is a classic sign of a bad module or pick up coil. Excessive missing will also foul plugs.
 
Well thanks for clearing that up, as i mentioned i was not 100% positive anyways, this is just something that several people and mechanics have told me in the past, guess they were all wrong:crazy: :p:

Thanks for quoting me BTW:crazy:
 
Thank you everyone. I all ready knew that if you turned the screws in it would lean it out. I found that my choke was not getting any kind of juice. So I traced it back and found a faulty connection. Plus wheh I had my timing gun on the number 1 wire I found that the wire was bad so I check all of them. Most of them are faulty when you get closer to the spark plugs. I bet Heat from my headers did them in. I have to order new wires. Should I just stick with 8MM or go a little bigger? Trust me I found out that my dizzy was in good working order today. A nice strong blue spark bit my finger enough to make a indent about 3/8" long. So I think it's ok. hahah
Thanks
Adam
 
i was feeling you had a spark problem if you could smell fuel at the tailpipe and you had the carb leaned out. check your spark plug gap, replace the wires like you said, but also look into some sort of heat sheilding to protect them from the headers or youre gonna be replacing them on a regular basis. a higher power coil is a cheap upgrade that will make a difference. aftermarket ignition isnt a bad idea. my brother just put an edelbrock carb on his bronco, and setting it up wasnt all that hard. but we definatly had to adjust it out of the box. personally id like to run a Qjet but thats just my preference.
 
Hello,
Right now I am running a accel super coil with stock Napa wires (That are to short. I'm ordering bulk wire off from summit to make my own wires). I have the wires (most of them) running from the dizzy into a pair of these http://store.summitracing.com/partd...862572+4294810242+4294908216+115&autoview=sku
Then over or around my valve covers through my headers to each of the plugs. Is there any other way of protecting my wires. I thought about header wrap. BUT I have ceramic coated headers and they look nice. I think one thing that i'm going to save up for is a full on MSD system.
Thanks
Adam

K5dreamer said:
i was feeling you had a spark problem if you could smell fuel at the tailpipe and you had the carb leaned out. check your spark plug gap, replace the wires like you said, but also look into some sort of heat sheilding to protect them from the headers or youre gonna be replacing them on a regular basis. a higher power coil is a cheap upgrade that will make a difference. aftermarket ignition isnt a bad idea. my brother just put an edelbrock carb on his bronco, and setting it up wasnt all that hard. but we definatly had to adjust it out of the box. personally id like to run a Qjet but thats just my preference.
Click to expand...
 
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