See here: http://crxmpg.com/plugindexing.html

Dude! From the looks of your plugs it would appear that you have issues with 2 of the 4 cylinders. Or did you paint the electrodes black just for kicks?

__________________

I was actually thinking he had issues with at least three cylinders. The white tip means it's burning too lean. THe black tip means too rich.

Time for a d15z1 SVOBoy :P

*note to GM 60°V6 engine owners* (Larry and me...)

Both the authors *preffered* NGK V-Power and Denso U-Groove plugs are too cold a heat range for your NA 60°V6 engine.

However those that are running very high boost will be very happy that these are three heat ranges too cold!

SVO, your plugs are oil nasty! lol Can't believe you didn't mention changing your wires! These plugs are waaay past overdue!
Your insulators color look okay tho. The electrode shows you been driving lots of *short trips*
Good writeup!!

__________________
"You have to know the truth, and seek the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-unknown

duplicate

__________________

I have only driven on these plugs for like 5k, they're denso and ****ty.

They are not white tipped, they are sort of golden brown, which according to my reading guide says they're good. The two are covered in black but they don't have deposits or anything, and they're not ****ed up, so I dunno. I'll talk to disco about this tonight.

Anyway, I might change my wires soon, I have no money to do it now but I might as well do it. The oil seals in my head are **** which is why the oil has leaked down all over my plugs.

We'll see about this engine, any tips on what I should look at internally as a just in case type of thing?

I wouldnt worry about anything mechanical. You would've said you hear something if indeed there was something mechanical going on.

I will say that oil KILLS your plug wires, and your going to use them while they are dead! Which not only may give you misfire and non-linear currents going to your cylinders, but may foul your new plugs out.

Your oil leak is bad bad bad. Five thousand miles and all that oil! Either you fix that gasket, or lessen the leak using an xW40 weight oil and Valvoline Maxlife in a little red bottle. I gotta recommend the MaxLife IF you don't wanna change your oil. Hell put two of them in! They work really good.

__________________
"You have to know the truth, and seek the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-unknown

Just curious to know something.

On a 16 valve car there are two intake valves and two exhaust valves per cylinder. Is it best to aim the spark plug directly towards the center of the two exhaust valves or towards one of them?

I'd say in the middle of the two exhaust valves. Maybe just aim that open side of the plug for the general exhaust side of the CC if its too difficult to actually "know" where the exact middle would be.
For those that have the heads off, of course it would be easy to hit the middle.

__________________
"You have to know the truth, and seek the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-unknown

The oil leak is leaking from the oil seals around the valve cover gasket, it leaks about a tablespoon of oil everytime I take the plugs out and no more. It's not and oil leak as much as it is a few bad gaskets.

I know what SVOboy is talking about. My valve cover gasket blew and when I went to change the plugs the #2 spark plug hole was flooded so much that when I took out the boot oil sprayed everywhere.

I bought some new gaskets from a dealer for $28, my car needed 2 of them. You could pick it up for $25 at a honda dealer.

__________________

Yeah, but I'm not gonna waste 20 bucks fixing a damn head I'll eventually throw in the trash.

true. I wasn't going to change heads that's why I fixed mine.

__________________

SHAME SVO!!!! Bosch plugs in a Honda?! REPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were in there when I bought the car!!! I took them out ASAP!

OK, I just finished the indexing. I got two of them dead nuts toward the exhaust ports, one was about 10 degrees too far left and the fourth was 20 degrees too far left.

SVO, the package you sent me said (4) of the .043, (4) of the .054 and (4) of the .064. Well what I got was (4) of the fat ones and (6) of the skinny ones. I ended up using two of the fat ones. No combination of fat, skinny or fat+skinny could properly index the last two.

Who's next on the list?

BTW, here is what my new plugs look like after 200 miles. The left four are the new ones and the right two are the old ones. Whadda ya think? Perhaps a bit lean?

__________________

I used two of the original 12, and I couldn't figure out the difference between the two small sizes either,

Anyway, I can't see for *** in your picture.

Pictures and ish back up: http://crxmpg.com/plugindexing.html

After 200 miles, your plugs sure look blurry.

SVO Boy, what's up with your throttle cable? Did you rig that? It almost looks like your clutch cable...but cut to fit your throttle. Hey, whatever works. Also, your oxygen sensor wiring harness looks very thick. Is that stock, or did you change something there too?

My throttle cable is just too long, too lazy to buy an Si/HF version.

That isn't the o2 harness, that's the old auto kickdown cable just laying around from pre-conversion days.

Take the cover off and clean the gasket apply some cement to it and put it back on again! I always aim the gap towards the intake valve and get better results that way - the idea is to ignite the coolest mixture first and the hotter areas where the exhost valves are will ignite good enough as the flame travels towards it. I end up with perfect idle and no skipping or misfires. The indexing washers should be thinner than a single plug thread pitch, I had a friend surface grind some washers down to various thicknesses to make a set.

Ah, so! 'tis opinion time, folks!

Personally, I wouldn't hit a Southbound bull in the Northern end with a NGK plug! Internally, they're crap! I'll choose Autolite or Bosch anyday/anytime! -TH

I have heard that tons of times , that this plug works great and this one makes it run like poopy.
But..(theres always a but)

A plug from this manufacturer is mostly the same as from another.
Steel , ceramic , perhaps a copper electrode and thats about all thats in them.

The main difference from this brand to another is from their heat range ratings.

The heat range (which is usually indicated by the number) is how fast the heat will transfer from the plug to the head.
This influeces the heat level inside the combustion chamber.

Too cold and the engine will foul with unburnt fuel , drop power and eveentually missfire.
Too hot and preignition will result , and in extreme cases engine failure can result.

Many of the spark plug books conversion charts should only be used as a starting point.
Their actual listing of ?make-model = this plug? should likelwise also be a starting point.

Some manufactures guess quite well which plug is most likely suitable for your car , but some dont guess so well.

This is where one plug works better than another comes from.

If you had a so called BAD plug and read what the plug was saying (many new mechanics cant do this) by observing its colors , a change to a different heat range in the same brand will likely get it running sweet again.

I used to do indexing on the race cars where suposedly it was good for a couple of HP at full revs., but I never dyno'd tested it as it was normal practice.

On a normal car the HP gains would be extremly low.
For FE applications , perhaps there would be something depending on combustion chamber design , but I wouldnt lay any bets either way.

For FE

theclencher

MSD's and their multiple spark discharge box with their own high voltage coil is a logical choice.
Experimenting with spark plug gap would be quite easy to test with the Scangauge.
Could be something in that when combined with the MSD.