Widening Plug Gaps?

[Lazzman]

I recently had my plug gaps widened to .065 to accomodate my Screamin Deamon coil.

I have Denso Iridium plugs and as anyone who had dealt with Iridium plugs knows, they are extremely fragile. I thought I would have a proffesional speed shop widen the plug gaps to be safe and figured they would let me know if it could not be done.

After I got the vehicle back, I did notice a little bit of a misfire at idle but nothing to serious, it was kind of like a high lift, loppy camshaft. No engine light and performance was good so I ignored it.

On Monday my engine went haywire and started misfiring badly, the check engine light started blinking on and off. I don't know what brought this on as it happened about 5 minutes after I started the vehicle.

I have not scanned the engine yet so I do not know what exactly is wrong but I suspect it is the re-gapped plugs. Those idiots who regapped them must have damaged the electrodes causing the misfire.

My question is, is it ok to drive the vehicle in a very easy way in this condition? The idle is bumpy and the acceleration is a bit sluggish but it does not seem extreme.

Is it a good idea at all to increase your plug gaps? I read on a spark plug web site that widening the plug gap, causes the plug to eventually misfire. Although the dealer of Screamin Deamon coils suggests it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Turdle]

Well, a wider gap translates into a hotter spark.

However--before jumping to conclusions--I'd scan the codes first--
There is a chance of cracking an insulator when widening the plug gaps though.

I recently changed my spark plugs, and increased the gap to about .060 as suggested by my coilpacks' manufacturer--MSD (they also recommend .065)

I haven't had any problems

 

[Lazzman]

Thanks for the info JT

I had a feeling that these nitwits that re-gapped my plugs did not treat them with care.

I am heading to Autozone after work to get the codes. I think it may only be one cylinder that is out of sync.

I drove the vehicle very hard on Saturday night and then the next day I started it up, drove down the street and it starts misfiring. I must have done something to an elecetrode.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Check & make sure a wire is not laying on the exhaust manifold.

I put new plugs in mine about a year ago & was sure I kept all the wires away from the exhaust manifold. One week later I had a hell of a miss.

Sure enough I had one wire that had laid against the exhaust manifold & burned it in two.

 

[Jefe]

A code reader will spit out the code for which cylinder is missing. Makes it easy to troubleshoot.
Hopefully you don't have bits of spark plug getting tossed around inside the cylinder.

 

[Jakee]

Make sure all connections to the coil are "solid". Make sure they don't pull of real easy. I had one wire that I had to "Crimp" just a bit to make the final connection, and before I "Crimped" the truck ran like a lawnmower. In fact, I probably would have been beaten by the lawn mower, it was that bad. And this was brand new JBA wires.

Look for the most simple things first, then work you way to the harder ones...(Taking plugs out to make sure they didn't get damaged)

Now, if you were the one that put the plugs in, and you know that one of them "May of been damaged" then that's probably the problem; But, you took it somewhere else so that can't be it...

 

[Lazzman]

Thanks for all of the great replies. This misfire has really sucked these past few days. This is my only vehicle and I have to get to work.

Everything under the hood looks good, no wires are touching the exhaust manifolds and all vacuum hoses are tight.

I suspect the spark plugs because after the re-gap I immeadiatley noticed a loppy condition at idle, I guess that was a misfire. Also, I was paranoid about getting the re-gapping of the Iridium plugs, as they are extremely delicate and if a person does not know they are iridium they will try and gap them like regular plugs and damage the 0.07mm electrode.


It could be that the spark gap is to large, or that they gapped the plugs unevenly. All I know is that the misfire at idle was not there before the regap and after a hard night of driving this new condition developed??

 

[Lazzman]

Just got back from Autozone. Plug numbers 1 & 4 are misfiring.

Looks like I got some work to do.

 

[Lazzman]

The number 1 & 4 plugs are located at the front of the engine and are easy to get to.

I don't have the time to replace all of the plugs right now, but desperately need my vehicle. Would it hurt my engine just to fix those two misfiring plugs for now?

Thanks

 

[aldive]

I don't have the time to replace all of the plugs right now, but desperately need my vehicle. Would it hurt my engine just to fix those two misfiring plugs for now?

Thanks

No.

 

[aldive]

Did you have the plug gap opened before the last dyno run?

 

[MarineSNiper217]

Off topic a little here, but my mechanic told me I was possibly running low combustion/compression, i forget which... Is there a way by shortening or widerning the gap it would increase a little? If not how would I increase it? and If I can, by how much, just the bosch platinums or w/e they are.