Whether you own the latest Lamborghini or you own an old Honda, the single source for a life of a car engine remains to be just a small spark plug
A spark plug might be small in size but they are considered as one of the most hardworking mechanical parts within a car engine. As soon as you start the engine of your car, the spark plug becomes active and would in use continuously until the car engine has been switched off. Many factors of a car engine depend on this small part such as power, fuel, consumption .idling, and acceleration of an engine.
Usually, a pair of high-quality spark parks can last for about 20000 to 30000 miles, but also the longevity of this engine park mainly depends on the way you drive your vehicle.
If your normal routine includes going on the highway and drive your car fast regularly, then surely your car’s spark plugs will be adversely affected and the gap between the two spark plugs would increase rapidly. Usually, under normal driving speed, the gap between the spark plugs increase by about 0.001 inches per 2500 miles that you drive.
In the passage below, there will be multiple ways which can teach you “ how to clean a spark plug” and would help You in increasing the lifetime of a pair of spark Various types of spark plugs.
There are two varieties of spark plugs ever made, a hot plug and a cold plug.
The hot one has a long insulator nose due to which it maintains the heat within it, which results in having a hotter tip. The cold plug has a short insulator nose, due to which heat is rapidly disposed of from it and thus it has a cold tip at the end.
A right type of plug should be used for its ideal engine else many factors such as emission, fuel consumption, and many other factors will be badly affected, which could reduce the lifespan of the spark plug.
How to locate and remove the spark plugs of your car?
- You would need to find the battery of your car inside its engine. Once the battery is found, detach its negative terminal.
- Locate the thick wires of a spark plug and continue to follow the path of wires till they reach a point, where the opening in the cylinder head for each spark plug is found.
- One spark plug should be displaced at a time so that the cables remain organized and there is minimum risk of any sort of debris to fall inside the empty cylinders. To remove the spark plug from its position, hold the wire of the plug tightly and then pull it off the plug.
- Connect a ratchet with the socket of a spark plug and then twist it in an anti-clockwise motion, due to which the spark plug will be unscrewed.
- Once the spark plug is removed from its cylinder, make sure to clean the cylinder with a compressed can of air, which would remove all the debris within the cylinder. If the cylinder is not cleaned then a big issue could happen inside the engine of the car.
How to clean a spark plug?
There are many methods by which you can clean a spark plug of your vehicle and some of such methods will be mentioned below.
- Clean it with sandpaper: One end of a spark plug would have a minor piece of metal extending out of the spark plug, this is known as Electrode. If this part is black or its color has worn out, then place the sandpaper between the bent portion of the electrode and the spark plug itself and rub it continuously until and unless this better starts to get a better appearance.
- Filer for electrode: A metal filer can be used to clean down the spark plug. The method to clean is that place the filer between the plug and its electrode and move it back and forth.
- Wire brush method: sometimes there are layers of oil and grime inside the threads of the spark plug, due to which it becomes quite difficult to install the spark plug. To remove these layers, you would need to scrub these down by a wire brush. Clean with the wire brush by keeping it perpendicular to the spark plug and keep scrubbing until the layers are removed from the threads.
- Blow torch method: Grab some pliers and a pair of flameproof gloves. Gently grab the spark plug with your pilers. Now turn on your blow torch and keep it near your spark plug until the spark plug turns red. This way a lot of the debris will be removed from the spark plug. Let the spark plug cool down and return to its normal color, after which you can reinstall it inside the engine of your vehicle.
Bottom line
A spark might not be big but is considered as a key component in a car’s engine and a person can follow the methods listed above, which can teach them on how to clean a spark plug.