E3 Spark Plugs

[Junior392]

In the past I have seen vendors for these E3's but never really thought anything about them. Usually I don’t trust vendors and especially when I have never heard about the product before. Recently I have seen them posted and reviews have come back positive. I understand sometimes its all in your head or things are just done because that’s how our fathers use to do it.

click

Discuss:

 

[jepherz]

Keep in mind that I don't know much about the specifics of spark plugs when reading this, but:

Doesn't having 3 ground locations possibly make your spark less strong? And if it does, isn't the point of the spark plug to ignite the air/fuel mixture within the cylinder? If your car is not misfiring even under high load, I don't see how paying more for spark plugs can possibly help. Their materials may be better, which allow them to last longer but everything I have read says "use NGK plugs in Japanese cars" essentially. Also, with the ease of our spark plug changes, I have no problem buying the $1.99 plugs once every few years!

 

[Dialcaliper]

That actually looks pretty cool. Their technology spiel has a pretty high valid-theory to buzzword ratio. It looks like they're incorporating features from the special plugs that are used to get rotary engines to light, and some of the hand "notching" lore that is done to "improve" traditional style plugs. Plus it looks like they've actually done some computer flow modeling to achieve the result they wanted.

The theory seems sound - charge actually does concentrate at sharp edges and points, and presenting more area at the correct distance will improve the longevity (the same principle as the two and four prong platinum/iridium plugs use). Also, their claims are good for greater heat dissipation.

The other advantage is that because they are still a copper/nickel plug, they still conduct heat better than platinum/iridium plugs, and the electrode isn't brazed on like platinum/iridium (which can be dislodged by detonation). The copper/nickel makes them cheaper too - $5.99 at Summit compared to $8-12 for iridium plugs, or $25+ for the exotic electronic plugs (like pulstar).

The only problems I see being inconvenient are that they must be a pain in the ass to regap. They say they are gapped from the factory, but that the motorsport plugs may require some adjustment.

they seem to have one plug for multiple heat ranges which could be kind of weird. The E3.46 is the replacement for our stock plug, and E3.30 is the "powersport" plug (presumably a colder plug?)

Seems worth a shot, although who knows if they would provide much in the way of tangible benefits other than longevity. Spark plugs are still one of the less understood parts of an engine. It looks like they actually sponsored research at a couple universities instead of just doing private research, so that's a plus. I'd be interesting to actually see some of the papers that were written.

 

[Dialcaliper]

There's no such thing as multiple ground locations - there is always a single spark that jumps to the closest location. The purpose of having more exposed surface or multiple ground locations is that repeated arcing causes the ground to slowly erode back - when this happens, the spark starts jumping to the alternate electrode that is now the closest. Spark plugs "wear out" when the gap becomes too large to spark properly. With a regular copper plug, you can simply regap the plug when this happens, and pop it back in, but it means that as the plug wears down, you will be running too large of a spark gap, meaning more misfires, reduced spark performance, etc. Having redundant spark grounds means your plugs will remain at the correct gap for a longer period of time.

Quoting jepherz:
Keep in mind that I don't know much about the specifics of spark plugs when reading this, but:

Doesn't having 3 ground locations possibly make your spark less strong? And if it does, isn't the point of the spark plug to ignite the air/fuel mixture within the cylinder? If your car is not misfiring even under high load, I don't see how paying more for spark plugs can possibly help. Their materials may be better, which allow them to last longer but everything I have read says "use NGK plugs in Japanese cars" essentially. Also, with the ease of our spark plug changes, I have no problem buying the $1.99 plugs once every few years!

 

[3rdstrikedsm]

total junk.

 

[belize1334]

Quoting Dialcaliper:
There's no such thing as multiple ground locations - there is always a single spark that jumps to the closest location. The purpose of having more exposed surface or multiple ground locations is that repeated arcing causes the ground to slowly erode back - when this happens, the spark starts jumping to the alternate electrode that is now the closest. Spark plugs "wear out" when the gap becomes too large to spark properly. With a regular copper plug, you can simply regap the plug when this happens, and pop it back in, but it means that as the plug wears down, you will be running too large of a spark gap, meaning more misfires, reduced spark performance, etc. Having redundant spark grounds means your plugs will remain at the correct gap for a longer period of time.

Quoting jepherz:
Keep in mind that I don't know much about the specifics of spark plugs when reading this, but:

Doesn't having 3 ground locations possibly make your spark less strong? And if it does, isn't the point of the spark plug to ignite the air/fuel mixture within the cylinder? If your car is not misfiring even under high load, I don't see how paying more for spark plugs can possibly help. Their materials may be better, which allow them to last longer but everything I have read says "use NGK plugs in Japanese cars" essentially. Also, with the ease of our spark plug changes, I have no problem buying the $1.99 plugs once every few years!





+1

The way I see it, these allow you to go longer between plug changes in an ideal world. But changing plugs isn't really that hard and it gives you insight to how the engine is behaving so I say stick with NGK.

 

The coldest heat range they make is around a 6 in NGK. And they have too many one size fits all numbers. Good for your lawn mower-not so good for your non stock 4G63.

 

[3rdstrikedsm]

2 dollar ngk's can make 1,200 whp so why even think about anything else?

 

^^^^ agreed. simple, cheap, reliable. NGK.

 

[chrisb33]

i tried all sorts of spark plugs and plug wires in the past couple years from split fire, denso iridiums, bosch platinums, etc, etc, etc. i even tried ngk spark plug wires (blue ones) but in my experience (limited to my experience only), the best combo ive ever tried are OEM plug wires and NGK plugs - specifically BP7's. Less/no miss fires and longer intervals in changing plugs. Thats for daily driving and all with dyno/street tuning.

But now i ordered a COP set up from curtis and im excited about trying it actually. I have yet to try them and have yet to find out what spark plugs will work best with the COP set up. But definitely will stick with the ngk's.

chris b

 

[V8EATER]

I tried the Iridiums in the galant, and had nothing but trouble. Dropped a set of NGK coppers in, and they worked great.

On the other hand, I had a set of Bosch platinums in my volvo, and experienced the same misfires and loss of power as I did with the Iridiums in the Galant. I put a set of Volvo platinum plugs in, and voila! Car has been running great.

Nothing beats good old standard plugs and wires, IMHO.

 

[Junior392]

I currently have NGK sevens and haven’t had a problem with them. In fact from what I have been reading they are what most high performance motors are using. During my winter project the GVR-4 will be Eliminating wires and switching over to COP. I found these plugs being used by the newer generation in testing facilities and the spark for combustion have been clean as keeping normal burn temperatures. Haven’t read much on power grains, in my eyes I agree spark plugs are just one of those things where it is thrown up in the air. They are relatively new to the game currently competing with other competitors but, we will see in the future what the road brings. I am willing to give them a shot if I do come across them again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[H05TYL]

I find it interesting that alot of people switch to cop setups, whilst all the nissan guys are getting rid of the cop setups to run wasted spark.


oh, and ngk bp7's ftw!

 

[slugsgomoo]

i am going to switch to non-projected plugs and see how it goes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[turbowop]

I've been using non-projected BR7es for awhile now without issue. I had better luck with them after adding methanol injection to my car.

 

I too have found that the best combo is the BPR7's and stock wires.. I have also tried the Blue NGK 8mm wires and found them to be a bit of trouble.. I went through two sets before getting one that was worth keeping.. I'm currently running the OE Wires with the BPR7's and have had no trouble with idle or driving.. Keeping in mind I have 172k on the OD, an daily driven on 20psi.. as for the E3's I've tried them as well; and as agreed by most, "nothing but junk" lol.. They are ok for stock apps but can't hang too well once you start modifying..

 

[speedyvr4]

Quoting H05TYL:
I find it interesting that alot of people switch to cop setups, whilst all the nissan guys are getting rid of the cop setups to run wasted spark.


oh, and ngk bp7's ftw!



I would like to know why the nissan guys are doing this. I prefer the stock setup, i mean people have gone very fast on the stock ignition system. I just don't see it as an improvement point for our cars. I'm using the 6's but i'm not boosting alot so it's ok.

 

[Dialcaliper]

It all depends on the quality of the stock ignition system. If the stock Nissan COP setups aren't very strong, they might be switching to older Nissan wasted spark systems that work better. Just because it's a COP setup doesn't mean it's "better"

 

[H05TYL]

As above the nissan COP setups are prone to failure (every skyline owner I know has had coil problems), this may have something to do with the fact the coils live down in the valley between the cams and have a metal cover over them, and so get quite hot.
Whatever the cause, buying second hand coils rarely solves the problem (they are either already stuffed, or on their way out) and new ones are much more expensive than converting to a wasted spark setup using commonly availible (thus cheap) mitsi or GM coils.