Anybody use a pneumatic spark plug cleaner?

[Fritz The Cat]

Started to order one then read a review from a guy who says that abrasive gets wedged up inside the plug and ends up in the cylinder. This kinda spooked me.

 I'm not getting one for the bike or car but rather for my B&S powered lawn mower and edger. Seems like every time I go to use them I have to replace the spark plug before they will crank. B&S sucks and I won't be buying any more of their engines if I can help it but I'm stuck with thes two for now.

[solo1]

I used one many years ago. It worked ok.  I always blew out the spark plug with compressed air to get any leftover sand out.  The only caveat was to wipe off the oil deposit first before cleaning it with the sand/air cleaner.  It now is just cheaper and easier to buy a new plug, IMHO.

[Dave Ritsema]

Have used one for years in my power equipment engines. Like Wayne said, I first use some carb cleaner to remove the oil residue, blow it dry and then use the plug cleaner. After I am done, another quick blast with the air hose to remove any remaining grit and your good to go. I have been using the same one that I bought in the early 80's with no issues.

[The Anvil]

You'll find one in every general aviation mechanic shop. They work great but you DO need to blow the abrasive media out of the plug afterward.

[R J]

Have used one for years in my power equipment engines. Like Wayne said, I first use some carb cleaner to remove the oil residue, blow it dry and then use the plug cleaner. After I am done, another quick blast with the air hose to remove any remaining grit and your good to go. I have been using the same one that I bought in the early 80's with no issues.

Same as Dave here.     I bought it in 57 when I had a station in California with 3 other CHiPS.   I was the 1st transfered to another area so I was only in the station about 2 years.    Mine is a Champion, Champion spark plug had them built and sold them.    In all these years the only maintenance I've done to this one is regularly change out the sand..    You would be shocked to see the crap that comes out of those plugs.   Like the others, lawn mower, weed eater, edger, snow blower and of course the go karts is all it is used for now.

The key is clean the oil and residue off the plug, and after running the sand blast on it, to air hose the inside of the open end of the plug.

[hubcapsc]

There was one at the service station at the corner back in 1972... they let me use
it to clean my fouled 2-stroke dirt bike plugs... it worked 

-Mike

[Jeff K]

I use mine a lot. And I bought my Dad one too.

[3W-lonerider]

it's not the briggs and stratons fault that they won't start..it's the friggen crappy gas..i work for a relatively large rental company..we have alot of equipment that uses briggs and tucumsey engines..we had alot of trouble from all these engines till we started putting startron in the gas..that aleviated alot of the start problems..so don't blame the engine because of the crappy gas we have now adays.

http://mystarbrite.com/startron/

[RP#62]

You'll find one in every general aviation mechanic shop. They work great but you DO need to blow the abrasive media out of the plug afterward.

What I liked about the one we had in our shop was that it had an integral high tension unit and you could test fire the plug while it was under pressure (we were using 125 psi shop air).  It was always amazing to me how many plugs would fire fine at ambient pressure, then fail to fire or fire weakly when under pressure.  The high tension unit also worked great for testing scorpions, but that's a different story.
-RP

[tonyfan70]

it's not the briggs and stratons fault that they won't start..it's the friggen crappy gas..i work for a relatively large rental company..we have alot of equipment that uses briggs and tucumsey engines..we had alot of trouble from all these engines till we started putting startron in the gas..that aleviated alot of the start problems..so don't blame the engine because of the crappy gas we have now adays.

http://mystarbrite.com/startron/

Probably right about the gas being shitty. I stopped by a Loves Truck Stop last week to fill up the rig. When I entered the door, I saw a sign that had info on it regarding fuel they had sold with too much ethanol(?) in it. Said if you bought it and used it, the fuel was trashing small engines. Melting pistons due to high heat and whatnot. Said if the buyer had a problem and had proof of purchase, the station would pay for repairs.

REALLY sucky thing is...who keeps fuel receipts? For small purchases, I mean?

[YoungPUP]

MY dad's got one, came from Grandpa's place.  Think it may be made out of stone.  Use it all the time for small engines.