2025-08-18 Back to Basics

Air Pump

When I ran the engine after the cleaning, there was a squeal from the air pump.  One option was to remove the air pump etc, from the engine.  This is reasonable, but it raised a concern. The air is pumped through the exhaust outlets, as seen in the picture

The concern is that one of these connectors, which looks like a brake line connector, will snap off. Now, that would suck!!  

Option two: cut the belt driving and just leave it in place. So that is the best option right now.   Running the engine now, the squeal is gone, but still an uneven idle and still a little rich.  

Spark Plugs

As I have been told for years, there are three things an engine needs: air, fuel, and spark.  We have fuel, we have air, because I swapped out the dry K/N filter for an OE paper one.  Time to verify the condition of the plugs. When I test drove it, I pulled plug #1, and it was black rich.  Going from left to right, #1 - #4

A closer look 

Plug #1

Plug #2

 

Plug #3

Plug #4

Plug #4 is the closest to the best-running piston.   Note: The fibres on the plug are from the cloth that was used to wipe down the tips.  

Checked the gap on the plugs, according to the manuals, it is supposed to be either 0.024" or 0.025".  The reality is slightly different....

Yeah, they are all over the place.  Okay, time to clean them up, regap, and reinstall.   So, brush and clean them in the sonic cleaner.  This is what the cleaner looks like before the cleaning

Well, after the cleaning cycle, this is what the jar of the plugs looked like...  

Then spray with parts cleaner to get any leftover crap out.  Regapped to 0.025" 

To make it a no-brainer painted the wires with the cylinder number :) I suspect I may replace them in the future, but right now, they make my life a little easier.

Conclusion 

Did it make a difference?  That is the real question.  Try this video

This is sooo much better.  Need to run it for 20 minutes and recheck the plugs to see if any difference they made.  But I did notice, it smells less like unburned fuel :P More to come.