Specks of black on plugs, fat or lean?

I ran the 1/8 mile on Sat. and when I checked the plugs there was still cadium on the top of the plugs, all 8, and no heat on the ground strap. But I did notice some small black specks on the insulator, looks like detonation specks like you would see on a n.o.s. motor. The full run egt's never got above around 960 deg. and all 8 were around 80 deg off each other. I did ,however spray it down good with prisam prior to the run, could it have produced the specks? I run a 509 Chevy with 459cc big dukes with I think around 89cc chambers. The blower is a 14/71 retro HH littlefield at 25% over, made appox. 29 lbs. of boost, around 11.0 to 11.5 compression. The cam is .836 in. .816 ex. ,at .050 duration is 290 deg in. and 316 deg ex. with a 116 lobe separation. I have the cam 4 deg. retarded. Timing was fixed at 30 deg. Fuel pump is an enderle 1100. Is it possible that I'm so lean that it won't build heat in the exhaust but still detonate? Or could I be so rich that it detonates like a n.o.s. motor will if it's too rich? It ran pretty good for a Top Dragster with a glide, went 4.03 in the 1/8 with a .937 60ft. and I pedaled it once right after the shift to stop light tire shake. Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

 

Did you start it on alky or gas. Gas will leave deposits on the plugs.

 

Start with a little gas but use a set of warm-up plugs, can't remember if my crew used a little gas on the race plugs or not.

 

Sorry, I posted the wrong page, here is the correct page.
Go here http://www.dragstuff.com/techarticles/reading-alcohol-spark-plugs.html

 

manager

Hey Bob, are'nt you the new Superformance manager?

 

top fuel

You go Jody. Add alittle nitro and run TF at the Rock!

 

Nope, where did ya hear that at

 

Mike, thanks for the reply. No I didn't clean them with brakecleaner, and I forgot to mention that since this was a division race I was running top lube in the fuel, one bottle per 54 gal. drum. I'll try to clean them and let you know. Also, the wind was kicking all day sat. and it's possible that some sand could have made it into the hat.

 

How does anti-sieze play in to this whole thing?

I put it on my plug threads but I'm real careful to stay away from the plug reading end.

Would anti-sieze make black specks?

Is it oil, what's the leakdown % of your cylinders?

 

Yeah, I also use anti-sieze on my plugs. The motor was fresh it was the second pass on the rebuild. Haven't checked leakdown. Spike with Gorr Fuel Systems said that it could have been rich, cold egt's, and did what he called carbon arcing. He said that it could have been hunting for a ground and all the fuel in the cylinders built up on the plug insulator and may have arced off the insulator to the plug leaving the black spots behind.

 

Is it possible that the seals in the front of blower are bad and allowing oil to get into cylinders? Just thinking out loud.

 

We saw some stuff on our warmup plugs after using the prism. Wasn't really a black spec, and it was on the cad of the plugs, but we didn't run them, so they didn't get that hot. Were your plugs new?

 

Thats sort of the problem, I reused a set of plugs from the last race because at that race they never got hot or a full pull on them. Hated to throw away a set of plugs with only a burnout and 330ft pass on them away. They had only been to appox. 900deg. egt.

 

How about this:
that contraption on top that eats up nylatron has to end up somewhere.........

Bob

 

I have to admit Bob, that is one thing that never occured to me . The blower only has appox. 14 to 15 runs on it. Could the strips still be wearing in? In top dragster we are not concerned so much about the most boost, just consistant boost. We may not strip a blower all year, if we have no problems. Thanks for the reply. Jody Stroud

 

Wouldn't we all have little black specs on are plugs if it was nylatron?