Anybody tried the E3 Spark Plugs?

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You can't go wrong with a 6 dollar spark plug. It's guaranteed.
 
The spark can only ionize one gap at a time, so it is not going to jump to all three ground electrodes simultaneously. Plugs like that are std in aircraft engines who do not have the luxury of pulling over to the side of the road. They are still used even though plug reliability is 10000% times better than it was when those were mandated.

I wouldn't waste my money on them.
 
If anything is more effective and reliable than an NGK, I'd be quite surprised. Everything I own runs on them, including the motorcycle I used to race. Never been let down. Besides, as NTSQD said, the spark goes through the path of least resistance, whichever electrode that is, but not all three.
 
I got curious and tried a set in my 62. They're still in there after a year, actually. Not a bad plug, but performance and economy wise, they're no different from an NGK Iridium IX. They're made from standard materials though, so they'll wear out faster than an iridium plug. When the E3s wear out, the Iridiums are going back in.
 
Just got them about a month ago,and so far they seem well worth the $3.30 a piece that the local parts house sold them for.
Shop around for a good deal on them or stick with NGK's:cheers:
 
Better off spending the money on a good coil and opening up your plug gap.

I run a hot coil on my 85 PU and had $1.29 AC Delco plugs gapped at .055"

Truck ran way better!:clap:

My current setup in my 62 is a Mallory 6AL with a Promaster coil, and plugs (aside from these E3s of course) gapped to 0.045". Works great.

Once I get a set of fatter wires (gonna spring for the Magnecor goodness) I'll experiment with upping the gap more and see how far I can go. Gapping iridium plugs is a PITA though.
 
I sure won't discourage going to Magnacore cables, but I don't see any advantage to putting a lot of power into the ignition system. The system only ever needs enough voltage to ionize the gap and enough current to put some heat into the spark.

Say that the ignition system can make 100,000 volts but it only takes 50,000 volts to ionize the gap. 50,000 volts is all that the system will ever generate, leaving the last 50,000 volts potential unused. There is a point of diminishing returns on gap. Opening the gap up places more demand on all of the other components, which shortens their lifespan.
Witness when the GM HEI's first came out. They had the power for GM to spec 0.060" gaps. What GM found was that the all of the rest of ignition high voltage parts didn't last very long. GM has since backed off their gap spec to 0.045" and those parts last a lot longer without any detectable loss in mileage or performance.

With a combustion chamber that has significant turbulence there probably is an advantage to multiple sparks within the same combustion event. Without that turbulence those secondary sparks will take place inside of gasses that have already combusted or partly combusted. I wouldn't expect a lot of gain with multi-spark systems in a low turbulence combustion chamber.

There is power and efficiency to be found in ignition systems, but realistically you'll need to look into the plasma and lazer ignition methods to reap much benefit.

I put an MSD-6 on a car that already had an OE electronic ignition. I thought that there was a small improvement in how the car ran, particularly when cold. In diagnosing a problem about 6 months later I went back to the OE igintion and could not tell any difference in how the car ran. I mention this because it is easy for the butt-dyno to be misled. If you're going to be honest you need to find some repeatable method to quantify any changes in performance.
 
If anything is more effective and reliable than an NGK, I'd be quite surprised. Everything I own runs on them, including the motorcycle I used to race. Never been let down. Besides, as NTSQD said, the spark goes through the path of least resistance, whichever electrode that is, but not all three.

Yeah I've always used NGK plugs in everything from my dirtbike and fourwheeler to my outboard. If I were to go with an NGK should I go to the Iridium or stick with copper???
 
My current setup in my 62 is a Mallory 6AL with a Promaster coil, and plugs (aside from these E3s of course) gapped to 0.045". Works great.
x2 I run a DUI ignitor with MSD coil and Magnacore wire with plugs gapped at .65 in my built 2FE. The ignitor makes a noticeable difference. Prior to this setup I ran an MSD "stacker" ignition with similar results (it wasn't compatible with my J&S Safeguard so it came off when the J&S went in; when I noticed the difference I put the DUI ignitor in).

Edit: "noticeable" here means I felt a difference. It doesn't mean that it radically transformed the performance characteristics of the engine.
 
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I put an MSD-6 on a car that already had an OE electronic ignition. I thought that there was a small improvement in how the car ran, particularly when cold. In diagnosing a problem about 6 months later I went back to the OE igintion and could not tell any difference in how the car ran. I mention this because it is easy for the butt-dyno to be misled. If you're going to be honest you need to find some repeatable method to quantify any changes in performance.

I won't disagree with you, I don't have any measurable results. I noticed a difference, particularly at higher rpm (well, higher rpm for an F series motor), but not one that I can back up because I don't tend to spend money for dyno time (the AFM to MAF conversion that I'm working on will be an exception to this; it will see steady state dyno time for tuning purposes).

At best ignition enhancements falls into the category of every little bit helps. No one should expect significant performance or mileage improvements; if one of these is seen, as you say, something else is probably wrong.
 
I sure won't discourage going to Magnacore cables, but I don't see any advantage to putting a lot of power into the ignition system. The system only ever needs enough voltage to ionize the gap and enough current to put some heat into the spark.

Say that the ignition system can make 100,000 volts but it only takes 50,000 volts to ionize the gap. 50,000 volts is all that the system will ever generate, leaving the last 50,000 volts potential unused. There is a point of diminishing returns on gap. Opening the gap up places more demand on all of the other components, which shortens their lifespan.
Witness when the GM HEI's first came out. They had the power for GM to spec 0.060" gaps. What GM found was that the all of the rest of ignition high voltage parts didn't last very long. GM has since backed off their gap spec to 0.045" and those parts last a lot longer without any detectable loss in mileage or performance.

With a combustion chamber that has significant turbulence there probably is an advantage to multiple sparks within the same combustion event. Without that turbulence those secondary sparks will take place inside of gasses that have already combusted or partly combusted. I wouldn't expect a lot of gain with multi-spark systems in a low turbulence combustion chamber.

There is power and efficiency to be found in ignition systems, but realistically you'll need to look into the plasma and lazer ignition methods to reap much benefit.

I put an MSD-6 on a car that already had an OE electronic ignition. I thought that there was a small improvement in how the car ran, particularly when cold. In diagnosing a problem about 6 months later I went back to the OE igintion and could not tell any difference in how the car ran. I mention this because it is easy for the butt-dyno to be misled. If you're going to be honest you need to find some repeatable method to quantify any changes in performance.

A gasoline combustion chamber wants a .100 flame kernel for a perfect burn.

A .1 flame kernel is very hard to create at even a low RPM.

The closer you can get to the .100 mark, the better your engine will run.
 
I'm sorry, we drive glorified tractor engines. Gussy it up all you want. ANY set of new plugs is better than the old set you just pulled out.
 
I'm sorry, we drive glorified tractor engines. Gussy it up all you want. ANY set of new plugs is better than the old set you just pulled out.

I hear ya there. After all I do run shell rotella oil in the engine.
 
I'm sorry, we drive glorified tractor engines. Gussy it up all you want. ANY set of new plugs is better than the old set you just pulled out.

I hear ya there. After all I do run shell rotella oil in the engine.


Yup and Yup.

tho ive been runnin 20w50 since the Texas heat is a killer.
 
Yup and Yup.

tho ive been runnin 20w50 since the Texas heat is a killer.

Ran Mobil 1 10W-30 until I had an analysis done by Blackstone Labs. Now it's Mobil 1 10W-40 High Mileage formula, recommended by them due to signs of light bearing wear "expected of an engine with your mileage" in the sample I sent them.
 
Ran Mobil 1 10W-30 until I had an analysis done by Blackstone Labs. Now it's Mobil 1 10W-40 High Mileage formula, recommended by them due to signs of light bearing wear "expected of an engine with your mileage" in the sample I sent them.

my rig burnt about a quart or so every 3k when i got it when using 20w50 then it progressively got worse and worse now it is a quart or so a tank and lost compression on #3.

2F-E will be getting rotella 15w40 to start (or castrol fleet (high zinc content), basically whatever i am running in the 3/4 at the time) and we will see how it likes it. if needed i will go heavier.

that said, I did run royal purple in the truck for a good while untill oil consumption was to high to afford at 8 bux a quart.

My BJ42 gets Valvoline VR1 20w50 (technically not street approved) cause it has such a high zinc level (good for flat tappet engines) it was diesel approved and was a non synthetic that was readily available. I did notice it smells a little different than the rotella but i attribute that to the zinc levels, but the truck seems to like it a lot more than it did the 15w40 rotella.
 
haha totally unintentional. Back to spark plugs everyone!
 

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