E 3 sparkplugs

Anyone have any experience with those E 3 sparkplugs that we have been seeing advertised on TV? From the ads they look pretty good, and on one of the shows (Hot Rod TV maybe ?) they did a piece on them where they showed them operating in a special chamber that photographed the flame pattern as they fire, compared to a regular plug, and there seemed to be a much larger, more complete flame.

I called Advanced Auto yesterday and they carry them, the ones for the sbf in my 27 are $ 5.95 each. Because I am runnng two 600 cfm carbs on it I would like to try them to see if they help burn a little more of the extra fuel I am probably pumping into the engine.

The girl I spoke with at Advanced says her hubby put them in his F150 pickup and really liked the difference in performance. Just curious is anyone here has tried them or has an opinion.:)

Don

I belong to a different club and some of the guys were given those plugs to test a few years ago and they were not very good at that time. They were used in daily drivers and high hp engines and nobody on the site kept them for very long. If you want more specific info, I can try and find the comments on the plugs and summarize for you.

Don, have you thought about using an ignition box (e.g., MSD6A) to get a better, more complete burn? I added one a few years ago, and it made a noticeable difference in smoothing out in-town driving.

Well, I'm not really having any problems per se, from what I can see now that I have the heads off. :( The pistons look a lot cleaner than I would have thought, but I just was impressed with the commercials (I know, I know :o) and wondered if these were effective or not.

Don

Don - those plugs work on the same principle as the Splitfires - which in my opinion were crap. The spark chooses the path of least resistance - and jumps to the closest point of the electrode. Will they last longer - possibly as there are multiple points for that spark to jump. Is there an internal gap - which will allow the charge in the coil to build a micro second longer - possibly. And their crap about the proven groove - please, once that plug has run a few miles, that surface has changed. Then there is the gap - and once you adjust it, the characteristics again change. A good Motorcraft/Autolite, Bosch, NGK in a Ford will always be consistent. As far as people really liking the e3's - well at $6 and up each, psychologically you really want them to work better then the standard $2-3 plugs. (I just wish the plugs in my V10 DD were that cheap).

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Originally Posted by rumrumm

Don, have you thought about using an ignition box (e.g., MSD6A) to get a better, more complete burn? I added one a few years ago, and it made a noticeable difference in smoothing out in-town driving.

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X2 what lynn said .. a msd box cured a plug fowling problem me years ago ..:)

I gave them a run in my 350. It kind of had a sag upon taking off from a stop light after that. I tried up & down on the gap to see if I could dial them in, but nope. I went back to AC Delco.

Hmmm, Think they make 'em for a Duramax Diesel? hahahahaha

I think you all just saved me $ 50 I didn't need to spend. I'll put the Champions back in it. :):) Instead I think I'll buy one of those tin foil superchargers that give you 200 more hp and 50 more mpg. After all, ads never lie, do they? :rolleyes::LOL::LOL:

Don

The electrical component version of snake oil......................these designs get trotted out every few years with the hope of snagging a new generation of hopefuls.

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Well, I'm not really having any problems per se, from what I can see now that I have the heads off. :( The pistons look a lot cleaner than I would have thought, but I just was impressed with the commercials (I know, I know :o) and wondered if these were effective or not.

Don

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The multiple spark below 3,000 rpm really does a lot to keep the plugs clean around town!!!! A good MSD box really cleans up around town driving at low revs!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

on one of the shows (Hot Rod TV maybe ?) they did a piece on them where they showed them operating in a special chamber that photographed the flame pattern as they fire, compared to a regular plug, and there seemed to be a much larger, more complete flame.

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It's called "Product Placement"

My two cents is there are not any miracle plugs because the spark is only as good as the source being feed to them.Just seem to make sense to me.

Don - try the current OEMs which are Motorcraft/Autolite. Federal-Mogul who now owns Champion evidently does not make the same quality plug they used to years ago when I would ONLY run them in any vehicle. The Ford truck site folks dislike the current Champions, and my last few encounters with then in anything Ford have been less then satisfactory(my 'long gone 'bucket and my last 2 p/u trucks).

I am currently running E3 plugs in my truck. After 60k miles I needed to change plugs. Thought I would try E3. They seemed to perk up the truck and mileage did improve some. Now after about 1500 miles, mileage is still good and the new found performance is still there. Maybe that is why they call it a "tune up" Are they worth the price? probably NOT Maybe just a good plug will work.

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Originally Posted by IC2

Don - try the current OEMs which are Motorcraft/Autolite. Federal-Mogul who now owns Champion evidently does not make the same quality plug they used to years ago when I would ONLY run them in any vehicle. The Ford truck site folks dislike the current Champions, and my last few encounters with then in anything Ford have been less then satisfactory(my 'long gone 'bucket and my last 2 p/u trucks).

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I've never been a Champion fan, mostly used Motorcraft over the years in my Ford stuff, and NGK in everything else. I only used Champions this time because I have Edelbrock aluminum heads and when I called them for their plug recommendation that is what they said they use in these heads, so rather than interchange to another brand I just went with it.

I probably have 350 miles total on this new motor, and when I just pulled the plugs they look really good. The back ones are slightly darker than the front cylinders, but that is because my 2 x 4 intake tends to run on the back carb mostly, and those plugs get the bulk of the gas. Even the cylinders and combustion chambers of the heads look surprisingly clean.........I really expected more carbon because of being over carbed, but not so.

For now I think I'll just put the Champions back in for a while since they seem to be performing pretty well, then down the road I may go to the Motorsports.

Don

When I was younger I ordered every fuel saving device found in the JC Whitney catalog. Fire injector plugs, magnetic gas purifiers, high efficiency ceramic muffler bearings, the whole she-bang. After installing them all, I found that every 100 miles I had to stop and drain 10 gallons of gas from my tank! True story!

:D:D:D:D

Don

I remember most of them, Fitzwilly: Fire Injectors, Splitfire, DiamondFire, Tri-Electrode, ad infinitum, starting sometime in the late fifties. If they are so good, how come the auto manufacturers haven't used them all these years. The only place I have seen multi-electrode plugs used as a regular standard part were in aircraft engines, and the main reason for them there was redundancy: electrodes have been known to erode away, or break off, and losing one cylinder on a big radial that is working at max power at altitude, well, it ain't a good thing. Having a second or even third electrode handy on the plug was a lifesaver at times.

I always think, yeah, maybe I should buy that, they sound like they just might work. Then at some point (if I'm lucky, common sense may or may not kick in!) My favorite additive was Marvin's Mystery Oil, that did everything to make a broken car brand new again. I knew friends who swore by the stuff.

About 7 years ago our old Honda Prelude(with 4 wheel steering) started leaking from the steering box. A service guy, first tried to get me to replace the whole thing with a brand new box, for the tune of over 1200 bucks. He said the original steering boxes had aluminum seats that would wear out and that they were a design flaw. I pointed out that was a bit expensive only to be facing the same problem again down the line. Then he tried his next sale pitch, that they could put a rebuilt one with better seat replacing the aluminum ones, for 900 bucks, but Honda wouldn't warranty it because it wasn't OEM. I told him that the car wasn't worth what he wanted to fix a simple leak. After a few minutes he leans over and tells me to buy a power steering fluid additive(can't remember the brand) for 5 bucks that almost always worked. So off I went and low and behold, no leaks for the next few years until after we sold the car or maybe it's still leak free!
Same thing with a coolant leak from our head gasget in the 1993 Toyota 4x4 pickup. We put stop leaks in the radiator 5 years ago, still no leak at 190k!
So every once in a while some of the miracle cure really do work!

I had a problem with the '65 Chev C-10 daily driver I had with a 355 SBC the Accel shorty plugs crapped out about every 3 months,I found that the AC Rapidfires gave me enough clearance at the headers.The surprise was it seemed to smooth out the camshaft lope and ran noticebly stronger and mileage picked up and they were still going strong till I sold it two years later.I put them in 4 other cars and had the same results,two of those were Fords,Rapidfires I give a thumbs up!