Owner Change/rotate spark plugs?

In article ,
Aaron Coolidge wrote:

wrote:
: Copper gaskets can be annealed by heating red hot and quenching in
: cold water.

That's how you harden them.
To anneal them, heat them red hot and let them cool gradually.


WRONG!! Copper behaves the same way as aluminum -- quenching from red
hot results in softening -- not hardening.

Steel wants to cool slowly to soften, though.

Jon Woellhaf wrote:

At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?

New gaskets cost $.19 each, with a 20% discount on a box of 100. Typical charges
for an A&P's time in this neck of the woods are $50/hr and up. I certainly hope
it's not common practice anymore.

George Patterson
He who would distinguish what is true from what is false must have an
adequate understanding of truth and falsehood.

"Jon Woellhaf" wrote in message
...
At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?

I don't know how common it is but it's done and it's not that time
consuming.

Mount a steel shaft horizontally in a vise and slide the gaskets to the vise
end. Below the open end of the shaft place a coffee can full of water. Slide
the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red, then slide
them off the end and they fall into the water.

Including setup time you can do 100 gaskets in about 10 minutes.

On 11 Feb 2005 07:09:31 -0800, wrote:

Copper gaskets can be annealed by heating red hot and quenching in
cold water. They can be reused three or four times this way until their
diameter gets too large from being squashed. Using used, unannealed
gaskets can result in small leaks, and a leaking plug can carry carbon
into the threads and make it really hard to remove without damaging the
head's thread socket.

Dan

And you're posting this during a discussion of the question whether or
not an owner can change their own plugs.

Horse - - - Cart
Cart - - - Horse

"Aaron Coolidge" wrote in message
...
wrote:
: Copper gaskets can be annealed by heating red hot and quenching in
: cold water.

That's how you harden them.
To anneal them, heat them red hot and let them cool gradually.
--
Aaron C.

Ah no.....Orval was 100% correct.

"Jon Woellhaf" wrote in message
...
At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?



I take them home and do it in my spare time. Get them red hot with a
propane torch and drop em in a coffee can of cold water.

Jon A. wrote:

And you're posting this during a discussion of the question whether or

not an owner can change their own plugs.

Horse - - - Cart
Cart - - - Horse

So that means that means that wheher the gaskets are annealed or
reused without annealing is irrelevant? That the owner wouldn't benefit
by knowing about using new or annealed gaskets? Come on.

Dan

Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you HARDEN
them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them red hot with a
torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Jim



the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red, then
slide them off the end and they fall into the water.

[Top=-posting corrected]
RST Engineering wrote:
the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red,
then slide them off the end and they fall into the water.

Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you
HARDEN them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them
red hot with a torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Well, I guess this depends upon if your gaskets are made of copper or of
iron/steal.
Although, I've never seen gaskets made of iron but of course nothing is
impossible.

jue

wrote in message oups.com...
Jon A. wrote:

And you're posting this during a discussion of the question whether or

not an owner can change their own plugs.

Horse - - - Cart
Cart - - - Horse

So that means that means that wheher the gaskets are annealed or
reused without annealing is irrelevant? That the owner wouldn't benefit
by knowing about using new or annealed gaskets? Come on.

Dan


Well, I have learned from elsewhere in this thread that NEW gaskets are DEFINITELY the way to go since there is
debate as to whether the proper treatment of used gaskets is to include cold water quenching or ambient air
cooling...

Cheers!
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ