spark plugs

[floater212]

time to swap out spark plugs, has anyone ever tried the E3 and how did you like or not like them. in my truck I have noticed better acceleration and better fuel economy, about 1mpg. just looking for any opinions on them for a boat. 2005 rinker 350mpi 300hp.

 

[gm280]

I have seen them, but am always skeptical when I read things about better this and that with any spark plug. I guess I have to have it proven to me. :noidea:

 

[alldodge]

Change spark plugs and get 1 mpg better fuel economy, that's either snake oil or the motor didn't have the right spark plugs in it to begin with

 

[bman440440]

I have them in my 4.3 maxum and in my 300c hemi... 1st the hemi... I went from an average of 16.1 city/highway to 17.4... 2nd is the maxum... I got a confirmed (floscan) 1/8 mpg better and 2 more MPH on the top end... that is not snake oil and both engines had correct plugs in originally... I have noticed more low end seat of the pants feel from the 4.3... and normally I'm VERY skeptical of things with claims like that but I was at the JBA performance shop where my buddy works in the dyno department and they did a side by side run on the same engine with platinum vs the E3's when I was there...and to my big surprise they made more power! so after that I put them in my engines and I'm very happy with them... but that's JMO based on my engines and what I have seen with my own eyes

 

[alldodge]

A gasoline motor should run a (Air Fuel Ratio) AFR ratio of 14.7:1 for best performance and life. For high HP motors the ratio will go up to 12:1 making it richer. If you use a higher heat range plug which causes the gas to burn faster (hotter) which in turn increase the heat in the combustion chamber and will lean out the AFR. Doing this will increase power and fuel economy but will also damage the motor.

So if the motor has a AFR of 14.7:1 with current plugs, running another plug with the exact same heat range should also keep the ratio the same. If the AFR remains the same then, the motor is burning the exact same amount of fuel as it did before with each stroke of the piston. Gasoline has 114,000 BTU's per gallon

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Fancy shamancy spark plugs are for gettin' more money outa yer wallet,....

Ya can't beat plain ole AC Delco, MR43LTS plugs for that motor,....

 

[achris]

Just like magnetising the fuel, a scam....

Chris........

 

[gm280]

My serious question is this. IF the manufacturers knew of a way to get the last drop of both HP and mileage simply with plug suggestions, don't you think they would come that way? In this day and age of both HP craze and fuel economy, every possible thing any manufacturer can do to improve their product against their competitor would be installed from the factory. At least that is my thinking. :noidea:

 

[Oshkosh1]

I'll 2nd/3rd...4th...thousandth the "snake oil".

It's a spark plug...it sparks. They're about the "dumbest" component in the engine. Ever since the infamous original "Split Fire" came out a couple of decades ago I've been saying that the BEST plug for your engine is the one which a group of PHD engineers deemed to be the correct fit/gap/spec from the factory. As was alluded to, the design engineers take a lot of things regarding that engine into consideration when deciding what plug will go into it...including the type of plug well which will be cut into the head.

OEM ACDelco's are the ONLY thing you need...and the ONLY thing you should want. I still have the original set of plugs in my engine after 25 years. Granted the boat only has a bit over 300hrs on it...but I pulled a couple of them when I bought it and they looked new so back in they went. Engine runs like a scalded dog in all phases so if it a'int broke...you know the rest!

Disregard occasional anecdotal evidence...not just here but under most circumstances. Although most of the time people have good intentions, most of the time the results are skewed by some variable either seen and not reported or simply not seen by the reporter.

IRT GM280;...Back in "the day" engines had much more room for improvement from the factory. Nowadays, engines are built to maximize power and economy while reducing weight. They are already on that "edge" of drive-ability, reliability and economy. Years ago, you could swap out a carb and manifold for a couple hundred bucks and gain 30% more HP/Torque in one afternoon. Today? Forget it. Those type of gains would take a rebuild and cost thousands not to mention today "tuning" consists of plugging into the OBD port moreso than grabbing a set of wrenches.

 

[bruceb58]

There was a guy that used to post here a lot that claimed a 20% increase in MPG with those plugs. Of course if you knew all the other stuff he used to say, you knew he was full of it. Amazing what the placebo effect can do!

 

[Scott Danforth]

When I change plugs, I get an improvement of fuel economy and power.....it usually because the old plugs were bad, the center electrode was eroded away and the new plugs simply brought the ignition event to where it was designed to be.

split-fires did help for the first 200 miles or so. the claims were so outrageous the plug was studied by consumer reports and a bunch of various think tanks in the late 80's/early 90's. they tested something like 25 identical ford taurus's with the split fire and every other spark plug it turned out a burr was left on the outer electrode during the splitting operation in manufacturing that aided a bit with spark transfer helping combustion. that burr was burned off within the first 200 miles. after that they similar (and a few performed worse) to the Autolite's / Delco's / NGK's .....

the E-3 diamond plugs have the same burr present that burns off once you start driving. will you see an improvement?....maybe. is it the initial burr on the electrode or the fact that your old plugs were in need of replacement..... that is the question.

the only real thing you will notice is your wallet will be lighter. however its your boat. if you want to put E3's in your boat it wont hurt. it wont help, however it wont hurt either.

 

[gm280]

If you want to do some very serious reading about an ignition system, I suggest you buy a book put out by Jacob's Electronics and read. At one time he was experimenting with microwave ignition. He stated that if they could channel microwave waves via a sealed tube to the cylinder, the microwave would burn every molecule of air/gas mixture perfectly. Obviously that never came to fruition.

 

[JoLin]

Just like magnetising the fuel, a scam....

Chris........

Oh, man. I zip-tied like 20 refrigerator magnets to my fuel line. You telling me I pissed off my wife for nothing??

 

[H20Rat]

JBA performance shop where my buddy works in the dyno department and they did a side by side run on the same engine with platinum vs the E3's when I was there...and to my big surprise they made more power!

Any graphs of this? Dyno's have a margin of error, as well as human induced bias. If it wasn't AT LEAST 5% improvement in hp, it really can't be proven. Even something as simple as warmer oil temp because you did the snake oil plugs second will cause some improvement in HP.

If it was truly more than 5% improvement in HP, you might actually be on to something! In which case I'd ask why don't OEM engine builders put these magical plugs in if they could gain 5%+ for basically pennies? Especially with current EPA regs, the big auto makers spend billions trying to get a single MPG increase across their fleet. Almost all new vehicles still come with what is a very conventional spark plug.

 

[ondarvr]

This again, Last time this came up I looked at some the dyno graphs that claim increased HP, from idle to almost peak RPM the two were almost identical, with the E3 having slightly lower numbers, only at peak RPM's did it pass the stock plug and had a 1-2 HP increase. What this means is that statistically there was no change in performance. The variance in Dyno runs can be more than what was detected in the results.

​On to increased mileage.

​Having driven for a living for more than 20 years, and tracking my MPG closely over that time frame, the only accurate way to get good numbers on mileage is to look at it long term, as in yearly, tank to tank or month to month doesn't mean much, there are far too many variables to get a good idea. Plus seasonal fuel formulas play into it, and varying E content will boost or drop mileage from tank to tank.

​

 

[Scott Danforth]

unless the Dyno instrumentation is NIST traceable, and the corrected SAE HP is properly calculated any result is suspect. any change in temp, barometric pressure, or fuel flow change the corrected HP numbers.