Spark Plug upgrade

[Guest chevydeerhunter]

How much better gas mileage can one expect with a spark plug upgrade? I'm averaging 14 mpg city driving and was wondering if it's worth the extra $$ in the long run. Any suggestions on brand and if platinum is all it's cracked up to be?

[Ben]

Platinum only if you plan on going 100K miles between tune ups.

 

Otherwise just about anything will do.

 

All it has to do is to conduct power to the electrodes and the jump the gap to ignite the air/fuel mixture.

 

Problems arise when they wear, get contaminated with deposits, over heat, etc. Cyclinder pressures and conditions also factor.

 

Racers even index the plugs so that the "gap" isn't blocked by the ground electrode. Indexing is the addition of washers of different thicknesses so that the plug will only screw in so far. I don't like that, as there's less threads engaged and the CC (squish area) is increased every so much (less compression).

 

I modify regular plugs. AC Delco or Autolite "regular" plugs. Buy'm on sale and modify a bunch for my stock.

 

Here's a picture and notice that I've cut off some of the ground electrode to expose the "gap" to the air/fuel mixture. Don't need to index them. Plus it has the "sharp edge" right above the positive electrode (what the Split Fires "try" to do). Plus the ground electrode is shorter and not pick up as much combustion chamber heat as before. Lots of other benefits, but there is one down side and why the OEM's don't do this. Shortens their life a "bit" and depends on the engine (type, tune, spec, etc), terrain, towing or not, driving style, etc.

 

[dewfpo]

If your truck is in tune and everything is running fine, changing sprark plugs will buy you virtually no mpg different.

 

DEWFPO

[Bama'01Z]

Just my 2 cents worth. I installed a TB spacer and only got about 1 more MPG. Then added plats and started getting about 1.75 MPG more. The combination of the two has begun to pay for itself nicely now that gas around $2.15!

[bearhunter59]

Just my 2 cents worth. I installed a TB spacer and only got about 1 more MPG. Then added plats and started getting about 1.75 MPG more. The combination of the two has begun to pay for itself nicely now that gas around $2.15!

 

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Whats a TB spacer?

[Guest chevydeerhunter]

TB=Throttle Body

[zr sled head]

In customers trucks I've steered away from platinum plugs all together with no ill effects. I've instead advised to change em more often to help prevent seized / broken plugs.