Um... DUH.... (was re: 12V spark plug change)

[Fisher, Scott]

> > I can't wait to give it an Italian tune-up to clear
> > any unburned crud off the valves...
>
> Ummmmmmmm, what'an italian tune-up, please??? :-) I've never
> heard about it and maybe it's just some easy thing but I'd
> like to know exactly what it is and what it involves...

Ah.  It's an old phrase meaning to drive the car like you're mad at it for
15-20 minutes -- shift at redline, use full throttle in all gears, and
otherwise run a fair amount of air and fuel through the system while
simultaneously making sure everything is up to full operating temperature.
Originally coined in the Fifties, the term refers to the way that Italian
sports cars of the time (especially Ferraris and Alfas, frequently
overcarbureted for low-speed street use) tended to foul plugs and otherwise
get gummed up when driven at low speeds and low throttle openings while
puttering around town.  The simple cure: run it in the part of the RPM band
in which it was meant to be run, for long enough to clean everything out and
get everything moving the way it's supposed to.  It seems to include roughly
equal parts of letting the increased cylinder temperatures from
high-load/high-RPM operation burn off the unburned gunk left inside the
cylinder head, and letting the increased volume of gasoline clean out the
jets in the carburetor (or fuel injection).

My '83 CGT responded very nicely to the Italian tune-up (must be that
Giugiaro body styling).  It had sat for such a long time before I bought it,
driven only from one side of the parking lot to the other, that it hesitated
and ran rough even with new spark plugs.  I solved that problem by running
two tanks of gas through the car in a single day, double-dosed with Techron
fuel injection cleaner.