Spark Plug Condition Concerns

[ruckman101]

Pulled my spark plugs, and man oh man, they weren't pretty. The first thing I noticed was that none of them seemed in there all that tight. Perhaps I didn't tighten them sufficiently, usually I tighten them down snug and then give them another 1/4 turn. I noticed Bentley suggests 22 lbs of torque, but how do you get a torque wrench onto #1?

Here's what they look like:

Off of cylinder number one.






And cylinder number two.






Number three.






And number four.






And my major concerns.




Shouldn't those things be a bit dusty, rather than carbon blackened and stained with blowby? Cracked heads?, or could less than an appropriate torque give the same results? The crush washers don't look very crushed, except for #1.

And then there's my compression test results.
#1 - 114
#2 - 98
#3 - 89
#4 - 94

So if it were cracked heads, or less than optimally torqued spark plugs, and spark plug from #1 looks to be the worst of the lot, why does it have the highest compression, and the most crushed crush washer of the lot?

Here's the workspace. The rug sure helps on a gravel surface. And the workshop is starting to gel up here on Dunnigan Mountain.






The shop is actually at one end of the horse stalls in the barn.




thinking out loud,
neal

[RSorak 71Westy]

1 and 2 are rich, too much fuel, 1 is high on compression because of all the carbon buildup inside it.

If this is a 1 carb vehicle, the 3, 4 side has a vacuum leak that's correcting the too rich to about right.

Those plugs look nasty to not be that old/worn.