Spark plugs fouled on the first start after piston soak, replace or clean?

[ripcord]

When you turn 70, will you stop brushing your teeth? I hold the opposite philosophy, that you maintain cars from the beginning to the end.

But do you perform a liver transplant on 90 year old patients? Or a radiator flush on a $1000 car that imminently needs a $4000 transmission?

 

[QwikKota]

When you turn 70, will you stop brushing your teeth? I hold the opposite philosophy, that you maintain cars from the beginning to the end.

Dumping something in the combustion chamber does not sound like maintenance to me.

 

[Hootbro]

Dumping something in the combustion chamber does not sound like maintenance to me.

Nor is anybody trying to sell you on it. Some of us understand the process and the benefit from it.

Just because it is not something you would do, does not devalue it to others that would do it.,

 

[PandaBear]

About the history of this car: I owned it since new so that's a single owner car. It has a head gasket replaced about 8 years and 40k miles ago so the top end was "sort of" clean and the mechanic / machine shop got those measured etc. The bottom end was all original.

Some gasket leaks, some oil burning but no smoking out of the tail pipe, timing belt water pump all on schedule, rebuild axles about 6 years ago, struts / shocks about 12 years ago, original transmission, steering, starter, fuel pump, alternator, AC was recharged after a leak is fixed, radiator is about 10 years old but those are wear and tear, ignition coil about 15 years old.

So, it isn't quite "that" old but it is. I know there's a leak here and there but I am ok with it just topping off. I think a piston soak to unstuck the ring pack is not that big of a deal if I accept the risk, and would probably plan to drive this for another 6-8 years. It doesn't owe me anything and I am doing what is right, as a responsible owner but not obsessed with keeping it on pristine condition. It is a car meant to be used not to be collected afterall.

If the cat finally died after that many miles, I know I can buy a $600 Rockauto CARB cat and ask a shop to weld it in for me. May cost $800 out the door or so but it would last another 150k miles I think? I don't mind the oil burning as long as it doesn't fail my smog poisoning the cat, hence the reason for the piston soak. I was expecting a lot of fume and smoke when I start after the flush but it didn't. Maybe that 5 mins of cranking have dissolved / dislodged a lot of carbon and they got evaporated and burnt already. The oil doesn't look too black just a typical oil change that seems thinner. Maybe the oil gets hot after idle for 10 mins, maybe the filter trapped a lot of carbon, maybe the sludge got disolved and no longer looks black? I don't know.

 

[Arc]

To be fair, the car pass smog if I do not just drive to a shop right after a cold start. If I drive around for a while after an oil change and maybe a bottle of Techron in the tank that pass with sufficient safety margin.

However I do get a shop who wants me not to bring in a car that old, and failed me once on a rainy day because of visual (he saw white cloud from the tailpipe) yet pass the numbers with no problem the next week's retest, and despite me telling him I didn't do anything. I think he was too afraid of getting dinged for not failing enough cars so he had to fail some once in a while.

This car burns about 1 quart every 1k or so before the soak on 5w30. I have recently switched to Rotella T5 15w40 and it seems to have cleaned a bit of the varnish off. I don't think it is that bad, but I think my midlife crisis is about restoring old cars instead of buying new ones. There aren't too many interesting new cars that I want recently so might as well restore old cars instead.

Give the ATF a try next time. My Jeep has 280k miles and doesn't burn a drop of oil. The compression on each cylinder is still good as new too. I hot soak it with ATF once a year and also mix a half quart in with the gas once in a while. Still has the factory cats on it and they are clean as can be last time I checked them.