|
|
|
Spark Plug Recommendations,
Classic 900 turbo
I know what you're thinking, how can I give advice on something as
disputed and personal as spark plug choice. Well I've noticed that
a lot of people are just outright SOLD on all those silly claims made
by the people that make such neat things as 4 prong spark plugs. I
have also fixed enough problems caused by these so-called wonder plugs
that I am going to tell you what plugs to put in your 79-93 900 turbo.
Sue me if you don't like it. These work great for me in racing and
my street cars, so they might work great for you too...
First some quick background because not many people seem to know why
you would put one spark plug in versus another. And the reason isn't
just brand difference, it's heat range and electrode composition and
placement. And yes, brand difference does matter because DAMN, there
are some really crappy spark plugs out there.
The spark plug numbers all tell a tale: They denote electrode placement,
clearance of electrode and grounding prong in the head, shape of the
electrode and prong, heat range, etc. Your car was designed to work
with a spark plug that projected a certain amount into the combustion
chamber (eg, not far enough to whack a piston!) and had a general
overall shape to the electrode to provide good combustion for the
shape of your chamber and had a certain amount of pre-gap. Most numbers
in the plug deal with the fitment issue (will it screw into my head
and not whack a piston?) but we're not going to discuss those. We're
going to discuss plugs that all fit correctly but have a different
electrode composition and a different heat range. Heat range can have
the biggest effect on your performance, beyond the obvious one of
putting the wrong shaped plugs in.
Your engine typically operates at a specific heat range. The manufacturer
spec'd plugs for that heat range. But that's not the whole story.
Different driving styles can change the operating temperature of your
engine: push hard all the time and your combustion temps are hotter.
Do a lot of short distance driving, like running errands in town,
and your combustion temps are not as hot. If your combustion temps
are outside the temperature range of your spark plugs problems arise.
If the plug is not getting hot enough it may foul, leading to incomplete
combustion, poor emissions and poor gas mileage. If the plug is getting
too hot you can run into incomplete combustion, predetonation and
meltdown. Yikes!
Here's how spark plug heat ranges work:
The colder a plug is the more it will withstand hard driving but the
easier it can be fouled, leading to misfiring. this happens when the
plug cannot heat up enough to burn off carbon and combustion deposits.
This plug does not heat up fast, it dissipates heat quickly into the
head to maintain a colder temperature at the tip.
The hotter a plug is the easier and faster it is to burn off carbon
and combustion deposits but the faster it becomes overheated when
pushed hard (affected by hotter combustion temps). it dissipates heat
slower and therefore has a higher temperature at the tip. overheating
the spark plug tip will lead to incomplete combustion and pre-detonation.
So let's see about what to put in your car. Do you need a cold plug
for hard driving, or a hotter plug that won't foul around town? Heat
ranges are given in the numbers but they can be confusing in that
they are not standardized.
Bosch heat range numbers start at 1 and get hotter the higher
the number.
So 4 = pretty cold and 7 = pretty hot.
NGK heat range numbers start at 9 and get hotter the lower
the number.
So 4 = pretty hot and 7 = pretty cold.
For *really* hard driving like a track day or heavy sustained
hauling (speed not cargo) try using bcp8ev, or bcp8es.
these plugs will be too cold to get good running while pussy-footing
around town but damn they work well when you really push them. Like
race-track push them. You can get as good, sometimes better, results
using copper plugs in a turbo. The downside (and reason platinum is
spec'd) is you will have to check and replace them more frequently.
I actually run Bosch copper plugs in my rally car (the horror!) and
the plugs used are w5dc (a 5 heat range in Bosch being roughly
equivalent to an 8 in NGK). So if you're an experimental kind of guy
you can give those a shot. The copper are much more reasonably priced
so this offsets the need to replace more frequently. For what it's
worth I've never had any luck with the Bosch platinums and the reason
people stay away from Bosch plugs in Saabs is the poor performance
of the platinums. They seem to work well in other cars though. Go
figure.
So to recap:
NGK:
BCP6ES or BCP6EV for city/town driving (stop and go)
BCP7ES or BCP7EV for regular/hard driving
BCP8ES or BCP8EV for very hard driving/racing
(this plug will foul with normal driving)
where the 's' denotes copper and the 'v' denotes platinum
Bosch:
W6DC (for regular/hard driving)
W5DC (for very hard driving/racing)
where '6' is a heat range equivalent to the ngk '7' range and where
'5' is a heat range equivalent to the ngk '8' range, which is a colder
plug than stock NGK spec (being a '6') or even the factory NGK 'hard
driving' recommendation of a '7'.
Hopefully you've made it to this point with an understanding of *why*
I'm saying you should use these plugs and enough knowledge to start
doing your own spark plug thinking and not just regurgitating "buy
my plugs because they will give you 5hp" marketing crap about
a fancy new plug. If not, c'est la vie as the French say.
James
Team Saabworks
|
|
© 2004 Team Saabworks
|
|
|
