Modifying your spark plugs

[SVOboy]

So, there's a picture someone from the honda-tech and pgmfi forums made for me about modifying your spark plugs for better efficiency, and it works for sure to boot!

Exactamente what he said:
DrDisco: take the stock plugs and modify them
DrDisco: lol
DrDisco: it will yield more benefit than indexing, and it's free
DrDisco: file the ground electrode so that it is only covering half of the center electrode when you look straight down on it
DrDisco: then round the edges, again looking straight down, so that it's like a semi-circle at the end
DrDisco: make the top and bottom edges (looking from the side) as square as you can
DrDisco: this is dyno proven stuff

[Matt Timion]

This looks very easy to do.

Does anyone know WHY it works?

[SVOboy]

I'll ask him tonight, it is simple, yep.

[SVOboy]

<a href=http://performanceunlimited.com/documents/plugsidegapping.html target=_blank>Side Gapping</a>

I'll prolly do the first method, but here's another.

[bagpipe goatee]

i dunno. i have guesses, though!

well, i'll start off by getting off topic, because it's my way (Matt, you know what I mean.)

I know a guy who races midget racers, and he indexes the plugs (i think that's what it's called, i noticed it's mentioned earlier.) well, what he does is he marks the plug then screws it in to see if the electrode is aimed the right way so that the spark reaches the combustion easier.

also, i know that some ford rangers and some nissan pickups had two spark plugs per cylinder.

so maybe it forces the spark to happen at the ridge of the electrode, thus being more "exposed."

remember, people, i have no idea what i'm talking about, i'm just talking out of my ***. but that'd be my guess as to why this works.

[SVOboy]

Indexing is lining up the plugs so the opening faces the cylinder, and your friend does it correctly, I'll also be doing that. You're right about the two plug thing, the new honda civic hybrid also has that. Cutting down/increasing the gap on the plugs is sposed to increase the area that the spark goes through to create a more efficient spark.

[Matt Timion]

Okay now... tell me this... and I want a straight answer.

There was talk of this super spark plug coming out that gives like a 5 billion percentage increase in gas mileage (a little exagerated, sure). they claim it does it by using "plasma." Aside from the logical falicies that can be assumed in such a statement, I'm still not understanding how a better spark can increase gas mileage.

I wonder this because I (like most men my age, and men younger, and older than myself) have a fascination with fire. If I had a small container filled with a flamable gas (oh, let's say it was hairspray, or even air mixed with gasoline like our engines) and I lit a small tiny spark, the entire thing would explode. It wouldn't matter if the flame/spark was big, small, inthe center, or on the very edge. There would be a chain reaction. The molecules would combust on one edge, which would cause the molecules next to it to combust, etc.

So how would a hotter spark make the combustion better? how would a bigger spark do the same?

Given my exposure to fire I don't see how one flame would be better than the next. I'd assume that all flames would equally start the chain reaction that would lead to a fully combusted compression chamber.

I am also curious to know how it is that gasoline is wasted by incomplete sparks for the same reasons.

Educate me, please.

[SVOboy]

Well the smaller spark touches less of an area of fuel, so it does not propogate as quickly or burn as completely. In any case, think of ice melting versus crushed ice melting. The plasma thing is sposed to burn all the fuel at once and completely, that's bull though.

[GasSavers_DaX]

Any time you have an electric arc, the electrons are flowing between the cathode and anode on a plasma. I don't know what this company is attempting to do, other than make their plugs sound more sophisticated by stating that theirs uses plasma, which I'm sure they do, as all spark plugs do. =P

[SVOboy]

The fire storm plasma plugs are sposed to create plasma that instantly fills the entire cylinder, which doesn't really make sense, it's sposed to just, I dunno, spark the entire cylinder at once rather than just between the electrodes.