Spark Plug Questions

[goat]

I took the wires off of my plugs today, and a part of the plug came off. I guess it's time to replace them. I wasn't too worried until I looked a bit closer at the plug. There seems to be rust all around it.


this is a bigger pic

Has anyone had experience with this before? I am a little worried about what is going to happen when I try to replace the plug. There is  no rust around the plug on the other cylinder.

While I'm at it, what kind of plugs do you all use? From searching around, it seems like NGK plugs are popular, and anything but the splitfire plugs.

[werase643]

if it is the right cylinder.....don't worry about it
just blow off the rust and remove the plug.

rust is due to water sittin on bike while leaned over when parked outside...no big deal

[goat]

actually its on the left side, which doesn't make much sense to me. I'm just hoping that nothing bad will happen.

[Rema1000]

I usually brush-off the area around the plug with a toothbrush, then blow with compressed air before I pull the plug.  Sometimes there are bits of crud wedged in behind the plug, which you don't want in the engine.

Most plug brands are of useable quality.   See http://www.specialgreen.com/~bcarlson/gs500/part-numbers/sparkplugs.html .The NGKs will fit the metric plug wrench from the toolkit, while domestic plugs will use an SAE plug wrench.  Depending on how you look at it, either one may be better for you.  If you want to be able to buy plugs and a plug wrench on the road, then SAE may be more convenient.  If you plan to carry spares and want to use the toolkit wrench, then use NGKs.