carbonised oily smelling plugs - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

davway · 03-01-2004, 00:11

just checked my plugs and noticed that all of them are black and covered in carbon and have a slight oily smell to them. theyre not wet or anything just smell like oil. the old girl does need a tune up as it is running a little rich but is oily smelling plugs bad or is it just because its not tuned properly?
oh it doesnt seem to blow any smoke either so it may not be the rings im thinking.

ebxr8240 · 03-01-2004, 01:15

Seems to be rich and also wrong heat range plug..On older engines it doesn't hurt to fit one number higher in heat range so it burns hotter and less chance of oiling up....
Check leads etc too...

EA90_S · 03-01-2004, 01:40

how would i know if there a higher heat range plugs?? coz i was thinking of gettin some for my car. can you get a higher heat range plugsfor a escort

ebxr8240 · 03-01-2004, 01:49

YEP !!! Escorts[1600] run N9Y in champion range.. To go up use N10Y's..But be carefull if the engine has higher compression than std you should use lower heat range plugs i/e N7Y's..Check the spark plug heat range catalogue at your parts store...With hotter plugs don't go reving/racing the crap out of engine, its good to do just to keep an old engine alittle longer without oiling plugs....

EA90_S · 03-01-2004, 02:41

Oh so you mean with the hottor plugs it aint good to "race" it.

ebxr8240 · 03-01-2004, 21:24

Yes esp with "bowl in piston" type engnes...But if its fouling plugs that bad, you should be o/k for it won't be making that much power / heat to do damage....