Plug cleaner

[hybrid]

While faffing about getting my 500 to run properly, I went through a few plugs. A threw a fair few out, but recently started chucking them in a box.

I stumbled upon a plug cleaner on US ebay and decided to give it a try.

Heres one of the offending plugs:



First I sloshed it in some wax and grease remover (prepsol) to try and get rid of some of the fuel/oil buildup so that the grit would not stick to it.

This is the cleaner I bought.



Whack the plug in the top.



The cleaner has a lever where you can open or close the grit, so I started with the grit off just to dry the wax and grease remover. Then I would open the grit lever and blast away for around 10 secs. Then turn off the grit again and blast to clean the grit away.

The result:



So maybe I'll have some plugs to try next time I foul one.

[2TInstitute]

What's wrong with petrol ? Jetting and ignition cleans plugs on the go.............

[OzzyElsie]

Looks good. It use to be standard practice to use a grit cleaner to clean plugs, every shop had one and part of a service was to blast the plugs. Champion plugs use to have a specialized cabinet which included a test unit (to check the strength of the spark). I'm not certain why they fell into disuse.

If you save ten plugs you save $120 . The maths should work .

[fred99999au]

I'd be interested to see how long they last after being blasted given that the surface coating from the original plugs has been blasted off.

[hybrid]

What surface coating?
It's just ceramics in there which would be barely touched by the grit after 10 seconds.

OzzyElsie, my dad used to have one of those units in the garage.. we used to use it all the time.

[fred99999au]

The metal surface coating. I am assuming (yep, that word) that it is an anti corrosion coating on the metal of the plug, either passivated zinc or something like it to prevent the side electrode and plug body from rusting. The ceramic would be Ok as it is bloody tough.

[hybrid]

If it was going back in a bike it would get coated in oil/carbon pretty quickly, so doubt it would be an issue.

As has been stated, this used to be done all the time. I guess plugs are cheap enough now that people don't bother any more.