Side gapping sparkplugs!

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Mar 10, 2002 | 11:35 PM

DrkPhanstm

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Joined: Oct 2001

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Side gapping sparkplugs!

Well this weekend I needed to change my oil, so I thought while I was at it I would buy some new motocraft plugs and try sidegapping them. So far ( 150mi ) I'm very pleased with the results! cruising on the highway @ 70mph I used to slow to 65mph going up hills, now I can maintain speed, and even accelerate a tad up them. Around town I noticed no difference though. Initial mpg results seem to have helped a tad. But with only a single 150mi test run... I have no results to give.

I must admit though, I'm not sure if the small increase I've had is due soley to the sidegapping; or the fact that when the dealer changed installed new plugs that they didnt have the #6 plug tightened all the way! Heh, so thats what that ticking noise was....
Either way, for a freebie... I'll deffenitly be sidegapping all my plugs from now on. I'll get some mileage results up after I've got enough miles driven

Mar 11, 2002 | 08:32 AM

brianwbo

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Joined: Feb 2002

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From: panama City USA

Side gapping sparkplugs!

Ok Just a quick question.....

....What is sidegapping?

Mar 11, 2002 | 08:38 AM

Vampiro

Cargo Master

Joined: Sep 2001

Posts: 3,135

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From: Canada

Side gapping sparkplugs!

>Ok Just a quick question.....

....What is sidegapping?

im wondering to this too myself

Mar 11, 2002 | 11:50 AM

tetraruby

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Joined: Mar 2001

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Side gapping sparkplugs!

I saw a short lived gain in performance, but it seemed the plugs didn't last too long either. Didn't seem to do whole lot for my rig. For those of you wondering, there's a good explanation at a website that I can't recall the address....if you do a search for "sparkplugs" under the '73-'79 forum it's in there from about six months ago - it's easy to find, just did it about two weeks ago for someone else. Should have saved the link - oh well....

Mar 11, 2002 | 11:55 AM

tetraruby

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Joined: Mar 2001

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Side gapping sparkplugs!

Sorry about that, thread was in this forum from last Sept. Here it is:

http://performanceunlimited.com/illustrations/sparkplugs.html

Mar 12, 2002 | 07:09 AM

chip58

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Joined: Apr 2001

Posts: 92

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Side gapping sparkplugs!

I found sidegapped plugs wore out too soon to be worth the trouble. I finally settled with platinums and an MSD high output coil. Very happy.

Mar 12, 2002 | 10:30 AM

classicfordluvr

Senior User

Joined: Feb 2001

Posts: 119

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From: Dryden Canada

Side gapping sparkplugs!

Hey everyone! It has been a VERY long time since I've been around, mainly since my truck has remained out of commission since I hit the deer with it last July. But it's going back on the road next week finally. Best part is I put it all back together myself.

I thought I'd put in my 2 cents on side-gapping, since I did it to my car last summer after the truck got iced. With the side-gapping, and the same old tuneup I always do to it (74 351W 2V) I went from it's usual 14 to 16mpg on the highway to 20mpg on a 900 mile run. I wouldn't say the performance difference was really noticeable, but it did have plenty of grunt on some of those big hills between NW Ontario and Indiana. (mainly in MN and northern Wisc.) I plan on doing it to the truck as soon as the new Platinums that I had installed about 100 miles before the incident with the deer are done. I didn't see any performance boost from the platinums, so cheap sidegappers will probably be better. A Dremel multi-tool with a little cut-off wheel is perfect for cutting the plugs. Does a nice smooth job. Have about 7000 miles on the ones in my car right now and they still look good enough to run until spring.

:-X11