BP5ES or BP6ES - which is better for my set-up?

[Johnny Haywire]

5 hours ago, worzella said:

Recent.. needs a bath and still working out a few last gremlins.. A million more pix on my tag line Shutterfly account.

 

Randy, your car truly a stunner. I looked a few albums and, wow, you've done quite a bit! That paint work is fantastic.

[Johnny Haywire]

I pulled the plugs out of the car on Saturday and they were pretty sooty, looking like it's running rich (pics attached below). Also noticed that the idle was set really high, not sure what's going on there. I adjusted it down a bit, but with no tach, I'm not sure where I'm at. Feels like around 900 RPM, probably down from 1,800 or thereabouts. The electric choke on the carb does not seem to be working properly. The car runs pretty rough upon start up, not terrible, but definitely won't stay running for the first minute or so unless I keep some pressure on the pedal. After a little while, it runs fine. Definitely need to pull that carb apart pronto.

 

The plugs were Bosch WR8DC+. I looked up compatible plugs and it seemed like the BP5ES was closer in heat range than the 6's, so I popped them in. I ended up bringing the car home that same day, so I put in about 40 miles on the highway with a few miles around town and the NGK look to be faring much better (pics below the Bosch). Fuel gauge said almost full, but I had no way of knowing, so I topped it up with regular 87 (Shell). Took less than 2 gallons, so gauge appears to work, or is at least broken in the perfect place...

 

While the engine does run quite smoothly, it's pretty gutless. I've had 100hp cars before and this doesn't feel close to that. Pulls more like a stock '60s Beetle on a good day. I'm suspecting a carb problem, maybe the 2ndaries aren't opening up (it has a Weber 32/36) or some other issue. Cap and rotor looked clean, did not check the timing yet. The vacuum hose for the advance is doing its job (to some extent), vacuum rises fine when the engine is revved.

 

I was told by my chase car that there were small puffs of smoke when I really laid into it in terms of gas pedal, but I myself couldn't see anything when looking in the rearview, so I don't think the valvetrain is terrible, but probably showing its age a bit.

 

Glad to finally have the car home so I can start going through it.

 

One thing I'm pretty certain of is that the last 5 or 6 times this car was started by the shipper, it probably ran for less than a minute or two each time.

 

What do you guys think of this plug scenario?

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2018 by Johnny Haywire
Had a duplicate image. Removed and replaced it with intended image.

[Johnny Haywire]

And one of the car, for good measure....

[jrhone]

Im no expert but those plugs don't look so bad...before you do a lot with the plugs...I'd get it running well first, that can have a HUGE effect on the plugs and how they are burning.  Adjust the carb, whats the condition of the ignition system?  Points? Pertronix? 

[Johnny Haywire]

Ignition looks stock except for an MSD-5 box. Visual inspection of the cap, rotor and points showed they were clean and nothing was heavily worn. I'll check/set the timing this week. The coil is Bosch and looks pretty old. The carb most certainly needs to be gone over.

[doog]

On 2/26/2018 at 11:53 PM, John76 said:

Stock compression ratio?  Are you burning Premium (91) or Regular (87) gas?

I ran BP6ES plugs with Premium gas in my stock '76 (w/ E12 head) and always had sooty/oily plugs.

Switched to hotter BP5ES and Regular gas ......and now it runs better than ever and the plugs are picture perfect after 1,000 miles.

Improved fuel economy too.... now getting 26-28 mpg.

 

I'm about to change the plugs in my '02 and stumbled across this thread.  I don't understand why, if you switched to a hotter plug (e.g, BP5ES) that you'd also want to fill your tank with a lower octane fuel; that would seem to be a recipe for pre-detonation:  wouldn't you want the same or, perhaps, a higher octane fuel with a hotter plug?

[jimk]

Some info for carbies

http://4secondsflat.com/Spark_plug_reading.html

[zinz]

That's a great link, Jim.