Anybody ever heard of doing this practice?

Heard that it's the best thing since baked bread in gaining HP and mileage with this simple sparkplug mod.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Save-Gas-And-Incerase-Horsepower-By-Side-Gapping-S/

Bet you can try it out using some old sparkplugs as a test of sorts.

thx - DSM

Longevity would be cut down about 90%, but what the hell? We change plugs like underwear in dsms!
It would clearly wear on the cathode much faster and the gap would widen but if it lasted 1k miles, even 750 would be fine, and produced lower knock and more efficiency I would do it in a heartbeat.

Then, I'd go get some cheap Autolite 63's if one was going to convert to the side gap procedure and run the gap down to .018" .

-DSM

If my car was in less than 5,000 pieces I'd give it a shot! Let us know if you try it and notice anything.

V8 guys have been doing this for a long time. A shop I worked at we did this all the time. We also degree the spark plugs so the spark is more centered in the cylinder and angle it to direct the fire towards the exhaust valves. Since our plugs are pretty much centered in the cylinder I would think it would work pretty good. May have to adjust the spark gap down a little than for the v8 standard for spark blow out since it is more exposed and the boost pressure.

I'm not buying it. Side note, I don't care if racers or V8s use them, or for a fancy explanation. All I care about is the facts, results, and the science for exactly what happens, not theory.

Anyway, I would have to guess that the compressed recipe doesn't give a crap the angle at which the spark is traveling. Moving the spark to a more optimum position would be the way to go, not the same place at just a different angle.

The $10/pc double/quad/etc ground electrode plugs don't do anything near significant for power and they're essentially the exact design.

Yeah the multi ground plugs are a joke. The spark will go to the nearest ground yet in the commercials it shows multiple sparks flying all over. Electricity follows the easiest path.....even if it is only 1 micron closer than another path it will still go to the easiest. Maybe once the closest path gets worn down some it may have a new fresh path to go to (the other ground) and be somewhat "fresh" so to speak but who knows. I tried the split fires back when they first came out and noticed nothing.

I agree proof is better than "I like to do it cause I think it works". I can't say anything for dyno results of those engines because they did it to all the circle track engines so there is no base to compare off of. It would be silly for a company to spend hours modding spark plugs when it does no good but still could be a marketing bs ploy. I've never done it to my car but it is an idea that would be worth trying. Nothing wrong with looking outside the dsm community for ideas on performance. Now who can actually make a dyno comparison?

I like the curiosity but IMO when you start forcing the air in most of the potential benefits of indexing the plugs or side gapping the plugs goes out the window. Match on a fire, wisper on a scream. What real measuresble difference could it make?

save your time and efforts for improving on one of the many OEM systems that really isn't doing its job... Stock ignition is pretty damn good on these cars!

If you want something more solid go to your nearest university library. Bosch did some books on spark plug design. These books date back to the 1950s. This is not a new idea by any means.

Nascar has went to a surface gaped plug that the ground strap is actually just a circle around the electrode that is part of the plug body. Like this. http://cmmarinedistributing.com/images/uploads/Spark Plugs some/NGK BU8H.jpg

rabenne said:

Match on a fire, wisper on a scream.

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I'm not convinced of the benefits of the plug mod, but that was damn close to a good Kenny Wayne Shepherd reference.

I heard about this way back in the day, but never thought much about it. I have a ton of plugs... I may play around with it if I have some time.

Do agree on the Bosch, esp the Bosch +4 plugs. Totally horrible to use in any application ! Platinum is just not the right metal to use in any high voltage operations due to platinum is a horrible conductor of electricity.


Okey, went to Autozone today and bought a set of Autolite 63's and did the side gap mod.

One needs a small table vice to hold the plug and knock off the end of the ground electrode with a cut off wheel attached to a Dremel tool.

Then, with a modeling file, filed off all the burrs that would hang around the cut, and rounded the edges of the ground electrode.

Took a wire gap tool and set the gap to .018" (.045mm) - being .010" less than the required .028" for BPR6ES plugs.

Cleaned them with starter fluid to ensure that all extra metal shavings are gone.

Did the install, hit the key, the thing fired right up and thing settled to a very nice idle.

Took the thing on the road and one word can be said: "IMPRESSIVE!"

I received a decent bump in power, motor ran very smooth and the idle at the light was also very smooth.

One thing: I had to turn down my idle RPM since my idle had jumped to almost 900 rpm where before, I was at stock 750.

Now, see what happens for the duration of this mod.

thx - DSM

if 10 people give this good reviews and i'll probably try it too
why did you change the gap to 0.18"?

why did you change the gap to 0.018"

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Outside of the recommendation from the ones who has been doing side gapping from the beginning, it makes common sense to shorten the gap due to to there is no negative electrode over the main electrode to get the spark to jump across.

Plus, if you look at a side gapped plug and you gap it to stock .028" the spark would only be contained to the side of the center electrode and will not grow out to the center as theorized, thus destroying the purpose of doing side gapping.

Thus, you shorten down the gap by one tenths so the spark will grow from the side to the center and outward to fulfill the purpose of more complete ignition, for more power and fuel mileage.

You would think that running a vehicle with only a .018 gap, that the motor will operate horribly with such a small gap. But, the reverse is true since there is more power due to the spark growing over to the center electrode and being fully exposed to the combustion chamber to ignite the fuel more completely.

As of date: I had a full tank when I did this sparkplug mod.
Usually at the quarter mark, I'm inbetween 185 to 200 miles on the trip odo and will hit 320miles before the fill of almost 13 gallons.
Now, after the mod, I'm just before the quarter and my trip odo is displaying 225 miles ... and I do an avg of 72mph on the freeway with a decent share of stop and go traffic.

Course, in stop and go traffic, I only wind up to 3K on the tach per each shift point.

In fact, coming out of first, my tach is only displaying 2200rpm since 1st gear is only used to get the vehicle in motion. I let 2nd gear begin the work of getting the vehicle moving quite readily.

Entering on the freeway is when I do get on it pretty good, but no WOT to speak of.

Thus, my shift points are low since I don't need that romp of power from the stop sign and/or light.

Your MPG all depends on your right foot and how you control and discipline it to work for you at the most.

-DSM

I might try this if your next update is good

Very interested.. Might go buy a set of ngk br6's just to hack up and try.

Or, go better.
Just get some Autolite 63 plugs and hack them-same identical size.
What I did since Autolites were cheaper than NGK's.

How much were the autolites?

I am very intrigued as to what the dyno numbers would look like with Store Bought vs Modified plugs. Couldn't be more than a few HP gained but none the less...

Greek, even if it gains no hp, but makes the car more efficient, for the cost of 20 minutes to make them is completely worth it.

I tagged the Autolites for about $1.90 a plug.
NGK's run barely over two bucks a plug.
I do have a set of BPR6EY (grooved electrode) plugs ready if this mod test doesn't pan out to be worth it or not.

Autolite 63's were also a stock plug for the 4G63 in stock form since they're the same heat range as the BPR6ES plug.

More of a curiosity thing to see if this mod works or not, and if it does, what difference can I experience.

Just funny to think that a plug gap at .018" can render me more power, but, it seems the theory of the spark reaching across the top of the main electrode is doing its thing very well.

True, even if I only gain a few ponies from this mod along with a small increase in gas mileage, it does draw the question if this mod is worth it or not.

But as for me, this motor definitely runs so much smoother and even got rid of a small cylinder "huff" from like a weak plug, tired ring and similar - got a very smooth 800 rpm idle out of this change.

Good luck all - DSM

I few of my old timer race buddies that have been doing this for years and years in the drag cars, and they still do! I'll be trying a set when my motor is back in. I may just make a set just for race days and keep a stock set for dd. Since you drastically cut the life down doing this mod. But we will see its not like plugs are that expensive or hard to change on our cars .

UPDATE: Did the tank full, now here is my report to share:

Driving habits:
DD - freeway driver, thus no high speed shifting or driving. Max freeway speed is 75mph.
Shift points: below 4KRPM after getting out of 1st where that shift point is around 2500 RPM.
Turbo usage: mainly stays under boost during the constant freeway speeds.
Tire pressure: 35psi cold.

I normally have to fill when the trip odo is about 323 and I put in 12.7gal giving me 25.4mpg

This last fill gave some interesting numbers:

338 on the trip odo and used the same 12.7g. This gave me 26.6mpg

Gained a mile per gallon, yet the performance gain made it worth doing the mod.

Something to share to the DSM community. Good luck always !
-DSM

Will try this out next plug change

just finished side gapping the set of BR8ES i had in the car.
the galant started up rather aggressively, but i didn't feel like going for a drive so i will post my results later. i didn't take a picture dang it.
i watched the idle log, but i didn't have to adjust anything... yet.