first off, the nasty crap on the body of the plug itself. i think i got a little overzealous washing my engine bay. i replaced these guys and cleaned the plug wires thoroughly. it seems to have helped a lot.

in the closeup, are those little specks on the electrode signs of significant detonation? i have been fighting a losing battle with some pinging that i would describe as relatively minor... but what does the plug tell you? as you can see from the color i used some octane boost.

thanks for any opinions.

 

As far as I can tell....that plug looks perfect. Brown to greyish-tan is the color you want. Nasty crap is normal. Seems to be on all the plugs I pull out of cars.

If you were having severe detonation, like the kind that blows up motors, your plug would have obvious damage to it.

My friend was running too much boost for a long time.....we checked his plugs and 2 were smashed flat and had pieces broken off.

 

Look good to me..

 

wow, I wish my plugs came out looking that good. Dont worry man, they are just fine.