Did i get a counterfeit tune up kit?

Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
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Location
Apple Valley, California
I bought this tune up kit. I walked into home Depot myself and picked it up.

My old air filter was ok and I didn't want to goof with the fuel filter right now so I just gapped the ngk plug @.025 and stuck it in.

The weed Wacker was running fine. I just felt like it was due for a plug.

Now it's hard to start and stumbles,pops etc. I still have the old plug and I plan on putting it back in since it ran fine with it.

Is there a possibility of a counterfeit echo branded kit from home Depot?
 

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Odds are slim. Someone would have had to return a counterfeit kit after buying OE with a receipt. HD wouldn't deliberately infringe on intellectual property, the lawsuits would be too huge.
 
Pandemic quality. Is the plug branded? If not who knows where there getting it from. I got a bad "Briggs and Stratton" plug from Walmart a year ago. Somehow my brain didnt fire and I though I was buying a Champion plug for my Briggs.

Find yourself a Champion or NGK.
 
Pandemic quality. Is the plug branded? If not who knows where there getting it from. I got a bad "Briggs and Stratton" plug from Walmart a year ago. Somehow my brain didnt fire and I though I was buying a Champion plug for my Briggs.

Find yourself a Champion or NGK.
It's an ngk. I guess I could have gotten a dud. I'll just get one this weekend from orileys or a-zone.
 
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I have had a couple NGK issues with small engines..Misfiring but never a no start. I only use Champions on my small engines.
 
I was out putting my Poulan Wild Thing chainsaw through its paces the other day when the unthinkable happened. I was in the middle of cut when it abruptly stopped running. It rapidly slowed and then died. At first I thought I had forgotten to put mix oil in the fuel but that's just something that I have never done in my life and wasn't a likely cause this time. I tried to restart it but it was seized up tight as a drum.

I packed up and headed home. The first thing I did was remove the spark plug to look inside. I found my problem immediately. The tip of the spark plug had broken off and fallen into the cylinder. The plug tip was lodged in the piston and prevented me from pulling it past top dead center. Of course it had run this way for a few seconds before it died so it did some damage.

I took it apart and got things cleaned up the best I could by removing the debris and foreign object damage from the piston and combustion dome. Thankfully the cylinder wasn't damaged or the ports destroyed and I was able to put it all back together.

I dodged a bullet on this thing. The plug was probably the original 23 year old Champion and it just had enough of my non-sense.

Change the plug every now and then... even if it looks brand new.

missing tip 1.jpeg
missing tip 2.jpeg
 
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I was out putting my Poulan Wild Thing chainsaw through its paces the other day when the unthinkable happened. I was in the middle of cut when it abruptly stopped running. It rapidly slowed and then died. At first I thought I had forgotten to put mix oil in the fuel but that's just something that I have never done in my life and wasn't a likely cause this time. I tried to restart it but it was seized up tight as a drum.

I packed up and headed home. The first thing I did was remove the spark plug to look inside. I found my problem immediately. The tip of the spark plug had broken off and fallen into the cylinder. The plug tip was lodged in the piston and prevented me from pulling it past top dead center. Of course it had run this way for a few seconds before it died so it did some damage.

I took it apart and got things cleaned up the best I could by removing the debris and foreign object damage from the piston and combustion dome. Thankfully the cylinder wasn't damaged or the ports destroyed and I was able to put it all back together.

I dodged a bullet on this thing. The plug was probably the original 23 year old Champion and it just had enough of my non-sense.

Change the plug every now and then... even if it looks brand new.

View attachment 152803View attachment 152804
Wow! I've never seen the center piece come out, but a few where the side strap came off and implanted itself in a piston.
 
Wow! I've never seen the center piece come out, but a few where the side strap came off and implanted itself in a piston.
I'd never had this happen before either. It actually looks like something just pushed the center electrode up and into the plug housing. The ceramic is broken and missing and obviously the tip is gone and I found it stuck in the piston. I was lucky the ports weren't gouged or the piston cracked.

Here is the old plug compared to a new one. The entire end is gone.

missing tip 1.jpeg
spark plug 3.JPG
 
Wow! I've never seen the center piece come out, but a few where the side strap came off and implanted itself in a piston.
I have seen that several times in the late 80's with autolite plugs that lost the ground strap. One bent an exhaust valve in a 5.8 ford.

Btw I swung by AutoZone on the way home and got a couple of ngk plugs. Input one in. I'm sure it will be fine. I guess I just got a dud the first time.
 
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