Engine knock (pinging) and pre-ignition, which for the scope of this discussion we’ll lump them together. Of course this is just the basics, but it's enough for our scope.įinally, there’s one last thing to consider. If you’re building an econo-box, you’d want a hotter spark plug. So if you’re building a race car that’s going to spend all of its time above 4000 RPM, you probably want a very cold spark plug. Colder spark plugs are designed to remain cooler in harsher conditions, whereas hotter plugs are designed to remain warmer in low-load conditions. Just like engine oil, there’s an optimal operating temperature for your spark plug. When we talk about spark plug heat ranges, we’re referring to this aspect of the spark plug. Well, there’s a secondary component known as “thermal performance”. So then any plug should work the same right? A good spark plug maintains power, a bad spark plug removes power. However, notice that the word choice of optimal, not more. A plug with high electrical performance results in optimal power.

This is referred to as the spark plugs “electrical performance”. The more precise and consistent the spark, the better it can be optimally timed. The goal of a spark plug is to start the ignition of the air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder. So then why are spark plugs such a hot topic? Firstly, let’s go through what a spark plug's job is. A healthy set of Denso IKH24 Plugs after 10K miles. As for oil burning, hopefully now one is having those issues yet! While some owners with exotic tunes or other issues may still need to use plugs to diagnose fueling issues, this is certainly few and far between where it used to be common place. We are far beyond the use of carburetors and the Mk7 is equipped with a closed-loop ECU, which can make precision adjustments to fueling in real-time. So… why is it different for Mk7’s? What makes us so special?įirstly, most people today aren’t well versed in reading spark plugs anymore because quite frankly, it isn’t often necessary. However, in many Mk7 forums, there seems to be a new belief that these are some type of performance oriented feature which must be carefully considered. You could look at a spark plug to see if a car is burning oil. For instance, you could look at a spark plug to see if a car has been running too rich or too lean of a fuel mixture. Historically speaking, spark plugs have been a way to “debug” potential issues with a car. If you’re new to the Mk7 community, you there's a topic that seems to be way more popular than it should be: spark plugs.

Brisk er12s