Read Your Spark Plugs

Basic Spark Plug Reading

Episode 546 Autorestomod

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[mercurymangarage]

Ide just leave the motor as is. From what you’re saying it runs fine. Although a total rebuild would make for some great videos. Lol. I’m assuming many of us have FE’s that need work. Food for thought. Len from Michigan.

[fordman]

Do a basic refresh on it and it'll still be on the road after you've left the earth. FEs aren't difficult if you know what you're doing. I have never broke bolts on an FE other than exhaust manifold.

[wayne]

From Australia, once we could check the tune on the motor by the colour of the plugs after a long run. Fuels have changed over the years here and the 98 octane I run in my Stang, well you just can’t read the mixture by the colour anymore, no matter what you do, it’s always the same colour, it’s just what the fuel does these days. Love your work guys!

[waynep]

Carb tuning . Mirror and a timing light looking down the primary carb bores. Bring up rpms slowly till you see fuel trickle from the primary boosters. Note that rpm on the tachometer. Look at air fuel ratio with a narrow or wide band air fuel ratio display. If its lean. Increase the idle feed restriction 0.001" and try again. If its rich. Add a thin bristle from a wire brush. Retest..
Test primary jetting at around 3500 to 4000 rpm ..

[blakeneysanders]

Rebuild please! I really need the info.

[p-d]

Pressure test the cooling system using a MityVac (IMO, a must-have tool for lots of things automotive). Don't overpressurize the system (maybe +10% over nominal spec)... don't want to blow a gasket. What to do next depends a lot on whether you actually do have a coolant leak into the cylinder (might explain the low compression number; albeit, the "wet test" on the cylinder does seem to indicate rings...

[brucethoel]

Another thought intake gaskets slipped;, they do that quite often. They suck oil from the valley.

[jondavis]

Like anything, it's not going to get better I'd you leave it, but, you can monitor the rate of decay. I say, if it gets markedly worse, then you're going to have to do roughly the same level of effort to correct the problem. Since Col Mustard is a "garbage truck", I would put the time & effort into the Galaxie.

[RealWorldGarage]

Getting caught up on all my videos from last week. I’d leave it be. If you open it up, it’ll turn into “if you give a pig a pancake” if you’re not familiar with that, it’s a kids book look it up. 😂

[paulbruno]

It’s not too bad, start working on
the Galaxie 500!!! 🏁

[olemansailor]

I have driven and rebuilt every kind of ford engine you can think of. The 390 is like a 429. They run hurt for years. Until it starts fouling plugs, leave it be.

[TheFARM]

I liked that last idea of trying to retorque the head to see if that will bring that cylinder right back around… otherwise if youre stuck having to pull the engine, you might as well throw some upgrades to it like a top end kit 🤷🏽‍♂️ but thats just my opinion

[SixRoundsStudio]

This was a really good one guys. Learned sooo much! Beer...yup...beer.

[jeffhardman]

As a fellow F250, 390 fe owner, let’s pull it and overhaul it. Great video

[irzyxelwj]

I read my spark plugs and they told me to add 200hp. R.I.P. bank account

[yeboscrebo]

I love anything f100. Whatever you wanna do I’ll watch

[jd]

Please leave a link to the Scope. How long is the cable?

[brucethoel]

Looks more like valve seals. If it was rings, the outside edge of the top of the piston would be clean.

[thatguyoverthere]

You know I was just wondering about this today.

[gregorystone]

Coolant pressure test.
Retorque the heads.
Otherwise leave it alone until it gets worse.