Help with Spark Plugs and electrical problems
I know they are bad! But what would cause this? I want to fix the problem not just know its there and say... "okay its time to buy new plugs AGAIN!"
Please let me know if its to rich/lean... idles to high/low. Bad valves, leak somewhere... bad gas... ANYTHING!!! I will replace them tomorrow... how long should I wait to see if the problem and gunk appears again?
Thanks again!
Exactly what Mopar Head said. Fouled plugs affect ignition, ignition affects idle, low or pulsing idle affects alt output but so do bad grounds, failing amp meter gauges, etc... You can try to get the ignition as dialed in as possible but the plugs will foul again until you correct the issue(s).
Oil in combustion chamber can be caused by lots of things. Oil running down though bad valve seals/guides, churning up past bad piston oil rings, sucking through blown head gaskets, etc... The only one of these that is relatively easy to correct is the valve seals. Anything else you do requires taking the head off at a minimum. Sometimes you can visually determine the valve seal condition (especially if you find solid chunks of them floating around under the valve cover), but I have usually found that if the seals are gone, most likely its time to check the guides and valve seats anyway and this requires machine shop work. You mentioned overheating which is another possible symptom of blown head gasket (also stuck thermostat, plugged radiator, etc...). Any oil in the radiator water? or Water in the oil (foamy light brown looking)?... just another symptom to look for.
Running too rich or too lean, timing off, etc... aren't the source of oil fouling but could affect the idle enough that misfiring oil-fouled plugs and the extra draw from lights become the show stopper. If you only have one or two bad plugs you may want to try to clean them every few days/weeks to try and get by but eventually you have to deal with the source of the problem. I would have someone do a leakdown test with a sniffer to see whats what. This test presurizes a cylinder with a constant air pressure, and measures where the leaks happen and how fast. Bad rings rings cause air to move out the crankcase, bad intake valves cause air to move out of the carb, exhaust out the tailpipe, etc... Once you know where the biggest issues are you will know wether you get to replace valve seals, pull the head and have it rebuilt, re-ring (rebuild) the short block, or in worst case scenario rebuild the block and the head. If you go the rebuild route and find no obvious sources ofr oil or heat issues check for cracks in head/block also.
No magic answers that I know of but the /6 is pretty easy on the wallet to fix up and will run forever on a solid rebuild with proper maintenance. Good luck.
