Does this actually work?

giddyup306 · Sep 1, 2004

Ray III said:
about the spark hitting the ground strap at the bend? Not gonna happen. Electricity follows the path of least resistance, and that is the shortest path it can find from a sharp edge on the electrode to a sharp edge on the ground strap.

All the same, when I fool with my plugs I also move the bend away from the electrode, and bring the tip down at a very slight angle (not so much that gap will increase with wear though), to discourage the arc from happening anywhere but the tip of the ground strap...

I'll retract that statement. I was thinking of DIS where half the plugs fire towards the center electrode and the other half fires towards the side electrode.

Back to the point at hand. The only benifit I can see from filing the electrode is a higher firing line. Like the HEI which were used to ignite exremely lean mixtures. Under WOT you are extremely rich and the mixture is much easier to ignite. Also I don't remember what it was on but the gnd electrode was acting as a PTC thermistor causing irratic firing. That's wher my prev statement came from.

I'll quit argueing. I thought I had something to back me up but I guess not.

Ray III · Sep 1, 2004

no dull stuff...

SHARP SHARP SHARP... but not POINTY.

I got a pic of a plug I did on my digicam, if only I could get at the damned thing.

Ray III · Sep 1, 2004

Legendary said:
That's what I have.

nope... you only inserted the second H. You didn't change the first one to an S.

Legendary · Sep 1, 2004

Damn it you got me.

Ray III · Sep 1, 2004

giddyup306 said:
Back to the point at hand. The only benifit I can see from filing the electrode is a higher firing line. Like the HEI which were used to ignite exremely lean mixtures. Under WOT you are extremely rich and the mixture is much easier to ignite.

Well, whatever the mixture is, you can make it even easier to ignite if you have a plug that allows more air/fuel to crowd closer to the ignition source... that's the idea, I think.

what_stanger? · Sep 1, 2004

its like those ads where one filter gives you 'in one case, up to 20 hp'

in "that" case, what they DIDN'T tell you, was that the filter being swapped out was a dirty ass stocker, clogged as hell, to a free flowing k&n, and they did this on tons of vehicles until they got a really high number, then they can say "up to 20hp gains on some vehicles" and not be telling a lie....

but they're not telling the whole truth....

my car had autolite 23s in it when i bought it, gapped at probably 30-35 thou.
it had a surge, and would 'buck' in gear at lower rpm....

i put in 25s, gapped at the stock gap (48 to 58 thou or somthing right?)
and it completely stopped the surge, and the bucking.....
so i'm guessing that helped me a bit, how much...who knows...

currently use an autolite 23 or 24 because of nitrous.

YellowLightning · Sep 1, 2004

It seems like the only difference it would make would just be a more complete burn. I would guess that this would translate into a little bit better gas milege too.

I think the reason that the Bosh plugs performed better is because the straps sort of straddle the electrode from the side, rather that curving all the way over. I think you would get the exact same effect from a plug with only one similarly shaped strap. The reason for this.................

I work at a Napa store, and we sell a heck of a lot of spark plugs every single day. I have messed around with some of these new fangled plugs that they are coming out with. These 2 and 4 pronged plugs are a lot of money wasting huey. If you take one out of the box and look at it close, in most cases you can tell with the naked eye that some of the straps are a little closer, or a little further away from the electrode than others. Electricity takes the path of least resistance, so the spark is going to go to whichever strap is closest the the electrode, not to all 4 at once. You will still only get one spark path. That being said..................

If this trick is actually dyno proven to work, and since I figure it may translate into milege anyway, I would go ahead and get Bosh 2 prong plugs just to give the idea a try. It already has the right strap shape, so I wouldn't need to bother cutting anything. I'm pretty sure that the effect would be the same if they made a plug the same way with just one strap, but they don't, so heck with it.

Ray III · Sep 1, 2004

The fancy plugs Bosch is making do work. Great gas mileage and throttle response and maybe a couple hp.

BUT they foul up easy... in a brand new motor you could slap em in and be set for 50k miles because the engine runs nice and clean. If your motor burns any amount of oil they will work for about 2k miles depending on how bad the consumption is then it will run like crap until the plugs are removed and cleaned again. Plus you aren't supposed to gap them for whatever reason so I would stick with the old school autolites.

The reason for the multiple ground straps is to increase the longevity of the plug... like tmoss was saying, the longer an edge you have the longer it will take to wear it out. Since the center electrode is platinum plated there is no concern of that wearing out easily, just the ground straps...

If someone tried to make a copper electrode plug in that fashion, it would wear out way too fast because the arcing will only come from one point on the electrode... which is why the ground strap is above it, to allow arcing from any random spot on the circular edge of the electrode.

Scott_B · Sep 1, 2004

i run autolite 764's. Do they make a plug like this thats already preped? theyre for my GT40 irons.

giddyup306 · Sep 1, 2004

Ray III said:
Well, whatever the mixture is, you can make it even easier to ignite if you have a plug that allows more air/fuel to crowd closer to the ignition source... that's the idea, I think.

It won't crowd closer to the ignition source. As you stated more voltage would make it easier to ignite the a/f mixture. But TFI is already a high energy ignition. WIth a rich mixture your fuel molicules are closer together and it is easier to jump from molicule to molicule (takes very little energy as opposed to a lean mixture). You might get a few more KV ( Being that there is a farther air gap) out of the firing line but when your talking 40KV+ it is negligable. The ignition will only supply enough voltage to jump the air gap. Nothing more. Which back to my point is rather than going vertical it now moves caddy corner. I don't know I think I just overthought this question. I could ask this electrical guru I know. He's a world class ASE tech and was a GM engineer at one point and time. He's the single smartest guy I know when it comes to electricity. He'll know.

YellowLightning · Sep 1, 2004

I'm not saying that they don't work, I'm just saying that the reason they work well does not have anything to do with the number of straps, but rather the shape. The electrode will only send spark to one strap, the one closest to it (I know, I've tested them).

You don't gap them because there is not really anything to gap. The strap dosn't overhang the electrode, it runs up and to the side, so you can't gap between the electrode and the strap.

Legendary · Sep 1, 2004

Well I got my plugs preped and gapped at .048 . I'm hoping the gap is right for my ignition system because everytime I ask some say .054 and some say .045.

jerry beach · Sep 2, 2004

I have been running my autolite 25's at .060 for years. It runs great there. My motor is stock as far as I know. I bought it with 90,000 four years ago and its at 129,000mi or so now. I cant get traction at the track, but I can on the street for some reason. I have trapped 97.79mph at Gainesville, Fl. Granted it was a cool night. My gas mileage has been phenominal. I have gotten a true 28mpg on the hwy and some city. Even filling at the same pump and stopping at the first auto cut-off. I get 17-20 in the city depending on traffic and how I drive (easy usually). We just bought an 04' mustang V-6 auto, and it does no better in town! Its brand new, that sucks.

xplo89gt · Sep 2, 2004

While we are at this... What is the correct gap? I ended up gapping mine at .50 because I couldnt get a good answer. I do have some idling problems until the computer enters closed loop. I'm wondering if shortening the gap could help in any way? I think i run autolite 24s at the moment.

YellowLightning · Sep 2, 2004

If you want the stock specs, just give a parts store a ring and they can tell you what it is for your car. I'd tell you myself but I'm not at work right now.

Legendary · Sep 2, 2004

xplo89gt said:
While we are at this... What is the correct gap? I ended up gapping mine at .50 because I couldnt get a good answer.

Same here. The last time I gapped them at .054 and the car is pissed off everytime I drive it in the morning. I'm gonna try .048 this time around. Hope that is the magic number.

xplo89gt · Sep 2, 2004

Yea, im going to regap this weekend. I'll let you know if it fixes the problem.

Legendary · Sep 2, 2004

I'll be doing mines Saturday morning. I hate doing a job twice so I'm hoping the .048 will be good. I'm thinking of going .045.

tmoss · Sep 2, 2004

I run mine at .045"

Get that expert electrical engineer to explain how an arc starts to form and explain what corona is and what causes it to form more quickly.

94Blue302GT · Sep 2, 2004

(expert electrical engineer): It like makes a lighty thingy when you do dat.

Does this actually work?

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