help me read my plugs

[The_Dealer]

Sorry for the bad pic. Here's what my plugs look like. They fine or do I need to go with a smaller jet size?

 

[BlackBII]

Looks good to me, light brown/tan. Blacker would be too rich, lighter would be too lean.

A less fuzzy picture would be better.

 

[straycat]

Not a real good picture, Bro. Is there any oil on that plug?? How is the motor running? Smooth, or a bit ruff? What gas are you using?

 

[shane96ranger]

Yeah, where's that oil coming from? Is your valve cover gasket leaking? The plug looks good for color though.

 

[The_Dealer]

Its running a bit rough, and only getting about 200 miles a tank. Cold starts just plain suck even with it being so warm out. My 2150 didn't have these drivability problems. The oil I'm not sure where is comming from, valve covers were leaking after I put the reworked heads on, but I've fixed that about 1k miles ago. The timing is good and all ignition parts and fuel filtere are new. Air filter a tad dirty and plug wires are kinda iffy. The power comes and goes, some days it runs better then others. I thought maybe she's running a little rich. Using 87 octane

 

[Twister]

Its running a bit rough, and only getting about 200 miles a tank. Cold starts just plain suck even with it being so warm out. My 2150 didn't have these drivability problems. The oil I'm not sure where is comming from, valve covers were leaking after I put the reworked heads on, but I've fixed that about 1k miles ago. The timing is good and all ignition parts and fuel filtere are new. Air filter a tad dirty and plug wires are kinda iffy. The power comes and goes, some days it runs better then others. I thought maybe she's running a little rich. Using 87 octane

That's how mine runs, except the cold starts, i can get mine to start pretty easily.

 

[The_Dealer]

It starts ok but doesn't want to stay on until she warms a little, and forget about taking off till she gets about 150 degrees. Wants to buck and stall

 

[66POJ]

It starts ok but doesn't want to stay on until she warms a little, and forget about taking off till she gets about 150 degrees. Wants to buck and stall

Hey another Maconite!!!
I may have missed it but what motor do you have? I have a '93 Ranger w/4.0 and I am having this issue. Unplugging the MAF makes it tolerable. I gotta get this looked at!

 

[The_Dealer]

2.8 stock bottom, cam, reworked heads with 2.9 valves, duraspark ignition and holley 350

Wish I woulda saved my money, I'm goin 4.0 soon. I want efi

 

[robertc1024]

The color doesn't look bad to me. I always thougt it kind of depended on what you were doing right before you took the plugs out though. When I was a kid, I put a 2 stage on my MGB. I'd cruise around in the neighborhood for a while, pull over and pull a plug to see if my low jet was right. Then I'd cruise down the highway or something that made my secondary open up, cut the ignition and coast over to the side of the road and pull a plug to see if my other jet was ok. Dunno? - just a thought.

 

[adsm08]

It's def not rich. If anything it's running a bit lean by that plug, but it looks acceptable.


Your symptoms sound like it's not getting choked properly. I was trying to squeeze a few more feet per gallon out of my 78 and turned the choke stat way back to keep the plate open further (had no idea what I was doing back then) and all I managed to do was make it run really crappy when it was cold.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

The plugs dont look too bad have you put valve guide seals in. If not it is easy enough to do in the tech library under 2.8 V-6 is a paragraph that explains how using air pressure and a palm spring compressor. I think only one of mine was actually touching the valve shaft the rest just fell apart in my fingers when removing them. If your leaking oil on top it would be a good time for a intake manifold gasket also and permatex the valleys between the heads and block when you torque it down along with a oring for the dizzy.

 

[Hahnsb2]

It's 2011, cameras have this awesome feature called macro mode

 

[The_Dealer]

Haha the camera is my blackberry lol. The plugs were the ones in my stock heads with about 500 miles when I put them in the new heads. New valve seals lifters intake mani kit with disty oring. Whole top end is new. Just wanted to make sure I had it tuned good enough. Also I have a man choke