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Solution To Pickup's Spark Plug Problem
Alan Linda, New York Mills, Minn.: “I own a 1997 Chevrolet 1/2-ton pickup equipped with a 305 cu. in. V-8 engine, which was using a lot of oil - about a quart every 600 miles. The photo shows what the no. 7 spark plug looked like every 600 miles or so. I wasn’t driving the pickup much at the time, so replacing the plug that often wasn’t a big problem.
  “But last year I started driving the pickup a lot more and replacing the plug became more of a job. One day when the engine was a quart low I decided to dump in an entire quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. I soon noticed the engine started to run better and better. After about 600 miles I removed the plug and it looked clean as a whistle. However, no one could explain why. Not only did the plug quit fouling, but the engine stopped using oil.
  “I told my local Chevy dealer what had happened and he asked if the plug I was removing happened to be from the number 7 cylinder. I was flabbergasted, because yes, it was. Then he led me into his shop and showed me the intake manifold gasket for a small block Chevy V-8. He pointed out an imprint in the gasket between the no. 7 and 8 cylinders and said that was where the EGR valve had been mounted, and that it was a weak spot where a lot of small block V-8’s leaked oil. He said built-up oil deposits cause oil to well up over that spot, and then the no. 7 cylinder inhales it.”



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2017 - Volume #41, Issue #1