They say that more because of the liabilty involved if they endorse an abrasive plug cleaner, more than the fact they want you to buy a plug. IE: guy cleans plug, plug has abrasive in it, abrasive ruins engine, guy wants warranty, OEM won't provide warranty, guy sues, and wins because OEM endorsed use of cleaner.

Small engine manufacturers don't make spark plugs, so it isn't to their benefit to try to sell them.

Anyway- the positive side is that for 10 bucks, it only takes about 3 plugs for the thing to pay for itself, which is a decent return, provided you get all the abrasives out of the plug-

ckal704 has a great point though, when you are doing this for a living, it isn't economical. My shop is at 65 dollars an hour, and a plug is 2.95. So that gives me approx 2 minutes to clean it, then blow it out, file the electrode square and gap.

For me personally, I would be to nervous that there was some grit left over to use it, but it sure is a cool concept!

Andy

 

I have one from Northern Tools and found out I really needed to add some more grit to make it worth using. It certainly isn't as high quality as the older ones, but, it works well enough for the two cycle stuff.

Especially my chainsaws and especially my Stihl which seems to load up easier when left idling for any amount of time.

I agree, time is money and I certainly wouldn't use it on say, a 5.4L spark plug where the cost of repairing a bad engine is in the $1,000+ range or the time to remove the plug is in hours vs. 1 minute.

I love it for a cheap repair on a non-running lawn mower or chain saw.

I blow the plug off afterwards and many times will brake clean or carb clean it. I regap, but, hardly ever file them. That much effort and I rather put in a new plug.

re:bolts

Yep, I use it to clean bolts myself.

 

My thoughts exactly on this one. I was thinking of getting a Harbor Freight unit, and wanted to know how well these things worked. For use on chainsaw and motorcycle with 2 cycle engines. At only $10, it could be a quick payback.

 

imho, The Northern Tools one did not come with enough grit. So, I bought another bag and filled it up much more. Takes much less time that way. Also, I rotate the plug while cleaning. It works great, worth the price to me just for cleaning up bolts and "free" lawn mowers.

 

I still got one from doing large industrial engines on land fill gas. At $254.00 a plug you do what you can to save money there especially when you are doing plugs every 100 to 250 hours and getting beat up because you want to spend the money for 20 of them ($5080.00 a set). The only thing about them is the plug must be dry or you can litterally push the oils or solvents into the insulator and effect the spark that way. I used em for several years when I was young. It doesn't pay in a garage but especially if it eats plugs in an older engine. Just make sure and get all the sand out and use a piece of Scotch-Brite on the outside insulator to clen the build up off and plugs that use the seal gaskets really need them changed every time, they will leak and can damage the head. Karr Products or most any NAPA can get the gaskets for you cheap.

 

Champian use to sell a spark plug cleaner/tester back in the '50s and '60s
after plug was cleaned and gapped you hook a wire to it and tested fire the plug under air pressure
I still use the small type to clean small engine plugs

 

I've still got one of the old ones..............I've checked new plugs on it that didn't fire when the pressure was increased, so we use it now to test all plugs before they go in.

 

What sharp edges are you referring to here? Sandblasting usually leaves metal pretty smooth. I can see regapping, but I'm confused as to how you create burrs from blasting.

 

No, the electrodes get rounded and need to get an edge back for the spark to jump from. Otherwise, your firing resistance is fairly high and it does stress the coil more than needed.

 

Got one from Harbor Freight last week, and used it last weekend. Pulled the 2 plugs from my Onan RV generator, and they were ugly. Could be up to 26 years old, although I hope not. I added a bit more grit since it was mentioned here that helps. Running them for about 30 seconds each didn't bring the insulators to a white condition, more like light brown. I regapped them and put them in. Generator still ran crummy, and the plugs looked pretty black for only running a couple of minutes. So I bought some Autolites and put them in - still running bad. So I turned the choke about 1/8 turn - runs perfect. Oh well, duh.

Tried the cleaner on a chainsaw plug - not impressed with the insulator color. Maybe my compressor is too small. The specs on the cleaner are 7.7 cfm, and I think my compressor is good for 4.5 cfm. But those are continuous numbers, I think, so it should do okay as long as it stays up in the 90 psi range, eh?

 

CIAF,
If possible, I need to get a high res photo of that VIXEN logo. A client of mine is rebuilding his old cleaner and wants to replicate a decal for it. The "fox" portion is quite worn. I'll be glad to send a complimentary decal to you as well. Please visit our web site at Heemstra Signs, Redlands California to get our info for e-mail, etc. Thanks! Bob

 

Just one little thing to add. Use glass media in it, not aluminum oxide, the oxide will eat the ceramic and the metal, while glass will not.

 

A wire wheel on a bench grinder works good too

 

I started with the small dedicated plug cleaners but I now use a glass bead cabinet because we have one at work. It takes seconds to do a plug. I blast only long enough to clean, so as to not erode the plugs. Usually they come up shiny white on the insulator, but sometimes there is a stubborn light brown discolouration to the porcelain. I have learnt that this doesn't affect performance.

For the family fleet and friends' vehicles which I work on I have spare sets of plugs. I remove the old ones and drop them into a gas can where they sit until I use the gas. Then I dry them before blasting. This way there's no oil residue to hold onto grit.

Another point is that some plugs have a very sharp V shaped groove between the shell and insulator, which tends to hold onto glass beads. Other plugs have a U shape that doesn't capture the grit. The former type I usually discard since they can hold a couple beads that won't come out, even with an air blast. I carefully examine each plug for remaining dirt or grit in good light, then give them a light spray of WD40 or similar to keep the freshly blasted surfaces from rusting.

I've been cleaning plugs for years without incident. I've also tried filing the ground electrode square and filing it so it only covers half of the center electrode but never noticed any difference in vehicle performance.

 

Screw all of that, just get a new plug. A 2 dollar plug is not worth riggin up an old on a hope and a prayer. it's not worth the trip and time back to the parts store. bunch of cheap o's