What's the difference between using a spray can or compressed air? I find it better to thoroughly clean each tube with parts cleaner.

 

Rob,the compressed air will blow out the debris,before removing the plug,preventing things from falling in.But I always double chk with the mirror anyway.
Just my 2cents

Rich

 

yeah , I understand that the compressed air will blow out the loose debris, but there is usually more caked in debris as a result of a cracked boot. I believe it is a good practice to take a little more time and actually clean out that accumulation with some sort of solvent. Typically the residual debris that does not get blown out will make its way on the plug threads during the plug change and the result will be a bad spark plug seal, or damage threads. I do agree that compressed air is the way to go initially, and a rock in the combustion chamber is not a good thing, but after you blow out as much as possible, there is alway more crap to be cleaned out of there. With the spark plug blow out problem, I feel that this is a great practice to help avoid this issue. Wudya think?

 

what your saying is to wipe it out while the plug is still installed ?
Yes ,I agree and then blow out again just to get rid of anything you loosened up.

I wouldn't want be wiping in there with the plug out though,I'm a chicken ! lol!

Rich

 

I will always spray brake clean in the spark plug tubes with the plug still in the heads. Then take a cloth diaper, and stuff it in the spark plug tube (spark plug is still in). I then take a screw driver, and sort of scrape around the base(still with the plug in). Then I pull the plug out. I check the plug tube with a light and a mirror if needed on the back cylinders. Usually that has been cleaned so well at this point, that there are no solids in the plug tube. If there is still some residual dirt in the tube, I will then saturate a cloth diaper with brake clean, and stuff it in the tube and twist it around. After that, there is no question that the tube is squeaky clean. I may have not been too clear earlier. I type like crap, and I try not to leave super long messages, so I skip alot of the procedure. Sorry bout that.

 

No problem,we are on the same page now!
Rich

 

ok,

This is going to be a bit of the strange but true kind of thing but I guess it is halloween anyway.

This morning I followed your advice and switched the coil and plug from the 5th cylinder to the one that is at the front of the passenger side, the spring and contact form the back coil where different from the one at the front, strange!!. The one at the back had a spring with a contact on the end, the one from the front had a spring with a contact and another spring to clip onto the sparkplug head.

Well I cleaned the holes out, inspected the boots, seem fine, very plyable and soft, not dried out at all, no cracks, pulled the springs out and checked them, I did stretch the one that I pulled from cyl 5 so that it was making better contact with the top of the spark plug, put die-electric on the boots before putting them back on, put coil screws back in, put plugs back on, took for test drive and no problem, 20 km later not even a hint of a problem.

I am still going to do the spark plugs but I will do next month as I have a lot more time then.

Thanks to all for your help,

 

oh, Superdutyrob, and Fourtyfords,

Spark plug hole cleaning before taking it out, I work on a lot of small engines, I have my own landscaping and property maintenance business and have a lot of small engines to keep working, I also do a lot of dual sport motorcycling and a lot of these small engines have spark plug holes so deep and in places very hard to look into, similar to the V10. I have a small water wand that I use with hot water (household 70 psi) to clean out the holes and then blow them clean with compressed air after to dry them out. It take all the rocks, grass, dirt grease etc out with the water. Just thought I would mention it as it does work very well and really makes sure that anything that might fall into the cylinder is long gone before you pull the plug.

Again thanks for your help

 

Good job! Sounds like you have a handle on the situation

Sounds like a monkey, oops... mechanic put the wrong boot on one cylinder... or it was like that from the factory.

Why not get a new boot? I just bought a set for my V10 and they came with new springs. Better than worrying about it... IMO

 

That sounds like an excellent idea dirtbikeboy. Good luck!!

 

I seriously suspect many of my fellow V10 owners problems are associated with water use in the engine compartment.

There are a LOT of very bad things can happen if you get mud and water into some of these electrical systems.

Most of the brand new zero mile COP units I have seen are water tight but I have seen a few on the 01 to 03 engines that have been real hot and real cold and have developed cracks in the potting mixture... a certain way for water to get inside...

I urge caution with any use of water on this modular engine series.

I still use water my self on the motor but only on a cold over night set motor and only low pressure to flood off the crap loosened up by simple green detergent. I then use the compressor air wand to blow out the pooled water in the intake valley and down each plug region..then start and let warm motor evaporate the rest of it. I also use a LOT of WD40 on every thing I can reach followed with more medium pressure air to blow off the excess...

WD 40 is the 40th recipe for a Water Displacing oil

 

Good point. Also the effects of leaving water in the spark plug tubes will cause a misfire. If your boot is not up to par, the water left inside the tube will ground out the spark, if there is enough to reach the tip of the plug that is.

 

Here is what happens when water gets in the plug holes. This was on a 5.4 that i worked on today.


Needless to say, it had a pretty bad misfire.

 

krewat,

Did your new springs come with the kind that have the contact tip that sits on top of the spark plug or the kindthat have a spring that goes right over the head of the spark plug?

Fredvon4, Superdutyrob, Water in and around an ICE can be a bad think, the first time I tried this I used cold water and it took for ever for it to dry with the compressed air, after that I tried hot water and it worked much better, For both the water and the air I have two spouts for lack of a better work that much resemble a long water pik, very small amount of air or water comes out but with the force can move any sized object out of the spark plug holes, or other areas that need to be clean before opening or servicing. On some of the new dirtbikes there are many areas like this and usally right beside them is some kind of seal that if you spray water into it, it goes into the engine. But Fredvon4 makes a good point about electronics near by, I think I might put a shop rag over the hole to catch the blow back of water when I get around to doing the spark plugs next month. Also WD-40 is a wonderfull thing, for everything but lubricating things. Although it does work well for getting a tire off the rim on the side of the trail, but there isn't a place in my garage I can stand and not reach a can of it.

 

Racerguy,

yikes, how is it that the engine did not develop enough heat to boil that water off? mine gets so hot under the hood that on a hot summer day the undercoating starts to run all over the place.