playing it safe

[peanotation]

I just installed a 55 wet shot on my 2.4L SOHC today and i completely love it, i had no idea it was this much fun and amazing. however, i want to keep a close eye on my engine and make sure nothing bad is happening. all i can think of is just inspecting my spark plugs (which are two steps colder) every so often, and just check all the connections and such.

is there anything i can look at or take apart on or off the engine to look for any signs of something bad happening? all i have supporting the nitrous is the colder plugs, 190 walbro, and a rebuilt head about a year old.

 

[DSMJim]

Nope! Sounds like you have it all covered my friend. If you use your nitrous kit properly and don't try being a hero and upping the shot you will have no problems. I would think you could spray upto a 75hp shot with no problems but do not go higher then that (ieL 100hp or whatever)

You could get an EGT and Air/Fuel guage if you wanted to. I know the blinky light air fuel gauges are total crap, but if you have a problem with the system it will tell you pretty quick. EGT is better as it will give you an indication of what your EGT is without nitrous and with. It should be pretty damn close (slightly hotter with the spray) and give you something else to look at when going to a higher shot etc.

Nitrous like to eat up plugs quickly so keep them on hand. I would change your plugs after every 3-4 bottles of nitrous no matter what. Just run cheap-o copper plugs too don't run anything fancy no matter how tempted you are. Read: No Platinum, Iridium, etc etc. Copper only! You will be chanigng 3-4 sets of plugs a year if you spray a lot. If you change the plugs as I said and just ignore what they look like and do it regadless then you will not run into problems. If you try and run the same plugs all year you will end up with hesitation when you spay or missing. You will think that something else is messing up your car or you blew the engine. Spark plugs love to get chewed up in big boost and nitrous cars. YOu can not really see it on the plug either but they just blow out when you put some power to them. Basically just change them, forget what logic tell you and you will not run into problems.

Trust me, been there done that. I had a hell of a time figuring out what my bogging problems were when spraying. Turns out my plugs were garbage but they looked mint to me. Took 6 bottles of spray before they took a shit on me and they were gapped properly and looked mint. I changed the plugs and the car was back working fine again. This same thing happened to me on this car just running 22psi of boost. After 4 trips to the drag strip I developed a bogging problem in 3rd gear, guess what it was and what fixed it? You got it.

 

[peanotation]

wow, spark plugs really are the window into the engine. thanks for that tip, gives me something to maintain, i'm using BKR7Es (copper) over the BKR5E (stock, copper) i'll order 8 tonight....not like they're expensive - thanks for the advice

 

[GSGoinFast]

wow, spark plugs really are the window into the engine. thanks for that tip, gives me something to maintain, i'm using BKR7Es (copper) over the BKR5E (stock, copper) i'll order 8 tonight....not like they're expensive - thanks for the advice

are the BKR7E's the NGK copper ones? are they colder? i cant seem to find those. is that the right number for them? cause the one in the parts catalog isnt really a copper plug, its an iridium plug. the numbers wrong.

 

[GSGoinFast]

i cant find the bkr7e, all i can find are the BKR6ES-11(standard) and BKR6E-11(V-Power) on there website. both say they have a solid copper core. is this what i want? are these one step colder, it fails to mention that on the website. the V-power says its a copper core for supercharged, turbocharged, or nitrous engines. is this what i want? thanks

 

[peanotation]

yeah, the NGK website sucks so much, i actually had to get on the phone with a guy there and he explained it to me. i dont drive an eclipse so it might be different for you guys, but you basically put your car in on the left side "Find Your Parts" and says application search. Go down to regular class on the next page, and open a new window. in the new window go back to the home page. Click Search by plug construction near the bottom. Enter in all the information that is listed for your regular plug under "regular class" from the first window. It'll then throw up a whole list of plugs that fit your car specific to the measurements you entered. To get a colder plug, just get a plug that is only copper, and is a higher number. I use BKR5E stock, so I bought BKR7E, and BKR6E would work fine too. V-Power is also good.

 

[GSGoinFast]

Hey im not seeing this search by construction thing you speak of... can you give a link? thanks

 

[peanotation]

sorry, it's an animated GIF that changes from "search by construction" to "advanced tuner and engine builder data"

http://www.sparkplugs.com/search_char.asp

 

[GSGoinFast]

sorry, it's an animated GIF that changes from "search by construction" to "advanced tuner and engine builder data"

http://www.sparkplugs.com/search_char.asp

thanks. i went to autozone today to see if they had them, and they had NO NGK plugs i was shocked. then napa and some other store were closed cause apparently july 5th is a holiday? but thanks ill use that

 

[GSGoinFast]

well after searching everywhere twice, i ended up ordering them from napa. $4 shipping fee ! but i got the V-Power Copper core with a 7 heat range. i think that will do well. the BKR7ES

 

[DSMJim]

Check out my new thread on plugs and ordering

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132004

This should help out those who are not sure where to get plugs from or what to get.