Best spark plugs?
- Thread starter tahoe4life
- Start date
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Clemsonbloz
Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2009
- Posts
- 32
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the drop in gap was with the iridium,, and it was to smooth out the idle
viximaging
Full Access Member
I have been using the NGK v powers in all my cars.. Import and domestics. I have had a lot of performance work done on my vehicles and talking to shop owners and builders most run the ngk's.. I hear a lot of talk about platinums though. Just not my thing.
I am also a wierdo due to the fact I am used to pulling my plugs on a regular basis just to see how things are going. Invest in a tube of anti sieze and plug grease.. Trust me. Anything LS based is easy to swap plugs on besides the f bodies. Sure not as easy as swapping plugs on an import, but simple.
And use ac delco wires or MSD. The other junk will break easy and cause misfires!
Most people who say they get stuck and have problems do not properly install them.. Should be easy to get them out and easy to unplug your wire from the plug also. Be careful.. Install by hand!! aluminum is delicate. I taught my wife to install plugs on my LS2... Didnt go so well.. She damaged a 243 head with less then 5000 miles
.040 is the optimal gap
Coils are good enough for anything and you will rarely have to mess with them.
Don't overthink things with these engines they are as simple as they look.
I am also a wierdo due to the fact I am used to pulling my plugs on a regular basis just to see how things are going. Invest in a tube of anti sieze and plug grease.. Trust me. Anything LS based is easy to swap plugs on besides the f bodies. Sure not as easy as swapping plugs on an import, but simple.
And use ac delco wires or MSD. The other junk will break easy and cause misfires!
Most people who say they get stuck and have problems do not properly install them.. Should be easy to get them out and easy to unplug your wire from the plug also. Be careful.. Install by hand!! aluminum is delicate. I taught my wife to install plugs on my LS2... Didnt go so well.. She damaged a 243 head with less then 5000 miles
.040 is the optimal gap
Coils are good enough for anything and you will rarely have to mess with them.
Don't overthink things with these engines they are as simple as they look.
Last edited:
jhellwig
Member
I put e3's in mine. When I put them in the seamed very good but my old ones were very worn out so not much comparison. 3 weeks ago when we had some -20 temps I had a real bad issue. I had e85 in it not knowing it was going to snap that low. It started in the morning at -18 and ran rough for a little bit. That night when I left work it fired and then died. I crank on it and it would fire a little but not enough to catch and run. It took me 2 day to get it going. At that point the temp was 8 degrees. I hadn't had issues with e85 at that temp before. I tried drying the plugs out that day to no avail. The plugs were fouled something fierce. It took pulling the fuel pump relay and cranking till it started to fire and try to run. Even after I got it running it kept missing and misfiring but the code I got said it was running lean even when the motor got some heat in it. I let it warm up in a shop for a day and it started and ran ok. It still doesn't seam to run like it did before that. I think those plugs might have not liked being that fouled. I am not saying that the plugs were the issue but they didn't help. Normally you can get wet plugs to fire if you dry them out. These did not like it one bit though.
They also seam to get a lot of deposits built up on the tip. I don't think that with all that ground electrode area they get hot enough to keep clean and run right. They might run good in a race engine where there is heat to spare but not in a daily driver. Just can't keep the right temps on the plug. I bet that the design makes a better spark for cold starts but not good for much else.
They also seam to get a lot of deposits built up on the tip. I don't think that with all that ground electrode area they get hot enough to keep clean and run right. They might run good in a race engine where there is heat to spare but not in a daily driver. Just can't keep the right temps on the plug. I bet that the design makes a better spark for cold starts but not good for much else.
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tahoe4life
Member
After 200,000+ miles, you think plug wires should be changed even if there are no issues?
viximaging
Full Access Member
If they survive you removing them lol
badtothe bone
Full Access Member
How to explain this without sounding like a know it all.
I own a stock car racing team in Pennsylvania. I have over 30 years of mechanical experience and I have been trained to work on all types of vehicles. I also do many hours of research both for myself and for my race team and we build all our race engines in house.
It has been found that all spark plugs basically work the same and no spark plug actually gives you more power. There is nothing to be gained by using one type of spark plug over another type. HOWEVER
Spark plugs works on the basic precept that they ignite the fuel charge in the cylinder. The hotter the spark the more complete the combustion.
Technically - when you put your spark plugs in the cylinders, with conventional spark plugs, the spark plugs should be indexed so that all the spark plugs grounds are in the same direction - since the grounds can shroud the spark momentarily. They actually make a threaded gauge for the old style spark plug where you can screw the spark plug into the gauge and check to see where the ground ends up.
The newer style spark plugs has multiple side electrodes and multiple edges on the center conductor which promotes a larger spark - due to the fact that the electricity travels over the outside of the conductor and the more surface area the center conductor has, the more spark it can make.
In previous times, this manufacturing technic was very expensive and cost prohibitive. = only used in racing and not in everyday vehicles.
All new spark plugs with this type of design - along with any spark plug with a irridium tip or platnum tip - cannot be gapped. Trying to gap these spark plugs usually damages the irridium or the platnum and ruins the spark plug. Not to mention the fact that you cannot get all the electrodes spaced to the same tolerences as when the factory manufactured the plug
In all cases, these spark plugs are gapped from the manufacturer and should be left the way they are, no matter gap the manufacturer calls for. when they misfire - you just throw them away and buy new ones.. Some engines - it takes hours just to change the spark plugs, and so you would not want to waste shop time, trying to clean and gap a set of plugs when a new set of plugs costs half as much as the shop time it costs to take them out and put them back in.
I have tested many different manufactures and styles of spark plugs in the 5.3L engine and some of the best performance I found was with a 6213 Bosch Platinum.
It is more important to establish a good ground between the threads of the spark plugs and the aluminum heads then to use the best spark plugs and have rust on the threads. It's also very important to remove the old spark plugs when the engine is cold. The factory plugs starts to fail - not perform as well as new plugs in as little as 50,000 miles on a 100,000 mile plug.
---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/us30428.htm
Read this
I own a stock car racing team in Pennsylvania. I have over 30 years of mechanical experience and I have been trained to work on all types of vehicles. I also do many hours of research both for myself and for my race team and we build all our race engines in house.
It has been found that all spark plugs basically work the same and no spark plug actually gives you more power. There is nothing to be gained by using one type of spark plug over another type. HOWEVER
Spark plugs works on the basic precept that they ignite the fuel charge in the cylinder. The hotter the spark the more complete the combustion.
Technically - when you put your spark plugs in the cylinders, with conventional spark plugs, the spark plugs should be indexed so that all the spark plugs grounds are in the same direction - since the grounds can shroud the spark momentarily. They actually make a threaded gauge for the old style spark plug where you can screw the spark plug into the gauge and check to see where the ground ends up.
The newer style spark plugs has multiple side electrodes and multiple edges on the center conductor which promotes a larger spark - due to the fact that the electricity travels over the outside of the conductor and the more surface area the center conductor has, the more spark it can make.
In previous times, this manufacturing technic was very expensive and cost prohibitive. = only used in racing and not in everyday vehicles.
All new spark plugs with this type of design - along with any spark plug with a irridium tip or platnum tip - cannot be gapped. Trying to gap these spark plugs usually damages the irridium or the platnum and ruins the spark plug. Not to mention the fact that you cannot get all the electrodes spaced to the same tolerences as when the factory manufactured the plug
In all cases, these spark plugs are gapped from the manufacturer and should be left the way they are, no matter gap the manufacturer calls for. when they misfire - you just throw them away and buy new ones.. Some engines - it takes hours just to change the spark plugs, and so you would not want to waste shop time, trying to clean and gap a set of plugs when a new set of plugs costs half as much as the shop time it costs to take them out and put them back in.
I have tested many different manufactures and styles of spark plugs in the 5.3L engine and some of the best performance I found was with a 6213 Bosch Platinum.
It is more important to establish a good ground between the threads of the spark plugs and the aluminum heads then to use the best spark plugs and have rust on the threads. It's also very important to remove the old spark plugs when the engine is cold. The factory plugs starts to fail - not perform as well as new plugs in as little as 50,000 miles on a 100,000 mile plug.
---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/us30428.htm
Read this
Last edited:
fatnlowtahoe504
Full Access Member
i have the bosch platinum 4s, truck ran alot smoother when i put them in
Have the same truck, put the AC Delco Iridium in with a new set of NAPA premium silicone wires (were about 85 bucks for the wire set). Plugs were about $6 apiece I think at Advance Auto. This plug is the one recommended by Chev. to replace original AC platininums they don't make anymore, and the gap is now .40, not .60 like the originals. Truck was running fine before I made the change, but it was at 102K miles, and I wanted to get it done before they crapped out. My buddys a good mechanic, and he has a 5.3L pickup, he tried some other kinds of plugs, and said these were the only ones he thought were OK. But, some other guys here have found out that NGK makes these plugs (the AC's), and they have had success with those, plus they are cheaper, so they may work fine also. Good Luck with it!
I am running NGK TR55s.
