# Snowblower Spark Plug Analysis



## mayhem (Aug 25, 2006)

Recently was given a Simplicity 860 2 stage blower. Prior owner said he was unable to get it running and bought a new Toro, took it home, pulled the plug out and it was all gross. Cleaned it, checked the oil and ran some gumout in the carb and seafoam through the gas tank...fired on the first pull. Now it won't start again, so I'm back in diagnosis mode.

Pulled the plug and it was all nasty again. Wondering if anyone can help me diagnose this issue...I'm thinking its oil fouled and that may mean the piston rings are shot, but I honestly don't know, so I snapped a photo and included it here. This is the plug that was in there when i got the blower. It was covered with this glop, but when I cleaned it and regapped it, it looked new so I didn't bother replacing it...can't imagine a new one would make a difference with this issue.

Oil level has not changed in the motor, when I had it running I ran a full tank through it with some seafoam in it. It ran pretty smoothly, but I thought the revs seemed low for full throttle comapred to my Ariens 824, maybe its just running rich? If I have oil in the combustion chamber, its not enough to turn the exhaust blue and not enough to make a noticable impact on the oil level.

Motor is a Briggs Sonw Tek 8hp.

Any thoughts?


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## ProSeasons (Nov 30, 2000)

Clean it again and see if it'll fire up again. I know it's not but that crud looks like anti- seize on the plug. Is this condition known as a cold fouled spark plug? I wonder what that is? It's on the plug shims too, see it?

Definition for a cold fouled spark plug: Wet fuel/oil deposits can be caused by "drowning" with raw fuel mix during cranking, over-rich carburetion or fuel injection or imprioer fuel oil ratios. Weak ignition can also contribute to this condition.

The cold fouled plug looked like it has that anti-seize stuff on it like yours does.

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/plugs.html


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

Maybe try a new plug, see if it happens again.


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## mayhem (Aug 25, 2006)

A new plug is cheap s its easy enough to try it out, I'l pick one up and give it a shot.

Incidentally, for those who have noticed I have two active snowblower threads, this is an entirely separate machine and this issue is unrelated to the other thread. Two snowblowers that I'm working on...when I'm done it'll be nice to have a pair of really good, heavy duty blowers.


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## AC2717 (Jun 20, 2009)

looksl iek you might have loosened gunk in the system with the seafoam and cleaner. buy one or two more plugs and run a full tank again, then check the plug I think it is just going through the loose gunk.

Should be alright


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## hydro_37 (Sep 10, 2006)

turn the engine over a BUNCH of times before you put the new plug in too.


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## mayhem (Aug 25, 2006)

Like run the starter without ignition or fuel and blow the stuff out the plug hole?


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## hydro_37 (Sep 10, 2006)

if you can shut the gas off do that before cranking the engine
let it spin and watch the crap come out....lol


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