how do I prevent the spark plug in my lawn mower from gunking up?
There are a number of causes for a fouled spark plug – if the engine is burning too much oil, for instance, that could be a problem. If your lawn mower uses premix (you add oil to the gas) you might be adding too much. If not, and your lawn mower is very old, you might have poor ring sealing, in which case the engine needs to be rebuilt – usually not worth it. There are also several simpler causes. Usually they involve an engine that’s running too rich. If the plug smells like fuel when you remove it, and/or is glistening and looks ‘wet’, this is almost certainly the issue. Make sure your carburetor is tuned properly – get a tuning guide, or take it to a service shop. Tuning a carb is usually a pretty quick, cheap operation. It usually just involves turning an adjustment screw to a certain default position, running the mower until it warms up, then turning the screw to lean out the engine until you hit a certain point (the manual might call for when the RPM sounds the highest or other
