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Do spark plugs go bad?

Got this from a family member and was just wondering if the spark plugs could go bad.
Right now it’s garage art. But some people swear that the old NOS plugs worked
Better. What are your thoughts?
Not actually sure how old they are.

Gerry

I would totally use those. They don’t go bad unless they suffer some sort of physical damage, usually from dropping. That blister pack they’ve been chilling in for the last 40 years is way easier on the plugs than your combustion chamber.

X3 on using them. The way things are these days, they’re probably BETTER than anything made recently!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They can start-out bad: shorted out.
The electrodes wear down slowly. Re-gap to satisfaction.
The exteriors can get rusty and Corona grime. 0000 Steel wool and spray gloss clear.

Gosh I have not bought new plugs in several decades.

I’ve never seen packaging like that in my lifetime. Although they are probably perfectly well, I would save them for the nostalgia factor..

yeah kind of inclined to keep them as my garage art!!!

Gerry

The blister pack style was popular in non-auto parts stores. Like Sears, K-Mart, WalMart and the like. That plug number is still good and you can use those or buy new ones. The ones in the blister pack probably made in Toledo, OH New ones, probably Mexico.

I vote for nostalgic shop art too.

I had one of those AC Fire-Ring stickers when I was collecting stickers as a kid, I thought that one was.so cool. :cool2:

I have a similar "blister" pack of plugs, mine as R44S and must be a bit newer because they are a more basic (predominantly blue) package - there is no 'Fire-ring' logo.

I personally would not hesitate to use those.

I would look for a A “Best if Used By/Before” date indicates when a product will have the best flavor or quality

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgarblik (Post 6406977)

The blister pack style was popular in non-auto parts stores. Like Sears, K-Mart, WalMart and the like. That plug number is still good and you can use those or buy new ones. The ones in the blister pack probably made in Toledo, OH New ones, probably Mexico.

Packaging looks early 80s to me, but the fire ring logo may prove that incorrect.

What about Flint, MI, home of ACDelco?

https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/201...mer_ac_sp.html

Quote:

The site also was once the world headquarters for AC Spark Plug, one of the most iconic auto parts names in history.

For almost 100 years, the factories on North Dort Highway produced countless spark plugs, as well as oil filters, air cleaners, dashboard instruments, fuel pumps and a variety of other products.

It was a site that has seen several incarnations, but for decades was the AC headquarters, overseeing AC operations in plants across the world, including Texas, Wisconsin and England.

In 1925, before it was a division of GM, AC Spark Plug bought the plant on Dort Highway from the Dort Motor Co., which had recently built the factory there to produce Dort automobiles. The Dort Motor Co. went out of business in 1924. When AC moved in, it increased the facility's floor space to nearly 470,000 square feet.

AC's operations were based on their original location on Industrial Avenue, at the old Chevy in the Hole site, which was razed in 1976.

At the time, workers at the original AC plant on Industrial Avenue considered the new Dort Highway plant to be flashy and new and short on character.

Two years after acquiring the Dort Highway facility, AC founder Albert Champion died while on a business trip to France.

In 1929, General Motors bought the remaining AC stock from the Champion estate and in 1933, AC Spark Plug officially became a division of GM.

A 1975 Flint Journal article, with the headline "AC to demolish Industrial Ave. facility this month" read, "The 60-year-old complex, built by AC founder Albert Champion, has been phased out over several years. Many manufacturing operations, machinery, equipment and personnel have been absorbed into the main AC facilities on S. Dort Hwy., where seven manufacturing factories employ nearly 12,000 hourly and salaried employees."

At one time, Flint had a population of 200,000, while GM employed 80,000 people there. You can imagine how things went when GM scaled down to a thousand or two...

Carefully open them, use the plugs, then when you feel they are done ... pull them out, clean them up and put them back in the package :)

Just the other day I was reading about the progenitor of AC, Albert Champion. He was sued by his former business partners because they had already incorporated Champion Spark Plugs. So he simply went with his initials for his company. He must have been pretty sucessful, leaving his widow 15 million dollars when he died in 1927.

As stated, plugs don't 'go bad'. I've used 90+ year old NOS plugs in my old Model T Ford. AC plugs from back in the day were excellent, much better than the AC plug of the past 20 years.

Ebay ads are a good place for documentation.

The 1959 A. C. ad suggests the "fire ring" design was new.

1958 ads did not have the fire ring.

Checking newer ads, the last one I found with the fire ring design was 1972.

For What Its Worth.

Jon

If I remember correctly AC "R" resister plugs came out in the mid 1960's so they are no older than that. Check them for cracks and if none found I would definitely use them. What's the worst that could happen? You have to take them out?

Garage Art It Is

Honestly I am running auto lite plugs anyway!!!

Gerry

I'll be moving to TN before too long .. probably building a brandy new 30x60 shop will all the bells and whistles ... then I see the photo of your shop. To be honest I freakin love old barn shops, I feel way more at home in them, they feel way more cozy and relaxing to hang out in. It's the kind of place I've worked on cars my whole life, all the while wishing for a smooth concrete floor, nice electrical system, air system, HVAC, perfect lighting .. but it's just hard to hang out in a austere, 14 foot ceiling, expansive shop. Heck I worked for years in a shop with a compacted dirt/grease floor. Love the smell of the old shops.

I'm really hoping whatever property we buy ends up having and old barn shop, or at least a barn that can be turned into a shop? But am I going to want to work on cars, tractors, and equipment in a place like that at 65 years old?

I know, kind of a rant ... I want the new stuff, but I'd rather go sit in your shop.