Have you changed spark plugs? Which ones did you replace with?

ElmoHongZito

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After getting the ktuner I noticed that the ignition was not smooth and when I took it to get tuned properly on dyno it was even more noticeable with the exhaust coughing in the high revs. The tuner said it is probably the spark plugs but I noticed that getting the OEM ones from Honda is almost $200.

Any suggestions here as far which spark you plugs I should swap them to? Would love to swap them out ASAP to resolve this.
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After getting the ktuner I noticed that the ignition was not smooth and when I took it to get tuned properly on dyno it was even more noticeable with the exhaust coughing in the high revs. The tuner said it is probably the spark plugs but I noticed that getting the OEM ones from Honda is almost $200.

Any suggestions here as far which spark you plugs I should swap them to? Would love to swap them out ASAP to resolve this.
IIRC most people uses oem plugs.
 
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ElmoHongZito

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OEM NKG plugs have the same part number as the NKG plugs that go for $13 each and do not say Honda on the box as if you bought it from honda. Are these ok? This is what I am trying to confirm.

Also what size spark plug socket do I need? I know it has to be a “thin wall” socket to fit.
 


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ElmoHongZito

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So your car ran well. You tuned it. And suddenly your spark plugs went kaput?
I would not go as far to say they went kaput. However I did run it on the preset tunes that come with ktuner for a little while until someone was able to give it a better tune running it on the dyno. Maybe the time that it ran on the preset ktuner tune, it compromised the spark plugs a little since it was probably running too rich or too lean.

Someone wrote me this to help make sense of it...

“Yes spark plugs are essential components
Once the vehicle is tuned, it’s recommend that colder spark plugs are used, with the adequate gap, and we also have a special procedure that we perform when installing spark plugs to increase efficiency.”

Thoughts?
 

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hi. i'm very familiar with spark plugs and how they are affected on turbo cars. i road race an EG with a K24 BW EFR 7163 turbo setup. first thing is that you should always put fresh plugs in before tuning it etc. it helps to have fresh plugs so that you can 'read' them properly. second thing is that the shop that told you they had a special procedure is probably talking about 'indexing' the plugs when installing them. i never bother with that. its a pain in the ass and i honestly don't think it makes a difference. third thing is they were correct - if you are highly tuned you should be running one heat range colder plugs. in my race car I run two heat ranges colder (NGK Racing 8s). fourth thing is that you probably need to lessen the gap if you are running higher boost to prevent 'blowing out' the spark. i run 0.021" in my race EG.

PS my CTR is bone stock and runs butter smooth, as I would expect one day I'll tune it (Hondata) and when I do i'll put in fresh plugs with a colder range with a lesser gap most likely.
 
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ElmoHongZito

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hi. i'm very familiar with spark plugs and how they are affected on turbo cars. i road race an EG with a K24 BW EFR 7163 turbo setup. first thing is that you should always put fresh plugs in before tuning it etc. it helps to have fresh plugs so that you can 'read' them properly. second thing is that the shop that told you they had a special procedure is probably talking about 'indexing' the plugs when installing them. i never bother with that. its a pain in the ass and i honestly don't think it makes a difference. third thing is they were correct - if you are highly tuned you should be running one heat range colder plugs. in my race car I run two heat ranges colder (NGK Racing 8s). fourth thing is that you probably need to lessen the gap if you are running higher boost to prevent 'blowing out' the spark. i run 0.021" in my race EG.

PS my CTR is bone stock and runs butter smooth, as I would expect one day I'll tune it (Hondata) and when I do i'll put in fresh plugs with a colder range with a lesser gap most likely.
@d15b7 Thank you for your elaborate response. I was hoping that someone familiar with the topic would chime in.

Would you say that I am “highly tuned” (enough to run one heat range colder plugs) if my best run at the dyno was 360hp to the wheels? If so, how do I go about finding the right plug that is one heat range colder and figuring out what the gap should be? I would like to do this myself if its not complicated.

Here is one of the runs on the dyno so you can see what it sounds like in high revs (also attached picture showing results of the best run).



Honda Civic 10th gen Have you changed spark plugs? Which ones did you replace with? 2C974839-D7B6-4E8D-AF10-0E05ED03767D
 

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Your not making enough power to worry about better plugs or colder plugs. You could try gapping them but again your not making a crazy amount of boost or power. Do you happen to have any data logs? Only other time I've heard those misfires like in your video is when the fuel system pressure drops and the car is struggling to keep up with fuel or the car doesn't like the targeted afr's at that rpm range.
 
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ElmoHongZito

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Your not making enough power to worry about better plugs or colder plugs. You could try gapping them but again your not making a crazy amount of boost or power. Do you happen to have any data logs? Only other time I've heard those misfires like in your video is when the fuel system pressure drops and the car is struggling to keep up with fuel or the car doesn't like the targeted afr's at that rpm range.
Data logs? Is that the data pulled from when it was run on the dyno during tuning session?

I think you described it best with “car doesn’t like the targeted afr’s at that rpm rage”. If that is the case, what needs to be done? Wouldn’t the person the tuning have addressed the afr’s at that time to resolve? He blamed it on the spark plugs “probably” needing to be replaced.
 


redline

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Data logs? Is that the data pulled from when it was run on the dyno during tuning session?

I think you described it best with “car doesn’t like the targeted afr’s at that rpm rage”. If that is the case, what needs to be done? Wouldn’t the person the tuning have addressed the afr’s at that time to resolve? He blamed it on the spark plugs “probably” needing to be replaced.
I pretty confident its not spark blow out, a lot of people are running more power then that on stocks plugs and gaps. Either your tuner needs to address the issue or you need to take some logs and have someone else look at it. Mine would appear to misfire up top even though my fuel pumper duty cycle was only 88% the fuel rail pressure was dropping and I was able to pull just a hair of air charge to fix that issue.
 
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ElmoHongZito

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I pretty confident its not spark blow out, a lot of people are running more power then that on stocks plugs and gaps. Either your tuner needs to address the issue or you need to take some logs and have someone else look at it. Mine would appear to misfire up top even though my fuel pumper duty cycle was only 88% the fuel rail pressure was dropping and I was able to pull just a hair of air charge to fix that issue.
I never really experienced this issue until I got the Milltek cat back exhaust installed. I assumed that it was already there and it was just being more pronounced because of the exhaust however someone else from the forum saw this thread and sent me a private message asking what cat back I have because he noticed the same thing after installing his exhaust. That being said, could the new exhaust have thrown off the air fuel ratios and if so, shouldn’t the tuner have been able to tackle that the day I brought it for tuning?
 

redline

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I never really experienced this issue until I got the Milltek cat back exhaust installed. I assumed that it was already there and it was just being more pronounced because of the exhaust however someone else from the forum saw this thread and sent me a private message asking what cat back I have because he noticed the same thing after installing his exhaust. That being said, could the new exhaust have thrown off the air fuel ratios and if so, shouldn’t the tuner have been able to tackle that the day I brought it for tuning?
No the catback would not cause this, you have a built in wide band that the car uses to hit a target afr.
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