Help with Spark Plugs and electrical problems

[edb_app]

I have a 75 Duster /6. Lately the car has been not receiving enough power at night to run the headlights, turn signal and brakes. If I come up to a light I either have to two foot it to keep it running or it will just start surging (dim, bright, dim, bright) the headlights and then stall. It seems to not be able to handle all the lights on and still drive... any ideas?

Also today I thought I would check out the spark plugs and rockers and arms... and here is a picture of what the 1,5,6 plugs (closest to the back of the engine compartment going forward) looked like. 2,3,4 are all clean looking. What could cause this?

Oh and heres a little background info. We had some troubles with the night time stalling and were told to replace the ballast resistor... so we did that... right after we did that the car would not start at all! So we put the old one back on and barely made it home... figured out the NSS was loose.... not sure how that happened but thats what caused that. Ever since that day the car is having problems starting, staying started once in gear (unless I push the gas and brake while placing it in gear then she runs fine), she has been getting really hot, boiling the fuel (placed rubber vacuum line tubing over the fuel line yesterday to see if that helps) stalling for no reason. Did a carb rebuild a couple weeks back and everything seemed fine until the temp got over 80 degrees here. Any ideas?!?! Thanks everyone!

 

[briankaplan]

sounds like you got the common problem with Mopars,
Not enough power at an idle.
it's alternator problem. Not enough juice at an idle.
Start with an Alt. check. then check all grounds.
You could go with an constant output voltage regulator.
Good luck, and let us know what happens.

 

[edb_app]

sounds like you got the common problem with Mopars
Not enough power at an idle.
it's alternator problem. Not enough juice at an idle.
Start with an Alt. check. then check all grounds.
You could go with an constant output voltage regulator.
Good luck, and let us know what happens.

How do I know what size alternator to get? And any ideas about the plugs?

 

[briankaplan]

Sorry I can't help you with the plugs. I'm running a 340.
There is a lot of guys here who are better with the /6's.
But when I had the champions in it. It would load up like
crazy. I have gone with Autolites now. Haven't had to change
them in a while. I was changing them twice a summer with the
champs.
Good luck.

 

[mopar head]

Plugs are oil fouling bad. Get your ignition/charging system straightened away, then perform a compression or leakdown test. those few plugs looks if they`re hardly fireing, if at all. Fouling can be caused by valve guides, seals, or worn rings. If this is an original engine? maybe time for a rebuild. good luck 8)

 

[tedsweet]

with plugs that fouled its amazing it idles at all.

 

[edb_app]

with plugs that fouled its amazing it idles at all.

I know they are bad! But what would cause this? I want to fix the problem not just know its there and say... "okay its time to buy new plugs AGAIN!"

Please let me know if its to rich/lean... idles to high/low. Bad valves, leak somewhere... bad gas... ANYTHING!!! I will replace them tomorrow... how long should I wait to see if the problem and gunk appears again?

Thanks again!

 

[blufie]

I know they are bad! But what would cause this? I want to fix the problem not just know its there and say... "okay its time to buy new plugs AGAIN!"

Please let me know if its to rich/lean... idles to high/low. Bad valves, leak somewhere... bad gas... ANYTHING!!! I will replace them tomorrow... how long should I wait to see if the problem and gunk appears again?

Thanks again!

Exactly what Mopar Head said. Fouled plugs affect ignition, ignition affects idle, low or pulsing idle affects alt output but so do bad grounds, failing amp meter gauges, etc... You can try to get the ignition as dialed in as possible but the plugs will foul again until you correct the issue(s).

Oil in combustion chamber can be caused by lots of things. Oil running down though bad valve seals/guides, churning up past bad piston oil rings, sucking through blown head gaskets, etc... The only one of these that is relatively easy to correct is the valve seals. Anything else you do requires taking the head off at a minimum. Sometimes you can visually determine the valve seal condition (especially if you find solid chunks of them floating around under the valve cover), but I have usually found that if the seals are gone, most likely its time to check the guides and valve seats anyway and this requires machine shop work. You mentioned overheating which is another possible symptom of blown head gasket (also stuck thermostat, plugged radiator, etc...). Any oil in the radiator water? or Water in the oil (foamy light brown looking)?... just another symptom to look for.

Running too rich or too lean, timing off, etc... aren't the source of oil fouling but could affect the idle enough that misfiring oil-fouled plugs and the extra draw from lights become the show stopper. If you only have one or two bad plugs you may want to try to clean them every few days/weeks to try and get by but eventually you have to deal with the source of the problem. I would have someone do a leakdown test with a sniffer to see whats what. This test presurizes a cylinder with a constant air pressure, and measures where the leaks happen and how fast. Bad rings rings cause air to move out the crankcase, bad intake valves cause air to move out of the carb, exhaust out the tailpipe, etc... Once you know where the biggest issues are you will know wether you get to replace valve seals, pull the head and have it rebuilt, re-ring (rebuild) the short block, or in worst case scenario rebuild the block and the head. If you go the rebuild route and find no obvious sources ofr oil or heat issues check for cracks in head/block also.

No magic answers that I know of but the /6 is pretty easy on the wallet to fix up and will run forever on a solid rebuild with proper maintenance. Good luck.

 

[cudajim]

I would replace the valve guide seals right away cause they are almost always bad on a car that old and will cause all kinds of oil usage problems including fouling plugs. You don't have to pull the head off, just the valve train and use a screw type spring compressor. Be sure to also use compressed air in the cylinders to keep the valves from falling down. It's a pretty easy job, takes about 2 hours. After that change plugs and get er to idle properly and also check out alternator output voltage at a fast idle. It should be about 14 volts.