Reading Spark Plugs.

[BeepBeepRR]

Ok my friend called me this morning and said he was broke down and had his Ram hauled to my house. Smells foul of unburnt gas. 3 or so weeks ago I installed new injectors for him and it has been running fine until today. I pulled all of the plugs and layed them from left to right 1,3,5,7,2,4,6,8 I was thinking a couple leaking fuel injectors. Its hard to start and takes a few seconds to start almost like its either flooded or no spark. Anyhow Im posting these pictures of the plugs maybe you guys will know what these plugs show. Edit sideways pictures now are top to bottom 1 through 8.

1 dry
3 black sooty
5 kinda wet
7 dry
2 sooty + crusty stuff on it
4 dry
6 dry
8 dry

 

[Don Frelier]

I would assume the new injectors are OK, at least initially.
So I would check the cap, rotor and wires particularly pull the wires out of the cap and check for corrosion.
Then you are back to the injectors.
They can be checked with a 9V battery, an air line with about 20psi and some lacquer thinner in the hose.
Touch the wires on the battery and they should fire.
Plugs are pretty inexpensive, toss them.
BTW you can get a nice cap rotor plug wire set from Rock Auto for about $45 for a 5.2 or 5.9L

 

[BeepBeepRR]

We also did a tune up before the injectors about 2 weeks before the injectors. Cap,Rotor,Wires and plugs. Im starting to suspect the cheap wires from Oreillys. He had a misfire on cylinder 5 and that went away with the new tuneup.

 

[Don Frelier]

Here's the one I used recently.
Very good quality.
I would think even a cheap wire set would work OK for a few years?

 

[beanhead]

Cut the threads off to see everything..
That said, #s 3 and 2 are fouled/either soot or oil, 5 is on the way there(could be from the misfire) Others look a little rich at idle , but tough to tell with them being reddish colored, usually from fuel cleaners/additives/octane boosters. Can't see what it's doing much at cruise and WOT with the threads on though. Interesting for an injected vehicle... all sensors clean and properly functioning?
Honestly, since it broke down, the first thing I would suspect is anything new that was added and double check all the connections. 'New' parts don't have the best reputation these days.

 

[Ron H]

I'd be inclined to have the timing checked out, not knowing the miles and usage. There could be some carbon deposits causing some fouling so would run some cleaner through the motor (gas) and motor oil. If running crappy gas for years a cleaning isn't a big deal. Run a couple tanks of good gas and see if this makes a difference and do the same with the oil. I ran a qt of trans oil for a few thousand miles about two oil changes (advice from a bud who works at a dealer); but there are other products that some find to their liking and takes less time such as a dose of seafoam. Those crappy plugs make me think of this. Smelling raw gas though could be a fuel pressure issue or a bad/fouled injector or more where an internal cleaning might help...aside from the tips on some new parts posted.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

Here is something I checked. I took out all the plugs and turned the engine over a few times. number 4 cylinder was gushing out gas. I suspect that injector took a dump. None of the other cylinders was dumping gas like that one. It was so bad it was pouring out of the spark plug hole. Pretty sure I have the problem figured out. But why all the other fouled plugs? Number 4 Does look like it was cleaner than the others.

So would it be possible for one injector to cause this on other cylinders? The only thing I can say to make sense would be. Number 4 gushing gas caused low pressure on the others? Does that make sense?

The oil smells like fresh gas. So that will be changed tomorrow but I want to make sure I get the injectors sorted out. One injector at Oreillys is 47.00 I can buy a whole set off amazon "Bosche" brand for 100.00 free shipping amazon prime.

 

[Don Frelier]

You can clean one of the old ones in the way I described and stick it in. They last a very very long time. Magnum engines do not fire the injectors sequentially, they fire odd bank and even bank.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

The old ones are gone sadly.. Most of them were cracked anyway. I should have new injectors tomorrow or the next day at the latest. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.