and today i have mostly been...

[Welly]

Yes I've seen the 'brown ring' on spark plugs like that before, it doesn't mean they are letting-by or anything, it's called something....err....hang on.....

This is what Denso have to say: The 'corona', a brown deposit on the insulator, is the glow that appears above the spark plug housing around the base of the insulator. The appearance of a corona is not detrimental to the operation of the spark plug. Contrary to common belief, this condition is caused by electrical stress in the air adjacent to the insulator. Often, the corona stain is mistaken for spark plug gas leakage, but again, this does not affect spark plug performance.


I've found in the past that some spark plugs seem to 'go off' all of a sudden making cold starts difficult. Hopefully the mini-service will see it alright.

[steve_earwig]

Interesting, cheers for that guys. I think what they're basically saying is the spark is happening outside the plug, it's arcing between the cap and the body. And it doesn't matter

[Welly]

According to NGK the brown stain is caused by microscopic particles of oil in the atmosphere around the plugs, especially found in cars with deeply-mounted plugs.

A brown stain – often mistaken for gas leakage – is sometimes observed in a ring around where the insulator joins the metal shell of the spark plug. This discolouration is generally called Corona Stain and is the result of oil particles present in the air around the engine adhering to the insulator surface.

The Corona Stain is often seen on spark plugs that are installed deep into the engine such as on many four valves per cylinder engine applications. This is because oil particles are not blown away by air circulating around the engine compartment and thus adhere to the insulator surface. It is important to understand that Corona Stain causes no deterioration to the function of the spark plug.

[steve_earwig]

...brown stain...

Maybe if there's oil everywhere but the yoyo didn't loose/use a drop in 14,000km and is as dry as.

What do Champion say, aliens?

[DaiRees]

That's very interesting. The plugs on my 406 used to do that, I always assumed it was heat related, kinda scorch marks where the ceramic bit meets the metal bit. You learn something new every day...

I also have some experience of the thing about plugs "going off", I had a Mondeo for a while that used to suddenly develop a misfire under load after about 12 - 14K miles. Service interval said that the plugs should be changed at 30K, so I used to clean and gap them then put them back. Took it to a garage with the misfire one day and the bloke said "change the plugs and if that doesn't work change the leads", new plugs cured it. Started changing the plugs at every 10K service after that, and it used to need a set of leads around every 30K.

[steve_earwig]

Rather than pour even more off-topic guff in Sam's genny thread...

So there I was, feet up drinking a coffee when I heard a tractor right outside - "Oh no, now what?"


Took a pic, when out to talk to the old boy in charge. "Hello neighbour," he says (neighbour? Well, maybe, I don't take much interest) What's he doing? The firemen/piss artists have decided to fill up the bit of ground between t'wife's front wall and the awful slab of concrete they stuck out the back of the firehouse for their anniversary piss-up a couple of years back, he says because it was waterlogged. Well yes, but at that time so was our garden, and next door's basement was flooded, so? Anyway, how would he know? We still have all the wood left over from that anniversary piss-up they didn't burn stacked in front of us, plus a big pile of sand/rubble/weeds left over from when they did the façade out the front of us and I can't imagine anyone would be checking up on it. TBH the only bit that was any problem out where was where I park the yoyo, which started turning into quagmire so I got 3 tonnes of gravel and shoved that over it. "Oh yes," he says, "we'll level this off and it'll be a nice lawn here." Oh, er, if you say so. I'm starting to think that maybe someone's doing some building and needed somewhere to stick the soil, and it'll probably stay in a big heap forever."And then" he continues "we're getting the façade on the back of the firehouse done." I should be overjoyed but I can't help feeling that it'll be a complete mess out there, lorries driving back and forth churning it all into mud again, more piles of left over garbage and we'll probably have to park down the road again.

And then, half an hour later, our neighbour to the left had a sodding great container lorry full of old bits of old wood dumped outside his house. I know he's skint so I presume it's firewood but... There's tonnes of it, it's pallets, old doors, boards, chipboard (which gives off toxic fumes if you burn it) all sorts of junk, which I presume he's got through his new job working for the company that does the bins. Anyway, this pile (it's too dark to take a pic now) extends from his front fence to the pavement, it's an eyesore. And rain is forecast for the weekend.

One village, too many idiots

[Doggy]

Well, at least the snow's thawing....

[steve_earwig]

Well, there is that, yes. It's taking its bloody time though. They came to read the water meter today but the hole it's in by the terrace here is still under a foot of snow.

[steve_earwig]

A quick pic of the heap

That's from the terrace, I wanted to go out the front to take a clearer one but by the time I'd got me shoes on he'd started loading it in his trailer to ship inside. I actually feel quite sorry for him, he's hurt his knee and only his mum is helping (not quite sorry enough to offer a hand obviously). No sign of his daughters or son-in.law, and the constant stream of teenagers visiting his daughters seems to have dried up too.

Meanwhile, another trailer load of crap got tipped out in front here, I should go and snap the tractor 'cos it's another rusty antique but I don't want to get involved. Gawd, if this place had curtains I'd be twitching them

[Doggy]

That'll all be hidden once there's leaves on the trees.

Just finished cutting my week's supply of firewood - it's not done anything for my hangover.

[steve_earwig]

Looks like a couple of his colleagues turned up and most of it has gone, the rest is covered in nylon. I'd have thought it would defeat the object if any of it was still there in spring.

The two trees nearest the camera, an apple and a plumb, will be firewood next winter as they've both had it, the apple may even fall over and save me some work.

I've just started our 8th pallet of firewood, there are 2 more after this one. I guess it doesn't matter if we run out, we're heating with sunshine anyway.

After years of intensive research I can reliably state that the best way to avoid a hangover is not to drink alcohol in the first place. A cheaper way to achieve the same effect is to bang your head against a wall until you pass out.

[Welly]

And to make matters worse someone's shoved a shitty old Rav 4 outside

[steve_earwig]

I know! I have to look at that every day. It wasn't there earlier but when I came back from shopping just now there the bloody thing was again. That car's an eye sore, looks like it's not been washed in months! The owner should be ashamed

[Moose]

Drove the new motor 160 miles oop t'north to my folks and immediately took my old man to the nearest scrapie looking for a passenger side bump trim - no look though bugger

[GingerMagic]

Random.

If you want a bump trim, I have a set of very good ones ( not drivers door though ) - send me a PM and we can sort something out.