What can cause my plugs to turn white if my car is bone stock?

[meliketoball]

Hey guys, I just checked my plugs right now and electrode is a grayish white. My car is stock other then an open air filter with metal intake piping, 1g BOV, ACCEL 8mm wires and NGK BPR6ES plugs gapped @ 0.28.

My car is running stock boost with stock fuel, all stock everything. I do get a CEL occasionally, the PO505 which is a bad ISC but other then that the scanner only reads that.

What can cause my plugs to turn that grayish white? The car drives fine other then a little sluggish in 2nd gear between 2000-2300 RPM.

Can an o2 sensor cause it to run lean?

Thanks for help in advance.

 

[Avionixx]

O2 sensor can force a lean condition if for some odd reason it's biased rich; hence reducing fuel supply. A biased O2 sensor can be the result of a faulty sensor or maybe you're just running so lean that even with the fuel trims at max compensation, the engine cannot reach stoichiometric.

 

[meliketoball]

Ok, what can that faulty sensor be? And if the car is running the car @ max compensation, what can I do to even everything out?

 

[turboglenn]

It's not faulty it's working perfect. The o2 sensor helps the ECU keep the cruise and idle air fuel ratios at 14.7:1 the optimum burn rate for no left over fuel. This burn is not brown like the wide open burn should be , it will be white. don't worry about it. Just think of it as your cars way of keeping it's plugs clean and getting the best miles per gallon as it can get. Forget about it and work on making the car faster.

 

[Avionixx]

I meant a faulty O2 sensor. Even if it's switching like it should, it doesn't do much good if it doesn't go all the way down to .2v

If you have a logger, take a look at your fuel trims and see where they're at. Then you can start to either fix things one by one and see if the numbers get closer to zero. Essentially what you want to look for is either unmetered air getting past the MAS or some kind of issue with fuel supply (clogged filter, dying pump, etc). My money is on a vacuum leak, but I would really start by checking the fuel trims.

 

[meliketoball]

Like the majority of tuners on this site, I do not have a logger and I don't think I have a vacuum leak for that I have 16 hg/in or in/hg at idle.

turboglenn: Hmm, never heard of white as normal. Hmmm, dsm's=mystery

 

[TunaTalon]

For images of spark plugs showing various engine problems see Spark Plugs -2

Beside the normal operation image it says "Grayish-tan to white in color indicates the plug is operating at the proper heat range as well as correct jetting and the cylinder is running healthy."

Hmmm a DSM without a problem? Probably missed something.

 

[Defiant]

Your plugs are showing white because of the elf piss that comes out of modern gasoline pumps.

Spark plug "reading" is mostly voodoo dreamed up by companies that sell plugs. It always has been- if a plug actually has enough tell-tale residue on it to be able to make a worthwhile diagnosis, the accompanying symptoms will be radical enough to make a plug-read redundant. Carburetors with chokes invalidated plug reading; run-on after engine shut-off while making a "plug cut run" destroys the result you were looking for; closed-loop feedback emission controls and the ungodly crap we're fraudulently being sold under the name of "gasoline" makes reading a plug these days useless.

Count your lucky stars you're not wasting the afternoon (or, more likely a week) hunched over a Colortune trying to find the "right" mixture.

Replace that dying ISC.

 

[meliketoball]

Your plugs are showing white because of the elf piss that comes out of modern gasoline pumps.

Replace that dying ISC.

Are you talking about V-power @ shell that "actively cleans everything" as I drive? Could be but, I'm asking you guys.

I consider shell because..well "AMPM" or "world gas" doesn't appeal to me as going for something that has more quality.

ISC has been changed..for the 6th time. I have a personal collection


TunaTalon: My plugs aren't a grayish tan, it is a grayish to white color but not powdery.

 

[qiklitltsi]

Ive always though the white was from the heat caused by the lean condition. The elf piss thing was funny.

 

[Defiant]

I consider shell because..well "AMPM" or "world gas" doesn't appeal to me as going for something that has more quality.

The "quality" you're buying is in their advertising budget. If you aren't near a refinery -within fifty miles- you're getting all your gasoline out of the same pipeline. "Bad" gas, other than the "best" gas being the same stuff, is a very, very rare occurrence. The best gas is whatever station in your area does the most business, because it's freshest.