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How does my ngk tr55 look in the pic? Stock icm/coil, 100 miles on Solomon mail order tuned cam swap/top end rebuild. Driven 100 miles so far, havent had the car over 3000 rpm yet.
Im thinking 300-400 miles before i start reving to 4-5k is a safe bet??? Just breaking in springs, rockers, pushrods, lifters, cam and new timing gear and chain set.
What are the flecks on the porcelain? Regarding break-in, on a roller set-up, it is not required. Valve springs require 2-3 heat cycles and that's about it. Plug the car in and datalog it while driving - cruise, stop and go, and wot. Look for any knock, and spots where it may be leaning-out. Solomon had tuned my car to be absolutely pig-rich... YMMV
Hydraulic roller valve trains rarely needs more than a couple heat cycles before the springs are able to be romped on. Dont worry about the timing gear and chain set, they arent going anywhere. Let the car warm up, double check and snug up the header bolts if they need it, then start your data logging.
FWIW ,, I worked with Sunoco a couple times and got to set around with them at road racing events, These were fuel blend chemists,,, they all told me the same thing,,,
That since Unleaded fuel became the norm,, Reading plugs is only the widest ballpark guess, because they put stuff in the fuel that will dye the porcelain part of the electrode to anything from a white to dark grey, tan, green, blue etc.. So the only thing you really get is "Really rich" "Really Lean" or the damaged type evidence like the previous post. Their opinion was wideband and egt was the way to go when diagnosing how the engine was running. And that if you wanted to really dial in a EGA(Exhaust gas analyzer) was the real trick with a scope on the spark plug.
Funny thing I learned is that a LM1 works really well for finding vacuum leaks as well, just hook it up and spray WD40 on the suspect areas, the meter will show LONG before you get a engine sound change...
Funny thing I learned is that a LM1 works really well for finding vacuum leaks as well, just hook it up and spray WD40 on the suspect areas, the meter will show LONG before you get a engine sound change...
Sorry to sidetrack this thread, but could you explain this a little further? What changes are you seeing on the wideband? Would this be a two person job where one person is spraying and one person is watching the wideband? I think I have vacuum leak on mine somewhere but have not had a chance to check it out yet. Thanks!
Im guessing the flecks on my porcelain could be from running to hot of a plug??? Maybe i should drop one heat range from my ngk tr55's?? I only have maybe 375fwhp. My other 3 plugs on that driverside head do not have any specs on the porcelain.
Im guessing the flecks on my porcelain could be from running to hot of a plug??? Maybe i should drop one heat range from my ngk tr55's?? I only have maybe 375fwhp. My other 3 plugs on that driverside head do not have any specs on the porcelain.
The ground strap tells you whether or not you've got the correct heat range. Your plugs are pretty fresh but you can still see a faint color change on your ground strap right in the middle where it's supposed to be. If the color change was closer to the base of the ground strap, then you'd want a colder plug.
The ground strap tells you whether or not you've got the correct heat range.
That info is only good for plugs that were thrown in and run for a dyno/WOT test, or steady-state dyno, and shut down and pulled. Once you run the plugs for any length of time, that info isn't accurate anymore.
For plugs that have been run, the ground strap is a timing indicator and the threads of the plug show heat-range.
Reading plugs can be a bit tough as mentioned earlier with today's gasoline. Yesterday I took my Harley out and attempted to do plug chops at different throttle positions to get the carb dialed in and it was a bit of a PITA. At least with a carburetor you really can't drive around and check the plugs and get a perfect idea of what's going on since there's various circuits that feed the motor fuel, it really has to be done via plug chops at different throttle positions. I'm not aware of the preferred methods for doing so with FI but I would probably do this...find a long straight road with no one around and go WOT for several seconds then in a quick fashion toss the car in neutral and shut the motor off and coast it to a safe place. Then check a couple plugs, it will give you a more accurate reading at least for WOT. And as someone mentioned, post up some close ups of those plugs so we can see if those specs are detonation.
Now, lighting, camera settings, computer screen setting etc can throw off how the plugs really look but based upon what I see they look a tad fat but IMO not over the top. I'd venture most peoples plugs look similar if not the same. I probably wouldn't obsess over it to much.
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Spark plug Reading 
