Is It Ok To Clean Spark Plugs With A Sandblaster

Huckster79 Pattern Altitude

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Just got all the supplies for doing my own spark plug rotation and cleanings. Being I wing nearly 150 hours a year, just makes sense to do myself. Bought all the goodies that I didn't already accept, the correct socket, gaskets, rack, Anti-sieze, gapper guage and tool, etc and the $39.99 vibrating or ultrasonic cleaner from Spruce, just as well noticed they sold a blaster unit for cleaning, some of the comments was it was really just a HF ane. So I stopped by and grabbed one at HF today and then got reading up on the cleaning process....
Looks similar blasting them is non a unversally accustomed affair to do...

What do you guys northward gals exercise with cleaning them and why? I meet the disadvantage of blasting is wear, whats the upside of diggings it instead of just the vibrating cleaner?
Silvaire En-Route

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The problem with those piddling bean bag blasters is that you can't run across what your doing. So you have to keep pulling it out and turning it effectually in a blind effort to blast the area that's been missed. If you put a plug in a regular media boom cabinet where you can come across information technology only takes a couple of short shots and you're washed. Does it abrade? Well sure but y'all only exercise it one time a twelvemonth so nothing like the twenty-30 arcs per second it's getting while you're cruising along. The question above of fine-wire is considering like platinum plugs in a car, they are cocky cleaning and don't require diggings though they volition notwithstanding accumulate lead deposits in the well.
Here'due south the model many of the pro's use to make clean and examination aviation plugs. It'due south on sale. Use promo lawmaking SSD3 to too get a free equipment cover with the auction toll.
https://aircraft-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?id=SPCT100A

Demo Video:

Last edited: Apr fifteen, 2021
Dan Thomas Final Approach

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I prefer glass dewdrop blasting for plugs, in a cabinet, merely because the bead is well-nigh invisible you have to be really diligent and use a low-cal and some strong reading spectacles and have a good look in that well to see that you don't have any bead stuck in the cleft between the steel and ceramic. Bead there will fall out into the cylinder and cause serious scoring.
The sparkplug cleaners use silicon carbide grit. It's really hard and really precipitous. That stuff for sure you desire to brand certain isn't stuck in the well, and information technology's besides much harder on the plugs. Both bead and silicon carbide will peen the ends of the electrodes if y'all nail too long, mushrooming the metal over a bit and closing the gap, making accurate gapping more than difficult.
GRG55 Final Approach Gone West

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Aztec Flyer

I have a Champion spark plug cleaner/tester. After using a dental pic to carefully (carefully!) remove the pb deposits I smash, but not for more than than i to 2 seconds. That'due south all that I've ever needed, and so regap, examination and put 'em dorsum in. If y'all are running a Lycoming annotation the nigh recent service message on the topic states copper based anti-seize now. I'm using Loctite C5-A.
https://world wide web.lycoming.com/sites/default/files/SI1042AH Approved Spark Plugs.pdf
mondtster En-Route

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I don't smash spark plugs, I've never found a need to. I just pick the large lead deposits out, check/set the gap, and rotate the plugs.
Bell206 Concluding Approach

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+ane. If whatsoever doubts a pressure bank check and/or resistance bank check may be in guild. Regardless, always recommend someone who is performing this for the offset time to follow the OEM procedures until they go a handle on the process. Gives a skilful foundation and a user-friendly reference for the log entry.
I used to, but with aggressive leaning during taxi (and LOP running at prowl), they stay quite make clean. If they looked to be fouled with oil I'd probably nail, but deposits are minimal and healthy in colour.
Dan Thomas Final Approach

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If I establish oily plugs I cleaned them with not-chlorinated brake cleaner first, bravado them dry, sometime several times to get them oil-gratis. Any oil in there will trap the grit. And oil getting into the blaster lumps upwardly the grit.
ColoPilot Line Upward and Wait

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Another case of the crazy aviation prices. With my motorcar, I don't bother to clean the spark plugs, at $iii each I'll simply spring for $twenty in new plugs, especially since after I have removed them, I might every bit well put in new ones. But at aviation spark plug prices, I'd exist cleaning them haha.
Regardless of what kind of bead blaster yous use, keep in mind that those beads can non be trapped by an oil filter. If whatever of them make information technology into a cylinder they can never be trapped past the oil filter and can make information technology past the rings into the crankcase. Accept all measures to see that no glass chaplet are left on the plug.
Salty Touchdown! Greaser!

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Repeat: The glass beads used in a dewdrop smash procedure are too modest to be trapped past an oil filter. Even though they would be introduced into the combustion chamber, they can make their way to crankcase and be circulated in the oil doing microscopic engine damage.
The point is to blow off the plug thoroughly after cleaning in an effort to remove all beads to forbid unnecessary engine habiliment.
I recall a resistance check and a bank check of spark plug operation under pressure is important.
Dan Thomas Concluding Approach

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Those drinking glass chaplet are huge compared to the other stuff a filter catches. The smallest chaplet are around .002" and the typical #10 is around .005". A 10-micron oil filter will grab stuff in a higher place 10 microns, which is .00039".
Bead shatters into smaller stuff, and the dust might get past filters, but the dust is far easier to accident out of a plug than a dewdrop wedged in the cleft betwixt the metal and ceramic. That's the critical stuff.

Difficult carbon breaks off the piston and cylinder head and gets everywhere and tears stuff up, as well. Information technology's the nature of these engines. Proper leaning tin can minimize that buildup.

3393RP and mondtster like this.
Huckster79 Pattern Altitude

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I can't lean for taxi- the Stromberg carb doesn't work that way... though I practice run Mogadishu when I can to assistance....
ColoPilot Line Up and Wait

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That was a funny autocorrect for mogas.

Huckster79 and AKBill like this.
Don't try and correct him, he "Repeated" himself. We all know the schoolyard rules - if you say Echo: there are no corrections allowed. Those chaplet don't have to follow the normal rules of physics. Echo: those beads don't have to follow the normal rules of physics.
I'm only going by a TSB I read decades ago. Took it for the truth and accept been conscientious with those chaplet always since.
I have non had fouling with massives but I am sold on fines. They price less per hour, never need gapping since the erode so lilliputian, you would never blast them. But use pick to become out the lead balls. There is dyno report that fines give couple a per centum more than BHP which should hateful less fuel/BHP which would mean gratis plugs with the fuel savings compared to massives..
Silvaire En-Route

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Personally I never employ a selection to get pb deposits out. wedging and prying with a option is a good way to fissure the ceramic. Use the vibrator, that's what it'due south for. Very gentle intrusion and no need to strength anything.
Llewtrah381 Pre-takeoff checklist PoA Supporter

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Appreciate the insights in this thread. I call up I'll pick up one of the vibrator-blazon cleaners.
I do have the boom blazon and have been picking out the lead carefully so blasting just for a few seconds then bravado out. Good point near the abrasive, though.

Which leads me to a question: looks like ATS sells a walnut beat out-based medium for this. Any thoughts/feel with that stuff? $2.50/bag seems reasonable!

https://shipping-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?id=78W
How are things in Somalia these days?
FORANE En-Route

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Installed a G3I harness:
https://world wide web.g3ignition.com/

Slick and Bendix magneto harness lead replacement allowing the utilize of automotive style spark plugs with
stock magnetos. Consummate harness conversion kits, with instructions to catechumen one or both magneto harnesses.

I run
NGK (3961) BR8ES-S
just change them at almanac. They are cheap enough to not carp with cleaning or testing. Of course I'g in an experimental...
3393RP En-Road

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Back in the 90s I had a couple of Kawasaki jet skis that used BR8ES plugs. I think I nevertheless have a couple in a drawer somewhere.
FORANE En-Road

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Yep, though at that place are a couple of unlike variants of the BR8ES (5422 and 3961). It's overnice buying plugs at $1.99 each.
The vibrating cleaner works really well
Would you use a vibrator on fines? I take never cracked the ceramic in 8000 hours. Am I that good? Probably.
Hank195 Filing Flight Program

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Standby for thread drift.....
All this talk of annoying blasting (or not blasting) spark plugs reminded me of my first job as an automobile mechanic (besides many years ago). But out of high school, I had no existent experience other than working on my own car and some friends cars. Later quite a few rejections, the owner of a modest foreign car shop non too far away said he would give me try. My first task is a tuneup on a VW Bug. As I drive the car in I'm thinking this is practiced I've worked on VW's earlier I'll knock this correct out. The boss says the book is over there for the specs and the plug cleaner is on the bench. The plug cleaner is i of those small sand blasters with an fastened cloth bag of abrasive like the ones discussed in this thread. I hadn't used 1 before but hooked it up to store air, a couple of quick blasts for cleaning, blew them out with shop air to get out the sand and the plugs looked similar new - cool. Plugs dorsum in, set the points and I go to offset the engine to set the timing- information technology cranks but no trace of attempting to beginning???? This is my commencement task, I can't ask for assist. Got to figure this out, what did I screw upward! Seems similar information technology must be ignition, but at that place is spark at the coil and plug wires, timing has to be shut, I drove it in. By now the possessor (and other mechanics) are checking on my progress. I sheepishly describe what happened and the troubleshooting I'chiliad doing try and resolve the problem, without success and thinking I'm washed on the first day. The boss thinks almost it, asks a dew more questions and finally says "that's weird - throw in a new set of plug". I do and the car starts instantly.
Old afterward I learn that the shop possessor adds a bit of graphite powder to the plug cleaner abrasive as a "stress test" for a new mechanic. The trace of conductive graphite left on the plug is nearly invisible but insures the plug won't fire even though it looks perfect.
So, in conclusion, if you do decide to blast, with an annoying medium of your selection - don't cull or add graphite.

Last edited: Apr 21, 2021
Huckster79 Blueprint Altitude

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I often just spray BrakeKleen on plugs and blow them dry with shop air. If they await clean inside with no lead deposits, I cheque gap, brush erstwhile antiseize from threads, rinse and repeat with shop air. I do sometimes use my bead blaster prepare to very low pressure level just long enough to achieve the task..I do not endeavour to make the plug shiny like new. I test internal resistance if the plugs are old Champion types.
Dana En-Route

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What's involved in doing the conversion? The website is a bit vague, they want y'all to pay $thirty to download the instructions.
FORANE En-Route

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You can buy the instructions or practise as I did and buy a completed wire harness set that includes the cap that screws onto a slick mag. It'due south plug and play but you will need to provide exact lengths of wire for each plug. I am very happy with it. The motor runs very shine. Inquiry the difference betwixt the 2 ngk plugs I mentioned earlier. Ane is preferred.
Dana En-Route

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Ane solid, and one the screw on cap?
FORANE En-Route

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Yeah, I apply the solid.
My titan doesn't need spark plug adapters because it's tapped for 14mm plugs. You might inquiry plug adapters also.