E3 SPARK PLUGS-DOES DIAMOND FIRE TECHNOLOGY REALLY ADD POWER? E3 VS LASER PLATINUM VS CHEAP COPPER 

I've found major differences in power with plug changes.... Depends on the engine I guess.

Can’t go wrong with ngk! I’d worked as a small engine mechanic and for Briggs and Stratton motors the factory plug’s were champions and about once a year we’d get a dead box or at least 90% of em dead and I’d often risk getting in trouble by fitting ngk but knowing full well it’ll last several services and many years and be better for the shop and customer in the long run

I've never had an issue with NGK plugs in my motorcycles over the years, but I've probably only purchased around 30 plugs. My buddy just had a new one fail, and locked up his engine. Freshly built supermini Honda CR85 2 stroke race engine that wasn't cheap to build. Probably had 5 hours max on the engine tuning the lectron carb, pulled the old plug to check the tune which was dialed, and installed a fresh NGK one number hotter. First track session the following morning 2 laps in during warm up and the porcelain broke dropping into the cylinder and got wedged between the piston and transfer port locking it. Going to cost another 1000-1500 to rebuild... 🙃

I too am a powersports tech & an a&p mechanic with decades of experience. Ngk rocks. Champion sux! I have seen loss of response & minute power loss in gsxr1000s, cbrs, r1s & zx10rs going from a cr9e to cr9eix & any other iridium or platinum plug. Also, found autolite equivalent plugs to work as well as ngk! Too many times I've had polaris or other atvs running shitty with NEW champion plugs. Change to ngk or autolite & BOOM! FIXXED! no other changes

@@hotrodray6802 Hi Ray, the power differences(spark plugs) race high Hp/compresion alchol fueled or milder pump-fuel set-ups? Is it V8 4cyl 2v or 4v (dizzy or coil packs) Not mocking, genuinely curious. Richards test are brilliant and a true blessing. The LS platforms have notoriously over-engineerd efficient ignition systems mild to wild(depending on your defeniton for wild) but at a certain rpm/boost/hp they do need an upgrade(ignition). But they so good from factory it seems you can through about any plug at the stock LS igniton system and they will work regardless off spark plug design or brand .Certain engines respond differently than other engine regards to spark plugs. Race engineers late 1990's tested a bunch of spark plugs on highly controlled/regulated high strung National Touring Car(Saloon car racing race) N/A 4cyl 16v. Race engineers tested a bunch of differant plug designs and brands on the dyno and they found a specific plug that worked better than the compition they made a ligitimate 4kw(5.36hp)gain. Is puny gain I know. But they considered a win as they did not break rules and this was on 300hp 2L N/A 16v Race Engine with all the good stuff for the time. Is slightly less than 2% gain from plugs. Where a gain of tested/proven 1% is a win in tightly controlled and highly competitive class, and a big deal to them. Anything over 3HP is measurable on track racing.minute but measurable. The specific engine from,the car was also the most dominant in our national race series coincidently(Not saying is only due to plug, that would be ridiculous) curious about what others have found on dyno with differant spark plugs. I find it very intresting.

If its a powersports item from Japan or Europe, it gets NGK plugs. Some of them are more sensitive about it for things he's not testing here...

@@TravisFabel I ride Suzuki and drive Dodge. They work great

Another smart mechanic,Its funny when I send people to the local O'Reilly and they try to push whatever junk plugs they have an excess of/Bosch/autolite Platinum whatever,then they get a dumb founded look when I say nope a want the cheapest ngk plug you have,I've put them in everything including a 367k ls that burned a quart plus a day n never had issues!

Same. Good to read the plugs every 15k anyways

I don't consider ngk to be "cheap" plugs. They aren't a stupid rip off(or maybe not,we'll see) like the iridium and whatever they try to sell you. Ngk are great.

Less resistence in the ignition system under compression allows the field coil to collapse and release the maximum power with the least energy wasted from resistence using copper over other exotic metals..., metal to metal... Copper is the best comparatively. Exotic metals were introduced due to the mess the emissions control equipment created and access to spark plugs so using these exotic metal plugs allows longer periods between plug changes... Not any more power, as evidenced here

Copper plugs don't last as long, after 60k miles an iridium plug will be making more power. I run copper where changing them is easy or on power adder engines. A dozen copper plugs are usually cheaper than one iridium, plus there's no chance you're getting a chinese clone.

@@hydrocarbon8272 , i do my plugs every 50k so it isnt an issue anyway. I can get the coppers at 30% the price of the platinums so even changing them twice as much im saving money

Use iridium plugs, but don't use those multi tipped plugs. OEM ignition systems can't saturate the coils enough to warrant using them, and yes, they are prone to setting off misfire codes.

I know there is electronic feedback to the computer for fire. Plugs firing to different electrodes may send slightly diff signals. Maybe telling computer to adjust parameters. The factory spent time and research to know what’s (or which is) best. Because they do not want to burden the shops, or get a bad rep.

@@tomreyn3610 Yeah, which is why I was going to say there's nothing wrong with "double platinum" plugs to the poster above. That's what GM recommended in MANY engines before switching to iridium. Edit: OH, he meant multi-tipped (as he said). I agree, that multi-tip stuff is a huge gimmick. It always fires from one tip, anyways. I'm here because I bought 6x AC Delco Professional Iridium plugs for a 2000 Buick Park Ave with the 3800 Series II engine. The copper plugs in it (don't ask, I was dumber 15 years ago) when I put them into said Buick. It was my grandmother's (mine now). 2 of them started missing a month ago. Was getting misfire codes on cylinder 4 and 5. Driver side front and rear. I pulled out plug 5 (driver side front) and the "copper core" there was almost completely gone lol. Had about 38k miles on it. I know to change them at 20k, or that's the recommendation, but it had been so long, I forgot my stupid self opted for copper for "moar power." Now I have to go through the PITA of changing those plugs. The front ones are easy, of course. But, anyways, I went with the iridium. It was right around this year model (2000) that they went from recommending double platinum to iridium... so I just went iridium. I'll sell this car before these plugs go out. OH.. and they had went from a .055 gap to a .07+ gap in that 35-38k miles. Wow... But I may continue running copper plugs in my 86 F-150 5.0 EFI. Easy to change. Not sure if it would hurt anything going to iridium, though. If not, I'll just go with iridium. I have the timing bumped up and run 93 octane in it. I'll read into it it sometime.

I've used them on a few vehicles. They are best suited for older carbureted vehicles. I did use them on a 97 thunderbird though, and it didn't even want to run at first. After I disconnected the battery a while to hard reset the ecm, it was fine and performance/mpg showed small gains.

I did that in a 2011 Fiesta. Immediately put the factory plugs back in and the misfire went away.

They can work alright, but they do not last long. I wouldn't give more than 6-12 months on them before misfiring. They seem to work better than Bosch +4's but just about any standard plug from any manufacturer would work better.

@@The_Fat_Turtle I have no idea where the Hate for +4s comes from....I put a set in My Chevy W/T with Vortec V6 when doing the tune up at 100K....I checked them at 200K and they were still good, at 286,000 miles when the body became unsafe for road use due to rust, the +4s were still in it, Now its a Farm Truck that gets used for wood hauling, it was -15F yesterday and it fired right up...there is over 180,000 miles on those plugs and they still run like new.

The variances will be lightly affected by chamber geometry, which means the test here only covers LS heads. As an aside... I hate dealing with autozone. I have gone in with manufacturers part number in hand only to receive dumb looks [since their training stops at year/make/model], and to add insult to injury I get told to go look up their unique in-house part # on THEIR website so they can "look it up" in store. Preposterous business model if you'e a hot rodder. If there is one thing I like about E3, its that design forces a more asymmetrical flame kernel compared to traditional design. What I don't like about E3 is their website - no filter to drill down on reach, sealing design etc. Also... no downloadable catalog that I could find. I guess the NHRA guys all have to call? Aftermarket heads do not fit in the year/make/model box

All it does is have more sharp edges than a normal plug, and plugs like to fire from a sharp edge. Tbh I've seen more runability issues because of them, so I'll swap in standard plugs and retest the problem.

Nothing conducts better than copper!

Same for a 351C with long tubes in a first gen Mustang. PITA to change!

WITH FRICKIN LASER BEAMS

I had spark blow out but I was boosted at 24 psi I was having issues with spark blow out it is an issue

Spark plug change causing exhaust to pop after accelerating isn’t what I’d consider “runs great”. 😂

Like the Frank's Red Hot Sauce commercial, "I use that shiz on everything." Living in the rust belt, it's a must. And that big jug that Richard showed, best bang for the buck. I bought the nickel version and it actually wipes off you hands unlike the silver stuff. Jug has lasted me over a decade.

@@button-puncher -Living in the woods ya gotta buy it in bulk and know how much you have!

don't look for any power change from plugs-unless misfire

I DO LIKE JUNKYARD PLUGS! SOMETIMES WE FIND FRESH ONES!

GOOD CATCH

they work-especially when they are free-they just don't add power

@@richardholdener1727 😂 I’ll use em next change on something

I recall reading about an individual coil retrofit on a 5.7 vortec (sbc) and they had pretty substantial gains in the mid range. That's likely why there was no big gain here, the LS has plenty of spark. My own experince with LS's running fine with rounded copper plugs with >0.080" gap supports that idea.

@hydrocarbon8272 Great info, I'd like to read that if you can perhaps remember the source?

@Richardholdener sounds like a scam

Prefer copper

Like a Porsche Turbo, where the plugs are in a "hard to reach" place, and in a high output/stress setup

When you are at the limits of the coils due to blow-out, that's when some plugs will shine. Copper tends to work well with high boost application.

DAVID VIZARD IS GOOD PEOPLE-EVERYONE GO WATCH HIS CHANNEL

Yes & no. Since high voltage is an odd beast a multimeter is not necessarily useful - measuring peak current would be the only real world proof. The interesting thing I stumbled upon years ago is that aviation plugs tend to favor being roughly 2/3 the resistance of automotive design. Maybe an engineer or intrepid flyer can explain why.

My pleasure!

Could you ask about more things that don't change much at all

I’d like to add spark plug wire length. Is the shortest the best or like indexing does having them all the same length help.

COILS-NOTHING, PLUG WIRES-NOTHING, SIDE GAP-NOTHING, OIL TEST POSTING TODAY

@@richardholdener1727 Sweet, looking forward to that video!

I love project farm-but would like to see much more data

Only thing that will run in my 383 Charger. 👍👍

RPM RATE IS CONTROLLED BY THE DYNO-IT THERE WAS A CHANGE IN REV TIME-WE WOULD SEE THAT AS POWER

From the testing i have done, non resistor spark plugs generated a stronger spark. I have a video of testing that on my channel. The problem is the interference from using Nology non resistor spark plugs messed with my ECU.

You would expect more spark energy, but probably not a huge amount. Jumping a 1mm (0.040") gap at 10 bar (150 psi) of pressure takes about 30k volts. A typical resistor plug might have 5kohms of resistance, and if you have a plug wire (like an LS engine) that's probably another 4-5kohm or more. That means that you're generating no more than 3 amps of peak current and that's only during the initial ionization of the plug. Theoretically less resistance could result in a better initial ionization event, but the RFI as Avery says is a big deal on modern electronics.

@@ChurchAutoTest How did you figure out that an ignition coil will output up to 3 amps of current? For the output current to be that high, wouldn't the input current need to be very high too? A typical output voltage of 30kV X 3 amps is 90,000 watts. At 12 volts, 90,000 watts would be 7,500 amps and there's no way a coil could draw so much on the input side.

@@averyalexander2303 You're correct. The 3 amps would be on the input to the coil, not the output.

no on the power, I would like to see your test procedure for mpg

@@richardholdener1727 hay Richard, picked out a distance, backand forth With repeated it, with e3's and before with platt.plugs 4trips average With my truck Computer and by calculator! Always 1.mpg To 1. 3 and as much as 1. 4mpg. With different weather!

Typo

YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO ACTUAL RUNS

Agreed, maybe with lots of retard/ advance would affect the outcome.

nope, if that were the case they would be original equipment on turbo or supercharged cars. if they even improved power, economy or efficiency by a consistant 1/2 % they would be used by oem, but they are not.

@@b.c4066 my mitsubishi had a 2 ground strap spark plug from the factory. And you would have a much better chance of making a difference under higher pressures than on a na car. But usually just close up the gap. Again why I thought it would he a better test of those spark plugs claims. If your plug is doing the job already you aren't going to see any benefits.

I’ve seen people coming into trouble running out of spark and then leaning it out to compensate until it runs better mainly on methanol but even pump fuel! the alcohol really test’s it’s spark abilities though! then complain that it’s lacking in response or torque and switch back to the pump fuel lol

More consistent gap wear on platinum and iridium plugs = more consistent power over the life of the plug. Definitely worth it over copper.

@@turbojetpowered8299 more challenging engine Bays +the addition of forced induction and sometimes just vvt, usually come with higher quality spark plug recommendations from the factory. People don't realize this, and sometimes put in a cheaper plug(copper) cuz it '' fits''... But, the performance may actually suffer from not following the plug quality recommendation made by the factory. This is where fine tip electorodes may actually give more power. Less surface area for the electrical arc to "chase and find" a way across- there by promoting slightly faster lit flame and adding to slightly more power and less detonation. BTW, copper cannot be more into fine tip cuz it wouldn't last.