I have a little oil coming from the front of my Edelbrock performer intake, I just put a bead of silicone on it not using the supplied end seals. I don't seem to have a vacuum leak the needle on my gauge stays steady.

My ? is: The two front most spark plugs are very black the next 2 are black but not as bad as the front 2, the other 4 plugs are a nice golden brown look good. I ran the plugs all last summer about 2500 miles.
The plugs are Bocsh Platinum HR9BPY- R3 891 gapped at .055

Cheers
Eric

 

Get rid those platinum plugs and run a stock plug from a brand of your choice.

 

I changed them up, put the AC Delco R46SZ back in same gap of .055
I'm hoping not to have to pull the intake, replacing that turkey tray again. I'm going to try and stuff some silicone along the front, with the intake on.
Do you think that could be fouling up the front plugs ?

 

No, its jus an oil leak. Generally it won't stick to oil soaked RTV, clean it really good and see.

 

Thanks Eric, I'll have to look into why the #1 and 2 cylinders are making the plugs foul up like they are. While 3 and 4 are questionable. I figured it was caused by the oil leak/small vacuum leak.

 

Any special reason for that? Spark likes to jump from sharp points/corners and the platinum electrodes last for many more thousands of miles than any other non-platinum/iridium electrode. The engine will run better for longer with the newer technology plugs than the older style. Especially when using a newer technology HEI distributor. Sometimes newer really is better.

 

And sometimes its not. Newer Technology HEI distributor? Platinum lugs are designed for long life, you will get better performance from std plug. I've seen the same issue of carbon build up with carbureted engines on them.

 

I actually switched over from the Delco's to the Bosch last year, its funny you say the older style plugs work better because the AC Delco's I took out the year prior were in better shape than the Bosch plugs.
I'll be sticking to the AC Delco's and will check them in a couple of months.

 

What intake gaskets? Black and dry or oily? I had good luck with Bosch Platinum's in my Olds 307.

 

I used the turkey tray, black and dry. I know my ebrock carb is running a little rich but I really didn't see that on the delco's in the past. I figured it was due to my intake leak, it started leaking last spring but wasn't to bad so I left it alone. The oil leak hasn't gotten any worse but I'm sure it won't get any better haha.
I'm going to pull the delco's I just put in after our holiday's and see how they look.

 

I just switched over from a R45S to a double platinum AC Delco 41-833 on my 70 Cutlass convertible with a stock 350. My car feels a lot better and smoother.

 

One thing about platinums is the fine electrodes foul easier. I found that when I ran AC Delco Rapidfire platinum plugs my 403 suddenly starting running shitty, found a couple fouled. I found copper NGK's ran the smoothest of any plugs, new Chinese AC Delco and Autolites aren't as good as they used to be.

 

The platinums had the car running really smooth when I had first installed them, They ran great all summer. When I pulled it out after storage this spring it started to run a little ruff but figured it was just the fuel that sat all winter. So after a few trips and a fresh tank of gas it still ran the same. That's when I pulled the plugs and noticed they were fouled up much more than the year prior.
Its running great at the moment I'm going to try to seal the oil leak without having to pull the intake.

 

I had luck with cleaning it with brake cleaner and pushing the RTV in there really good and sitting overnight. I am not sure if it is the crooked Edelbrock manifolds but a very tall bead is always needed to seal the ends on the Olds V8.

 

so you have natural gas in your house and develop a leak. In your china cabinet your wife has some fine china with nice Pt rings around the edges.

Your house explodes without warning.

Why?

Methane species radicals spontaneously oxidize (aka burst into flames) in the presence of O2 and Pt. Its how part of your Cat works (not the cat that meows)

So Pt plugs in todays cars is not exactly an accident. The more hydrocarbons burnt in the cylinders the better for you, rather than burning it in the cat.

However, there is a consistent problem with olds motors being sensitive to plugs - more so than any other make AKAIK. (to drive the point home I have found that as long as you screw anything into a ford windsor motor, it will run)

I theorize it has to do more with 1960s combustion chamber technology that JUST SO HAPPENED to accidently work halfway decent with tier1 emissions standards with respect to NOx radicals, and todays E10 laced gas. You end up with essentially a lean misfire in a perfectly jetted motor, which of course, fouls plugs.

pay the extra 10-20 cents per gallon at the flying J to get 100% gas and see if they foul. no oil company, automaker or govt agency is going to solve this for you, because, well, they just dont care about the .001% of the car population....