Chris Duke: I'm Chris Duke and today on Motorz we're talking all about spark plugs.
MOTORZ.
Chris Duke: Welcome to Motorz today we're going to be some a little bit different focusing on the single most important part of your engine your spark plugs. Yup there is a little three inch plugs you rarely think about to make it all happen and you've got an engine and you've got fuel but nothings gets done until that spark goes off and all of magic happens. As part of your vehicles maintenance plan you need to change your spark plugs every 50 to 100 thousand miles or so a most newer engines and its really depends on your rides so you should check your owners manual for the manufactures recommendation.
Now we're going to take a look at a 2008 Honda Civic that has some miles on it and check it's spark plug to see if they needed to be replaced there is some clear signs that a plug needs to be replaced or just needs to be cleaned. So I'm not only going to show you how to inspect the plug but also clean it if it's going to be salvage and we're also going to show you how easy it's to replace the spark plugs in your vehicle so when it comes time you can save a little bit of cash by doing on yourself that's also maybe a good time to upgrade with performance plugs. And finally we're going to look at some alternatives to the traditional spark plug if it matters a new designs.
But first let's pop the hood on our Honda and see what's involved in removing the current spark plugs now for the spark plug remove the only tool you're going to need is a 13-16 sort of five eight deep socket with a ratchet and an extension and before you get to start make sure your motor is off and your engine has a plenty of time to cool down if you've been running your engine it allow several hours for it to cool down as your spark plugs in exhaust amount full can get quite hot. And since we roared our horn into the shop a little bit wild to go we how to cool down a bit so we'll be right back after this break to see what kind of condition are spark plugs are in.
Now it looks like our engine is cool down so we can finally get to work now if you have an older vehicle with spark plug wires and you have to hard to reach spark plugs and you might want to consider picking up a spark plug wire puller just like this one or you can just withdraw your hand and grab not the wire and it should pop right off the puller is great ideas that reduced the risk of damaging the spark plug wire. Now if you're working on an older vehicle with spark plug wires once you've got them off take a look to see how much dirt, grim and oil is around the plug if it's real bad I just wipe the way and just be sure to move it away from the spark plug cavity so you don't risk tapping that any of it into the chamber once you have that spark plug out. Another tip is use compressed air to clean up the area just be sure to wear safety glasses.
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Chris Duke: Now in the case of our Honda Civic here we just need to remove these four coils and that requires the use of the 10 millimeter socket with an extension and once you have those off you have direct access to the spark plugs. And remove our coils form our Honda Civic again we want to do one more another time we need to disconnect this wiring horn you just press on the black tab and that comes right out just like that next using a 13-16 or in our case for a Honda it's a five eight deep socket with an extension you could remove the spark plug from the film you had by slowly turning kind of clockwise. Now if you're in a really tight situation you could also use the -- going to help you out.
Now if you're plugs feel like they've been seized into your engine and it's very difficult to remove so grab some penetrating but whatever you do don't use a breaker bar or put a lot of force on it if you do you could cause a lot of damage to the head or the plug. Now for resist spark plugs like our Honda Civic hidden beneath coils or an ignition coil assembly all you need is a piece of rubber hose to grab it and pull them out another tip is to some electrical tape around your socket and extension just to make sure the socket doesn't pop off the extension and it get stuck down under that cavity. Some sockets specifically made for spark plug removal include a rubber insert that would help to hold on to the plug.
Now if you're working with spark plug wires keep in mind you want to remove and replace one spark plug at a time so don't get too carried away and remove all your spark plug wires at once, you need to make sure that they're all back in the same place because if you don't and then your engines is got to fired out a order and you have a fun time trying to figure out which ones from where before you start it messing with it on. Now if you want to be in safer grab some masking tape and mark each one of the wires location before you disconnect them or just grab a sharpie and you can write on the number write on the spark plug wire.
Obviously we don't have to do that on our Civic. And a grab wire brush and clean off any of the grim around the groundy electro the spark tip and the threads I use spark plug maybe acting up just due to oil fuel and carbon build up and they simply just need some TLC. Now, it can reduce fuel economy and engine performance and you definitely don't want that. Grab some brake clean and put on some safety goggles and spray it all down removing all and the oil and once its cleaned up you can inspect the spark plug just look at the electrode and if the edge is aren't sharp like they're little bit rounded then it's definitely time to toss them aside and install a fresh set of spark plugs if on the other hand they still look pretty good then you use them and get some more mileage out of it. But spark plugs are really not that expensive so you should always replace them.
Now before you put the used spark plugs back in your vehicle check the owners manual to find out if they should be gap first and some might not be all your manual should have the specific gap size information other two different tools you can use to gap a spark plug and is this which is round one and there is another one that has his wire hoops on it and with the sparkplug like the one we just pulled out of our Honda you knew this in your owners manual there is no gap size information because you don't want to gap this. So we've got another spark plug that we're going to use and the older one for this test here so to use this tool here you just insert in the most narrow point of the wheel and you turn it until it stops.
Now if you want that gap to open a little bit more you just kind a push it or open up and if you want a close the gap a little bit more and you know I just tap lightly at the end and lets check it. Now using this wire hoop one we're going to take a look at the 0.035 but you want to do just put it in there and it should just grab just a little bit of friction just like that and if it's not happening like that you need to close the gap again just tap lightly on it and you can also use this end here this tool put it right here on the negative electrode and twist it up now we have open up the gap and you can also lift it the other way to close the gap and on these two tools I would prefer this one because it has this gap tool where you can open and close that will become easier.
Now it's crazy to think that every year Ford GM, Honda, Toyota, and all those guys come of a brand new models in every few years they reinvent their vehicles and introduce new engines too, but one thing that always remain the same is this spark plug you would think that someone out there would look at this 100 plus year old spark and try to come up with something better.
Right well this is the guy right here is been around since the 1800 it's about a 150 years ago when the first internal combustion and it was invented this 19th Century technology hasn't improved since then well not until recent way attempts have been made over the years to reinvent the spark plug new electrode materials such as titanium platinum and radium help to extend the life of the spark plug, but in the end it's the same old J wire design but there is some interesting concepts too for example Ford Motor Company is working with the University of Liverpool right now to develop a laser ignition system to replace the conventional spark plug entirely for internal combustion engines lasers.
Well company they decided to think outside of the box and come up with an entirely different different design concepts is E3 spark plugs they chopped off the antiqued J wire and replaced it with the completely new electro design called diamond fire. Now I start to doing some research of my own online by looking at various forms and E3s website as well and I was impressed with the test results that I saw and what people were saying about the E3 technology.
But I wanted to know quite a bit more so I contacted the E3 and I asked them to send me their spark plug test box so I've seen use on many other shows and we picked up some new spark plugs as well as some brand new spark plugs from the E3 so we could check this thing out. Then after inserting a traditional spark plug right here and a E3 on the other side all you have to do is plug the test box into a standard 110 outlet and press the big red button now looking closely it's easy to tell that the E3 spark plug delivers a much larger and brighter spark which means it's going to burn more fuel on the chamber and produce more power and how is that all work I'm so glad you ask.
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Chris Duke: Places everybody who knew? Who knew? He do who knew? Who knew? Who knew? Who knew? Who I don't even know how to say it you know.
Zoop.
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