I decided to finally change my plugs at 7,500 miles (actually 7,483) when I changed the oil this morning. What I found was interesting.......

There is almost no visible wear on the plugs (these are the factory plugs). The plugs are in the picture below and in the same order as they were taken out of the car. Although it's a little hard to see, plugs #1 and #4 have a pinkish tone on the insulator and #2 and #3 have the normal light tan color. I took them to a mechanic I know and the first thing he said was, "You've been using some sort of fuel additive." I assured him I didn't use additives in either my oil or gas and then realized that the car has been run on Chevron (with the Techron additive) since I first bought it.

I put in new Champion Plats gapped at .040 instead of the .050 on the factory sticker under the hood. The car starts a little quicker and seems to pull a little harder. No change in the idle.

Dusty


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Mine, looked preety similar after 22,500 with the factory plugs, white insolator was pretty badly burned like yours, and some wear on them. I switched over to the Iridium plugs and I seem only a small differnce, starts a little betterI think, but maybe thats because of the special 0 Ohms wires I put one..Gratelli or something like that.

 

very interesting to see. i don't think i have chevron around here so i don't have to worry about that, but it does make me wonder about all the other gas companies that put additives in the fuel for whatever reason. i think shell does, and i use their gas quite frequently. hum.....something to think about at the pump!

 

In my alternative fuel class I was told that all major chains use additives in their gas, and the only places that don't are the cheap gas stations like WaWa and Wilco.

 

Yes, most gasolines have additives, some have more than others. In addition, gasolines are blended/mixed different depending on the time of the year. Gas blended for winter driving isn't the same as gas blended for summer driving. Shell, Chevron, and Texaco make it a point to advertise that their gas helps keep certain engine parts (valves, etc) clean. Gasoline as it comes out of the refinery is all the same. Different companies add different additives to the gas once it's in the tanker truck.

Dusty

 

Every gas company has different additives that they put in, I mostly run Chevron like everyone but them run 76 gas for two tanks every 5 fill ups or so, like you are suppose to, due to he different additives that eash company puts in, helps break up the deposits left from the other companies. Keeps the car running strong, if you run the same fuel everytime, you will develope build up on the valves and injectors and the pistons. Has anyone put in the Mopar combustion chamber cleaner in there SRT's, it works wonders

 

http://turbomopar.com/neon/mccc/

Neon owners might want to check out this warning first............

Dusty

 

Weird... I have never heard of spraying anything in your throttle body while just idleing.

 

I have seen those cans on cars before...good info on this Dusty..Thanks!