Regap factory plugs. Go 3/10ths faster!

[Poppacapp]

That 1.82 60ft does not scream factory tires.. but could be. Great times regardless for few mods.

It's possible. I am getting 1.87s out of my 3.15 gear auto on 275 Invos.

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[Sick03L]

It's possible. I am getting 1.87s out of my 3.15 gear auto on 275 Invos.

Did not say impossible... simply not the norm. I cut 1.7× all day long on goodyear F1s on my old lightning. Not impossible.... just not the norm

 

[Cascadia_302]

Anyone remember years back when the first MSD boxes came out. Everyone was pulling their plugs and doubling the recommended gaps.

 

[redline727]

Anyone remember years back when the first MSD boxes came out. Everyone was pulling their plugs and doubling the recommended gaps.

Still the same with higher power ignition coils now. Not doubling, but it is recommended you increase your gap on an NA car. I had Performance Distributors coils in my 13 and they recommended .52-.55 on an NA coyote to get the most out of the increased voltage. They may not be needed on these motors as plenty of people make big power on stock coils but I swear startup seemed more effortless and idle seemed smoother. But who knows.

 

[Jackie Chan]

Ok man your right. The car probably runs exactly the same if the gap is correct or not. Probably no science involved with that at all. Why do they even recommend gaps on spark plugs anyway if it has absolutely no effect on an engines performance???? Anyway to everyone reading this besides stoli. If you feel like your car is under performing. You should check the spark plugs. I DID and found them all to be incorrectly gapped from the factory by a large margin. After that was corrected. The idle smoothed right out and the car ran better! It's a very easy thing to do on these cars. It take all of 15 minutes! Or you can do nothing and live with it. Maybe stoli is right and the DA was 100% responsible for the increase in performance and had nothing to do with the changes in the gap I made. What if he's not right? His theory doesn't explain how my buddies car picked up 3MPH, 3 weeks ago after he received service? What do you have to lose even if it's only worth a tenth and a mile per hour? The point of this thread was to make people aware of a potential problem. Not quibble over DA. You can only try to arm people with information. Some people refuse to get off the tracks when you tell them a train is coming!:(

The title of the thread gives all credit to spark plug gap but let's face it, MOST was weather plain and simple.
If you were to post this on a drag racing forum you most likely would be "run outta town."

 

[bluebeastsrt]

Do with the information as you will. I can see everyone want to argue. Im done with this thread. As I explained in the first post I got the idea from my friend who didn't benefit from weather and went the same amount faster after a simple plug change.

 

[Excelerater]

Do with the information as you will. I can see everyone want to argue. Im done with this thread. As I explained in the first post I got the idea from my friend who didn't benefit from weather and went the same amount faster after a simple plug change.

unless you go back to back that day one pass after another your theory will never be proven ,I have been drag racing for 25 years and I have never seen
gains with spark plugs . I did check my gaps and they were indeed off as you suggested and I fixed them,its not a big deal but if you want to be dead nuts
accurate go back to the track and slap in a set of plugs gapped to .052 or what ever yours was before correction and make a run and then swap plugs on the next pass to the corrected gap...

Only way to be 100%.....Weather and or DA will change from day to day,or even hour to hour..

As an example ee would make runs at 11AM and fly,then slow down at 3PM and then pick up again at 8PM,weather changes and so does the HP in the motor
with the air....

 

[Tommy V]

Da does play a big part of hp,but also depending on how far a gap is off on a plug it could cause a misfire or not a complete burn which could affect Hp also.This is coming from someone with 30 years of drag racing and 27 years as a certified mechanic.That was a big difference in da but if one of them plugs was gapped open enough to cause a misfire u could easily see them kind of et gains or losses.Especially under wot conditions.

 

[stoli]

Da does play a big part of hp,but also depending on how far a gap is off on a plug it could cause a misfire or not a complete burn which could affect Hp also.This is coming from someone with 30 years of drag racing and 27 years as a certified mechanic.That was a big difference in da but if one of them plugs was gapped open enough to cause a misfire u could easily see them kind of et gains or losses.Especially under wot conditions.

It would also throw a code if there were a misfire...

 

[Tommy V]

Correct,usually consistent misfires picked up by the pcm on one or multiple cyl,s,but yes thats correct.

 

[BmacIL]

It would also throw a code if there were a misfire...

Yeah after enough of them. It takes more than one misfire event to throw a code. Misfires under WOT with modern engines are very unlikely if things aren't way off on the hardware side.

 

[stoli]

Yeah after enough of them. It takes more than one misfire event to throw a code. Misfires under WOT with modern engines are very unlikely if things aren't way off on the hardware side.

And that reinforces my point. If the gaps were so wide as to cause a 3 tenths / 3mph difference in time, there would have to be very significant misfiring happening.

I'm not saying at all that gaps may be off from spec, I'm just saying going from .050 to .045 isn't going to result in faster times. If you want to double check your plugs, great. It's a smart thing to do, especially when racing, but to lead people to believe it will result in faster times....

 

[yo ken]

bluebeastsrt, I know your done with this thread and rightfully so, but I do agree with you about DA. Many people think that DA is the magic bullet in performance. Yes, DA is a factor, but in bluebeastsrt’s case the DA is not the major factor.

There is no way he is going to pick up 3 tenths and 3 mph going from 722 to –1223 DA. Weather monitor is crucial with my type of racing. Most teams have $1500.00+ weather stations. I will give you an example. I was at track in Ohio in the summer with a DA of 2800 and with no changes a few months later I went to Atco with a DA of 200 and pick up .12.

Another thing that some people don’t realize when the DA drops below 0 ft, you are not getting the same increase in performance as your would when its above 0. Meaning, if you go from 2000 ft to 0 ft you are not getting the same increase if you go from 0 ft to –2000 ft, its not linear. Another example, I went to a race were the DA was –800 ft and only picked up .05 from the last race I was at when we had a 1200 DA. There are always variables involved like wind, but most race teams have it down pretty well.

Looking at bluebeastsrt’s run my weather station would have predicted a 12.29 from his 12.41 if the numbers are correct going from a 700 DA to –1200 DA, but I thought bluebeastsrt said the weather was about the same?

Using a DA calculator on the internet and getting local weather is not very accurate. I was at the track when bluebeastsrt was there. I did not know it was him and we did not talk. My weather station had the DA at –100ft around 7pm. There are many more factors involved than just getting local weather numbers from weather channel and plugging them into a DA calculator on the internet. When bluebeastsrt ran I see the time was after 8pm, I was long gone by then. Even with the temp change down to 45 which he posted, the weather would have been about –700ft. One of the biggest inaccuracies on the internet DA calculators is the track altitude and barometer. My weather station had 30.09 barometer, but the weather channel had it at 30.29 quite a difference.

I can’t speak to the plugs, but that’s a much more believable reason for the gain in performance than DA.

 

[Mikeg4572]

I used to bracket race quite a bit. For every 700ft of DA I noticed .10 on my ET. That's in line with the difference he is reporting.

 

[Jackie Chan]

Do with the information as you will. I can see everyone want to argue. Im done with this thread. As I explained in the first post I got the idea from my friend who didn't benefit from weather and went the same amount faster after a simple plug change.

Not arguing just trying to make sure that your misleading thread title doesn't give people the wrong idea.

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