More Spark = More power? Dyno tested 

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The reality behind ignition upgrades is that when you've got boost you get to a point where you need to close the gaps to stop the misfiring. Closing the gaps is bad because the burn time increases slightly. When you upgrade the ignition you can actually increase the gap without misfiring, the bigger gap gives a quicker burn and at the same time you can retard the timing slightly to compensate for the quicker burn, then you get more power by eliminating some negative work.

Thank you for the video bud. I was the person that requested to try different plug gaps

I'd like to see "copper" AKA nickel vs double platinum vs laser iridium vs ruthenium. Same heat ranges, same gap, same design. The fine tip and rare metal plugs can have the same affect as slightly increased timing, so it would be cool to see if that is born out on your dyno.

You Sir are awesome that must been a days work to shoot this video. Thanks for blowing myths up with real experimentation, no bull shit just let the dyno do the talking.👍🇭🇲

Love your vids brother!!! you nailed it with that conclusion!!! wish i had a dyno to play with during lockdown. sux here in nz atm..

Years ago I ran a set of Halo plugs on my V6 Jackaroo, they were supposed to give way better economy on the (thirsty) 3.5V6. Made no F'n difference, but I fondly remember that vehicle because the V6 was smooth and sweet and had some grunt when above 3500. 148Kw in 1998 was the duck's guts. It did like fuel, but never needed a spanner in 160,000ks. Then it got a timing belt, and 4 of the valves were a couple of thou out. Brilliant.

Its also important to note that Heat Range in spark plugs is a supporting mod to prevent detonation at high loads, rather than a horsepower source...

The primary function of the ignition system is consistent spark. What happens in the cylinder with regards to the ignition system is probably the least understood area by most people. The two best upgrades, which will still only give small power increases, are small centre electrode (projected if conditions will allow) with set back earth strap and sequential programmable timing. Electricity will always follow the path of least resistance. Worn standard plugs have rounded edges because the spark erodes the electrode over time. So obviously that means the spark is moving round a lot. A set back earth strap is to allow more space for the flame kernel to propagate. Some engines respond to plug indexing. Indexing is for two reasons. So there isn't any plug treads in the chamber to cause hot spots. And to position the earth strap. Earth strap position depends on chamber layout. Not really an issue in a pent roof 4 valve. A lot of people don't realise the spark moves on the earth strap with ignition advance. Sequential ignition timing is most helpful in shared unequal inlet runner situations and fine tuning for temperature variation to avoid detonation on hot cylinders. Massive output coils are best suited to poorly tuned fuel curves. Or high cylinder pressure alcohol. Big gaps and cold plugs will always cause trouble unless the engine really needs them. Spend money on just everything else first if you're looking for gains

I've done some experiments on various vehicles I've owned over the years... A capacitive discharge ign like MSD will run better than stock. Opening up the spark plug gap .005" (about 0.1mm) ignites the mixture better. A high energy coil will give improvement as well. Heat range on plugs should be just high enough to prevent carbon fouling when mixture is properly adjusted. ...My experience

I'd definitely like to see the big spark gap and high mJ coil test done again as an fuel economy test. A larger plug gap, with a higher output coil should allow you to run an ultra lean mixture at low load / low throttle position and improve highway cruise economy. -The performance potential of a large spark plug gap is very small, the fuel economy improvement with lean burn limits being extended lower should be more significant.

Good watch, as my high school auto teacher knew said, "a spark is a spark" the results support that entirely

I’ve run tests on plugs and in order to see gains you need to have an application where it’s high output or near the limit scenario. Lower compression NA applications do not show gains. I’ve seen legitimate 5whp on 93 octane cars that make about 375whp and are turbo but they were a different type of plug. This showed the highest gain rather than heat range or coil differences. Lower temp heat range just helps prevent pre ignition.

Emgine bay looks cleaner with those fancy coils for when you hard park it bro

When the magnetic field collapses in the ignition coil the voltage rises across the plug gap until it sparks ,,,, wider gaps equal higher breakover voltage and will damage the ignition coil or cdi unit ...It doesn't affect the speed of the burn , any timing affects you might encounter are due to l/c time constant ...Heat range is how fast the plug can dump heat into the head ...You want a plug that runs hot enough to clean itself , without causing preignition...Reliable spark and timing is critical to any internal combustion engine , but a "racing" ignition system wont make your car any faster than a healthy oem one...

Tested this on a Honda Grom once, I tested different shape spark plug tips instead of heat range. It did make a difference, could get a few MPH faster top speed on one vs another.

I don’t have a dyno but I replaced the 150k mile old coil packs on my VW GTI with new, more powerful Bosch coils from an Audi R8 and the engine is definitely smoother and more respinsive on the low end and has increased power at the last 1500 RPMs to redline. I doubt the increased power exceeds what it could do on fresh stock coil packs, but old, weak coil packs will definitely rob you of a bit of thrust. The coils degraded so slowly I hardly noticed it until one of them finally failed, but now the engine is back to feeling like it wants to rip itself from the car when I put my foot on the floor.

Great video. Confirms something that I've stuck with for years. If the ignition system is working, reliably, putting in something scarier, that you can weld with, isn't going to do anything for power. 👌 We ran a well maintained and adjusted points ignition system for season after season on a Datsun 1600 rally car, years ago, and had outright and class wins with the car in a time when others spent $1000 ignition computers to do the same job 🙂👌 Most modern OEM systems are great without changing components.

Was only just investigating this. Thanks.

i could listen to a 4age come on song alllll day, very awesome

WOW thats very cool.... love your testing !!!!!! it would also be very cool if you could test how much indexing spark plugs will affect the Torque/Power and also test the myth of side gapping spark plugs that would be sooooo cool if you would bring light in the dark of those myths !!!

Please run differrent types of spark plugs. For example Standard Denso vs Standard NGK, Denso Twin Tip (TT) vs NGK V-Line (with V groove on electrode) and Iridum vs Standard.

Amazing work, thanks so much!

Great video! Modifying the spark plug's ground electrode to a 'side gap' would have been an interesting test.

Great job bro, keep up the good work.

I dyno'd a Yamaha 1100 years ago. The last thing we did was put in "J" gap plugs and gained an instant 2hp. I've also installed a high power CDI on an engine that was running sweet, no obvious misfires, and gained power. The problem with nuclear ignitions is that they will fire weak mixtures and actually cause engine damage where a lower power ignition might misfire. Your engine isn't really testing the ignition. A leaned on turbo engine would be another matter I think. Having said that, I'm currently running LS2 coils on a high revving(18K) turbo engine and they're sweet

Very good to know! Great video thank you! Keep going 🔥👍🏼

I just love the sound of the 4age. Want to find headers for my 85 mr2. Might have to make them.

The good news,, you got the most visitant running engine in the world

Me when doing an extremely dodgy job rigging up an auxillary distributor to run off the front of the cam gear which will distribute the spark timed by the gutted remains of the distributor at the back of the head: *"It will either work or it won't, it won't make any difference to the power"*

First off for those who don’t know the spark plug heat range is to do with the plugs ability to self clean and not cause preignition. A hot plug will clean itself better than a cold plug but might get so hot as to ignite the fuel without spark. A cold plug may foul up and either not allow the spark to ignite the fuel or more likely the deposits on the plug will glow red hot and ignite the fuel without spark. You fit colder plugs to boosted engines as they’re more likely to pre ignite with a hot plug. Second. Having good spark really can boost power and efficiency. It is most notable when going from very poor spark to a good spark. Not so noticeable when going from good to better. How to tell a hot plug from a cold plug. Look down inside the the plug at the length of the ceramic insulator around the electrode, the deeper into the plug it goes the hotter the plug and the shorter it is the colder the plug. If you compare a hot and cold plug the numbers will make more sense.

Awesome video I'm myself run AC Delco rapid fire spark plugs in all of my GM vehicles but I've been hearing that NGK plugs can help build torque any comments are welcome as always peace ✌️ and much respect to you Jason

The work you do on this Dino is more interesting then CERN

Great vids. I remember doing testing like this but at the race track with track times. Changing parts in the pits and yadda yadda. From building 4/6cyl and V8's. Testing with more spark smaller piston and displacement engines dont have really high cylinder pressures. The small cylinder volume and small chamber size is a tight space so combustion would be way simpler and easier to complete. Larger area such as a bigger bore and having larger valve will make the chamber larger so it would have a larger overall volume. It would make combustion harder to achieve. Also sucking in more displacement of oxygen you have to add more fuel hence it will make combustion more complicated so the shape of the chamber becomes very important

thank my friend best regards from france

V6 charger dudes will swear that their stage 8 Ngk spark plug conversion makes them as fast as a Hellcat.

Beautiful ride and sounds amazing 🙏🏼

A much hotter coil with iridium plugs is about as good as it gets. The only tuning gains you'll see after that is setting the plug directions using copper washers, and if your coils are hot enough, you could side gap the plugs. These would result in the least amount of spark shrouding.

To add in 3 more ignition tests if possible. “hotter” coils, aka going from 20kv to 50kv or if possible multiple discharge Increase in coil dwell times 2 prong vs 3 prong spark plugs

Great vid

Only time I have seen some gains is when a friend switched from scatter spark system (aka dizzy) to a crank trigger and LS coils. Simple reason like the name implies, the spark advance is consistent and not scattered like the dizzy due to mechanical lash.

Nice. I really wanted to see this. Thanks m8

Really useful video

Love it, interesting and different result then i was expecting tbh. Thanks!

great video !!

Re-run it with side gapped plugs. It helps.

Very insightful video, thanks a ton as usual. I was actually looking to get the EXACT same plugs that came on my car stock, as it's due for a fresh set. But this video has made me realise that getting a set with matching specs will do just fine.

Proof its all about ign timing and advance control.

Thanks for sharing. You must’ve done something wrong though. Package clearly says improves power and efficiency.

That was a very informative and helpful video. Thanks you! ❤️😎

The big gap with the high mJ coils test should theoretically want less ignition timing and see small torque increases when the ignition advance is backed down to it's new best with the big gap, high mJ coils. (A large gap starts with a larger initial flame kernel that then has less physical distance to travel to the furthest reach of the combustion chamber and therefore requires less ignition advance.)

In my experience, COPs don't add performance, they add reliability. 1 coil/cylinder fires 1/2 as many times as wasted spark, and 1/4 as many times as a dizzy/coil set up. Also, there's no plug wires to worry about.

Great channel man im impressed for the amount of work you got here, you just forgot to side gap the spark plugs, the engine always like it.

hey i like your content!

I love this type of content. +1 sub. Keep going. 💪

Only reason for me going on cop is a clean engine bay. And that's the same reason i want sooner or later to go for a pedal box as well(brake booster already removed)

For race application, I prefer wasted spark so I can mount the coil away of the engine harsh environment ( heat and vibrations). Saw too many coils on plug fails at the track ! For street use, you don't have to bother with aging plug wires when using coils on plug.

Great content mate!

amazing videos, thanks for the info

Nice videos!! I have a 3SGTE and think in changes the distribuitor for COP, and thinking now, not is necesary (only changes for oil leaks)

great vid, always wondered about this

Cool stuff

Should try Pulstar plugs they do create a bigger spark and create a faster burn

Here is a nutty idea. Resonance chamber.

On my old Opel Kadett city 1.9s. I replased the standart coil With a 50.000v oil cooled And build a electronic igigknition system From 70hp to 82hp dyno.. 2" exausht + K&N + SUNOCO 5-40 SYN TURBO GOLD LATER with turbo IT got 243HP 1.9n with 2.4head The 1.9n we used 4 piston out of a Commodore.. To lower compresion Commodore pistons WAS way Better qualety..

Excellent work. Too bad you didn’t have a set of those e3 diamond fire plugs :p could show how those don’t make power either.

Bang on!

spark is spark, who woulda knew

I love this types of video's 😍

You should try iridium plugs. I've seen 2% to 4% gains over copper plugs. My testing was done on gm LS engines.

The reason y most people would run cop is because they can't find the oem distributor or most don't like to see the coil wires. I think the cop is much neater

Well at least it looks a lot cleaner with the COP

now lets go for a rip and look at temps.. and [ping ignition]

Exactly my thoughts when i see people using r8 coils on golf gtis, without upgrading the fuel injection system.

Interesting!!

Awesome work as always fella. Do you have the capacity to test the difference between wasted spark and sequential?

even when i hear about spark system upgrade i get something about increase engine responde and a better burn more whe you start to get high compress ratio, where the sparks goes harder to keer the spark

I can't find any reasonable info about something old I discovered a year ago. Maybe it'll interest You enought to try it out. Reversed fuel injectors. In almost any port injected cars, injectors are oriented to inject fuel along the direction of passing air. How about injecting it against the flow? How it will affect the engine output? Can it be done on a single set, or does it need to be a separate set because of low airspeed at low rpm? I am very curious.

I would love it if you could test a multi spark unit vs other performance ignition boxes vs stock

would be interesting to see it on 2bar of boost. this maybe get you some results :D

Do u reckon u guys can do a bit more stuff about black and silver top motors

Older Honda B/D/H-series NA guys using a single internal coil: we could have told you the results, but all you young guys don't want to listen.

Yip ! when your running big boost alky-nitro mix in top fuel, your every day ignition would not light the fire. Top fuel engines use magnetos that pump out 40 + amps and commonly use two of them !! mind you, there is nothing left of the s/plug at the end of the run

Nice test, indeed upgrade when needed. Many years ago I tested my old chiptuned 206gti with side gapped plugs. According to the dyno function on the DET3 piggyback this gave me 4 / 5 horsepower. Side grappig makes sense, becouse of the uninterrupted flamefront. Something to test on a real dyno?

Great test! I've been modding a little bike for a while and always wondered the same. Were they any differences regarding smoke?

👍🏻 2 spark plugs on needs )))

Thanks so much man Really wanted to know if going coil packs with 60-2 dictator actually works

👍

Doing God's work 😅

hanging from stock will do little regards ignition, but, up your power, ie bigger cam, port n polish, carbs then your stock ignition is lacking and will need an upgrade. Stock is stock, its ok, thats all, just ok.

I would like to see distributor vs waisted spark.

Would of been interesting to see comparative egt data but who got time for that

Friend of mine ran ethanol on his gas powered car (basically with stock engine, no tune whatsoever), with ethanol plugs (i have no idea of number)... Car ran fine for months, had good power... But started acting weird, misfiring... Sometimes the car ran totally fine, other times it wont even climb a small parkway. He calls me and asks what he should do and I told him to revert everithing to stock and guess what? All the gremlins gone and had more power than before. lol

Try adding more fuel with cop n bigger gaps ...

Have you done a dyno run with different bogi cords? Thinner vs thicker wire

Where are the guys saying that not everything shows up on a dyno?

since the bkr7e have an "11" they mean that from factory they are gap 1.1 instead of 0.8

have you test normal spark plug vs platinum spark plug vs iridium one? thanks 👍

yes, i get same conclusion on my bike, so yeah not much different, im on high expectation when i changed racing sparkplug, and don't feel any different for daily used in jakarta indonesia

did you try dual or quad electrode spark plug?, i think to try some ones in a old car carburated, if are capatibility