Black plugs with carbon crust?
 

Still haven't got my old 91 with 167,000 miles running. If you recall from last post I was out chasing a tornado and car couldn't be restarted. No prior signs of problems.

Well I tried the deflooding procedure, pulled EGI fuse, put pedal to floor and nothing. Starter just spun. I then pulled the plugs and attempted to clean gas off them. YUCK! They were black with solid carbon encrusting everything. I've never seen anything like that before. I generally change plugs every 8,000 miles or so. Oil changes every 4,000 miles. Oil is always just a darker shade of amber - quite a contrast to my FD where the oil is always black after 2,000 miles but plugs are in good shape (the FD runs a little rich, but it's safer that way).

In any event, what could those nasty black plugs be telling me? Could there a be a hint there as to how to get my car restarted? I tried knocking some of the carbon off but it wouldn't budge, even with sandpaper. Time to replace the plugs obviously, but what would coat them black with carbon? The car never smokes, by the way.

engine oil, the oil control o-rings are probably on their way out.

Or they could be the wrong temp plugs for how he is driving.

are they 7's in the leading or 9's???

I couldn't tell you what number they are. The L plugs are on the bottom of the motor, the T plugs are on the top. As for driving style, I pretty much baby the car but I do make a point of flooring it at least once a day on the way to work( 16 mile drive). It seems, at least to me, to keep the TPS calibrated with the auto transmission so I don't have a problem with the transmission shifting up and down constantly around 3,000 rpm.

but by flooring it do you mean just matting the pedal at .....rpm

or do you mean actually letting it wind out to 6-7,000rpm?

6,800 RPM. Engine has started and run pretty reliably until last week.