Yep, so it looks like my car likes to eat spark plugs. Although; they're a year old, but I wouldn't expect this kinda wear on 'em. They're regular AC Delco's, since my Splitfires got eaten up by the MSD box. These got eaten in a different way. The ground electrode was "cratered"... it had a perfect half-circle eaten into it, directly above the center electrode. The center electrode was also worn down quite a bit.

I measured the gaps; they all came out to be a loose .060" !! That's a far cry from the .045" it should be! So I re-bent the electrodes down to fix the gap... they look funny- the outer electrode is actually tilted downward. It's 'cause of that strange wear pattern; that half-circle made me bend the electrode down further then usual.

Unforutnately, my digital pic didn't come out well at all; I guess I was too damn close to the spark plug. Oh well.

Anyone else have this happen with an aftermarket ignition box (not just a coil!!) and stock spark plugs?

 

I have awalsy ran AC Rapid Fires with my 6al and msd coil and have had no problems with them.

 

You ran 'em for a year? I think I change my plugs like every other month...

 

Yep; once a year, as part of the major tuneup. Usually I check gap every now and then, but this past year's been pretty busy for me. Every month?? How bad do your plugs get eaten? Wow.

 

Eaten? rofl... they don't. They all look good, every time. I just replace them out of habit - and they are cheap!

 

Think "Autolite" next time you buy plugs.

I know they are Ford, but they have the largest most durable electrode and are able to handle aftermarket high volt ignition systems.

 

Post some photos of these plugs, damn you Tom! Even if it's a bad photo.. I'd love to see this... Worst plugs I ever saw came out of an iron duke in an S-10. They were covered in carbon, fuel, and sludge in general. Replaced em and the wires. Truck ran for about 4 weeks, and then subsequently the motor seized after I noted to my friend that it was blowing out a mixture of mostly water, with some gasoline and oil, out the tail pipe.... So to the point, post a photo!

 

Dude, you couldn't even see the electrodes! I guess I was too close to take the shots. Kinda pointless to take a pic now since I re-bent the electrodes so I could gap them to spec. I'll try again when I do the major tuneup.

AGood, I'll try another set of AC plugs... if it happens to them, too, maybe I'll try the Autolites. Thanks!

 

Here's a lousy sketch of what the electrodes looked like... nothing's to scale, of course.

 

DAMN. How many miles? WHat kind of driving? And they are a nice, tan color, right?

 

...... ouch. uhm.. yeah.. uhh.. dude.. replace your plugs more often.. wtf are you doing to those poor things?

 

Sweet Jesus, Tom.......you running that thing on jet fuel with 20 degrees of base timing?

 

:sillylol: LOL :sillylol:

 

More often then once a year? C'mon now, I can't do that every month! And yep, a nice, light tan color... normal driving; I only drop the hammer occasionally. I have no idea how many miles; I don't write down mileage when I do things. (You'd think I would, right? ) Timing's fine, 10 degrees advanced. Balancer /should/ be okay; maybe I'll check it this weekened. They're the stock plugs, too... can't remember the # off hand... is it R42TSK? Anyway; what I think is cool is that the ignition system was still firing. If there was any improvement in driveability now that the plugs are gapped to 0.045 again, it's so slight that I can't feel it! That MSD box packs one hell of a spark!

I might've been misleading when I said "you couldn't even see the electrodes"... that should've read like "you couldn't even see the electrodes in the pictures I took, everything was so damn fuzzy, you could barely tell it was a spark plug". The center electrode -is- visible... it's not gone or anything.

Jet fuel... hm...

 

I read somewhere that if you run msd box or equivilent, your supp to change gap, I can't remember which way though

 

I would think increase the gap since the spark is more intense...so you dont burn the plug electrodes up from too short and intense of a spark.....right??

Man..I want an MSD box so bad. I just got over $1000 for graduation which is this Thursday...but it's going to tranny..

 

Yeah, you don't -have- to change the gap. The idea is that since the spark is more powerful, you -can- run a larger gap, to get a larger spark, so the spark hits more of the a/f mix. You don't have to worry about the spark getting wiped out at high rpm's.

Er, well, that's what I've heard. I hadn't heard about having a larger gap to prevent electrode erosion... I'll have to do a search on that one. Thanks!

Oh and Nixon; remember; I only felt a very minor gain at higher rpm's with the MSD box. So far it's ruined a stock cap/rotor ( http://www.geocities.com/tomp_3rdgen/burnt-cap.html ), eaten two sets of Splitfires, and eaten a set of AC plugs. It's also increased my "crank time" by a split second... it's not all it's cracked up to be!

 

The hotter the ignition the wider the gap.

The wider the gap the larger the spark (as long as its not too wide and weakens it) the more complete and quick burn in the cylinder. This is where higher octane fuel, higher revs, and timing advance will come into play with out any compression increase. My motors power will flatten out sooner on lower octane gas with the 13* timing I run going into higher revs. Higher octane has no problem.

Mr. Nixon, If you can swing for a Darrel Young trans, You'll LOVE it. Call Jimmy there and tell him you want one like in Dean's little V6 Camaro. He'll know what your talking about. Price ? I don't know what he'll charge you, I can't tell what he builds them for me price wise but he takes care of me.

 

Well the tranny will be an AOD to go in a 91 Mustang....but you're not the only person to recommend Darrel Young. Question is, I'm short on tools and mechanically inept...so for a total of about $1500, can I have the old one out and sold, and the new one in? Sadly I doubt it...I'm figuring all-together about $2000 for the Young tranny, installed, and with a 2500 stall converter.

Tom....that does kinda suck...I haven't heard of a box giving that many problems..eep.... But still...I think I'm running on the rich side so I think I can gain some power out of it with some decent plugs..got me an MSD cap and rotor (I know, I know..who gives a ****..lol)...got the Blaster 1 coil...putting a set of Superconductor wires on with heat sleeves for my shorty headers....and hopefully the MSD box will work well with that combo..all MSD! Maybe an MSD distributor complete, or just the ICM, if I need it.

 

TomP i have awalys run the stock gap on my Rapidfires with the 6al and ignition coil. Try a set of rapidfires 3.99 a pop but they are a DAMN good plug

 

Ditto on the rapidfires... I got em in the 83. It really helps smooth out some of the driveability issues that surface when you get into mileage as high as our cars.