Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Am I the only one who was not aware of the Champion Plug troubles ? was reading an article on it yesterday. This has been going on since 2008, I guess I should do my homework a little better..Dan

Naw, you aren't alone Dan... it hasn't been too long since I learned about it too. I have a spark plug cleaner, and had a couple of sets of Champions. I tested them all with an ohmmeter and found a few with high resistance. Even though my engine seemed to run just fine with them, I tossed the "bad" ones.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

I bought a new set of Champions at Sun n Fun 2015 and by the time I landed at Oshkosh 2015 my motor was running on about 5 plugs. Ohm them out and the resistance was infinity on several. Went over to Spruce and bought 8 Tempest. Fixed the problem.
Tempest web site has some good information on plugs. Champion plugs have a screw in the top that you can unscrew and remove the resistor, I thing this set up allows moisture in the plug and ruins them. Tempest is a sealed unit. The higher the resistance the higher probability that the plug will not have a strong spark but smolter and create cylinder problems down the road.

Dagburnit Bill, thought I made a discovery, John I'm going t go with a Tempest plugs as mine are a bit old. They do have the screw in the Barrel that holds the Capacitor spring. I think Champion has corrected their troubles but it did take some years to get it done, Igot in a lot of interesting reading on the Infamous Spark maker this weekend. Dan

Dan,
I seem to remember hearing about Champion plugs but since my motor has Unision aka Tempest plugs I didn't worry about it and promptly forgot it.

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Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA

Dan - you'll recall I arrived with a rough runner at Tony's with 3 crappy REM40s (they came (in new packaging) with a new set of slicks I purchased 200 hour ago) - Tony gave me a few older but sparky loaners to get home on - threw some new Unisom 37BYs in when back home - running much smoother and about 4MPH faster on the new plugs.

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Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

That story sounds like a bunch of other stories I've read about in the past 3-5 days of research Frase, I am hot after a handful of em........mine have 300 hrs on em I had
A little roughness going home from Rosamond, and starting isn't happening on the first blade like it usually does. I'm due for inspection next month, I will re plug all fire holes and service the spark makers...........Dan

I was able to snatch up 12 UREM37BY plugs (new) on e-bay for about $10.00 each . BOOM !

RB

Good show Rich!! let me know if you want to unload the extra 4, you and Dean are masters at finding the deals thats for sure!! Dan

Dan : The "extra" four plugs already have a home . (2) are under the seat along with my tool kit/spare parts . The other (2) are sleeping with the other (8) hoping for an immaculate conception for (6) more plugs !

RB

So if a guy is in the market for a set of REM37BY, would he get new Champion plugs from A/S or Tempest?

Les,
Albuquerque

Les : The REM37BY is a Champion spark plug number . UREM37BY is the Tempest/Unison Plug number . Yes , Spruce has the UREM37BY plug . Pretty sure most other major aviation part sites have them also .

RB

Right, so is Tempest the one to buy?

Si'...The Tempest UREM37BY ( formerly Unison-Autolite) is the one to get . I should clarify this msg a bit , I use the UREM37BY in my 0-360 . Not sure if it is the correct plug number for other lycomings ?

Sparky

For plugs check Lycoming document SI 1042Y

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Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA