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 Post subject: oily black spark plugs
PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:14 am 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 1:11 am
Posts: 1473
Location: North Georgia
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I know it has been discussed here ad nauseum and I have read a bunch on the subject using the handy search feature. But here goes:

My truck is my daily driver, made necessary by the death of my daily driver Ranger's abrupt stop against a tree. No, the vehicle was unoccupied at the time. Anyhoo, back to the Dodge. Over the past couple of weeks it has run just fine, but yesterday I noticed there was a ton of coolant all over the front of the motor. I noticed there was evidence of leakage from the overflow tank too, so it got me worried about the radiator. Nope, it's solid.

I cranked her up and saw a bunch of soot and water(?) flood liberally out the tailpipe. After a 20 mile drive, the water and soot were just as prevalent as when cold. So I pulled the plugs, and #1,#2, and #4 were black, wet, and generally covered in crud! The others were black-to-tan in color. I'm using Bosch platinum plus, which I have used exclusively in all my cars since 1990. I cleaned the plugs off and she fired right up as usual, but the sooty black inkiness still flows from the tailpipe, and I noticed there was a white-looking fog coming out of the oil filelr cap when I remove it.

So, just so I have more than one opinion, is this a head gasket going south perhaps? :cry: This engine has roughly 82K miles, so it's not really worn out. Or is it?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:23 am 
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Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:39 pm
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Sounds like you're minus one head gasket, or (less likely) you've got cracked hardware.

(Also: you can do a lot better than Bosch Platinum plugs, for a lot less money.)

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:33 pm 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 1:11 am
Posts: 1473
Location: North Georgia
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Quote:
Sounds like you're minus one head gasket, or (less likely) you've got cracked hardware.

(Also: you can do a lot better than Bosch Platinum plugs, for a lot less money.)
Thanks Dan! I read your input on spark plugs and maybe I'll give `em a try after I change this head gasket. I'm just gonna yank the whole motor and toss in a complete gasket set, flywheel, clutch, and linkage bushings. Might as well get it all done at one time.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:44 pm 
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Turbo Slant 6

Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:44 pm
Posts: 790
Location: New England
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What if you had a machine shop plane the head flat. They could examine it closely to make sure it's all right. Then you could say you had your head examined. lol. Might be worth it.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:40 am 
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EFI Slant 6

Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:19 am
Posts: 470
Location: SC
Car Model: 63 Dart 81 D150
Easy way to check the head gasket:
Pressurize the cooling system with a radiator pressure tester.
Spin the engine over with the plugs out, while cooling system is under pressure, if you get coolant coming from the plug holes it is either the gasket or the head.

This test is about 95% accurate.

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