burn rate
Spark plugs usually burn at a specific rate, so many thou over so many miles. At internal engine temperatures, the spark is actually blasting tiny bits of material from the electrodes, and over time they make the engine run less efficiently.
yes, I do know this, all too well- and yet I let the truck go 175,000 miles without a tuneup. It was running fine.
First of all, I do use high end platinum plugs, and very high quality wires. The plugs are a wear item, but I get the wires with a lifetime warranty and I just get neew ones and replace them when I need to.
This time I was overdue. Like 75,000 miles overdue.
Then in a fit of stupid I swapped the wires on 5&6, and it ran ragged till I found the book and figured it out.
What a farging day.
Happens to the best of us :)
On my trip to Mississippi between Katrina and Rita two years ago, I knew I’d be doing a lot of chainsaw work. Also knew my time was limited (only had a few days off work), so to make sure the saw would be efficient, I sharpened the chain before I left, and took two brand-new spares, so when it got dull, I’d just swap chains rather than have to sharpen it.
Sure enough, after a full day of saw work helping my brother-in-law with cleanup on his place, the chain was getting dull, and it was slowing me down a bit. So I called a break, put on a new chain, and…
The saw wouldn’t cut anymore.
It took me WAY too long to figure out that I’d put the chain on backwards. Long enough to damage the guide bar. I finished the weekend using the BIL’s brand-spankin’-new saw, which was no match for Dad’s Stihl that I’d brought with me, and wouldn’t idle to boot.
The capper to this story is from Monday this week. I was in a Stihl dealership picking up the new weedeater I’d ordered, and the guy at the counter when I walked in was complaining that he’d brought two chains in to be sharpened, and only one of them would cut. Counterman looks at the bad chain, checks the teeth, and says, “This chain is brand-new sharp. Look, you can see the machine marks on the teeth.”
Customer proceeds to kvetch and complain that it doesn’t work, and the other one he had sharpened at the same time works great.
I said, “Maybe you put it on backwards. It fits that way just as easily as it does the right way”.
Customer gets pissed off, almost yells “I’m not an idiot!”. I agree, and retell the Mississippi story while the counterman’s looking at the chain again, this time at the BACK side of the teeth… and sees that the backs have wear patterns on them.
He pointed that out to Customer, who gets kinda quiet, and a few minutes later leaves. I just hope he didn’t burn up the guide bar, those things are expensive.
Spark plugs… My dad used to make me help him clean the ones on our car so he didn’t have to buy new ones so often.
It did not make me a fan of doing my own maintenance work on my car. *grin*
Done the spark plug wire swap, and the chain saw screw up.
Guess that qualifies me for human, huh?
Dick, you’re no more human than I am.
Don’t know about chain saws but I rebuilt a 231 one time becuase the book showed the firing order back wards. could not get the damn thing to run on more than 3 cylinders till we found a better manuaul with out the misprint.
Good news is I can do the top end on a 231 in my sleep. Bad news is I’ve never needed the knowledge again.
FYI 231 is a GM v-6 from the early 80’s.