E3 spark plugs

Been running some R43XLS's in my warmed over 360. Gonna try some E3.46's ( direct cross ). Anyone else running E3's?

will be interested in seeing your results. i always thought those were just a "trick of the week" gimmick, so i never coughed up the bux to try a set. please don't think for one second i'm slamming you john ! it would be neat to do an A-B-A test on those if possible. please post your results. i will freely admit i am a "poopyhead" if you have success, right here before GOD and country !

Yeah, i'v been thinking about maybe giving those a try once I figure out what my 511 wants for heat range.

Re E3 plugs...
1. Some years back David Vizard did an article on them where he talked about the design and did a dyno test vs a comparable Autolite Racing plug (which he said at the time was the best performing racing plug he'd tested). It was a NASCAR Street Stock class engine making about 400 HP and they both made within 1/2 HP of each other. I searched for this article online, but haven't been able to find it.

2. Google "AETC 2015 E3" and you can get the overview of a presentation about them.

I use Autolite Racing plugs and don't feel any need to change. However, I did find some of the above interesting.

I will post results, but I warn you, they will be "seat of the pants". Plugs will be going in to a street build 360 ( .030 over 9.7:1, Hughes 1523AL, 2.02 pocket ported J heads, Edelbrock performer & 650 AVS. Petronix dist./ coil with Chrysler orange box ) where my R43XLS's were living quite happily. Just been curious about them and O'Reily's had them on sale.

Doubt my 72 year old saggidy-assed butt will be able to detect a 1/2 HP difference. Maybe on the drivability side, although that isn't an existing problem either with this mild build. At least if Capps or Schumacher asks me "What plug's are you running" I can say - same as you!

I like reading davids article. Interesting stuff.

I have had 4 different customers that wanted to see if the E3 plugs made more power. So at the end of the dyno session we put them in and they made less then 1 hp difference. We even adjusted one of the engines up and down 1 degree to see if it made a difference. But i am sure that the owners cars were faster due to the loss of weight inside their wallet.

Joe

It's been kinda fun watching guys over the years getting sucked into every little trick in the book over the years. Around 42 years ago I asked an old time mopar engine builder is question about an issue with the 340 in my duster back in my street racing days. When I told him what my car was doing he looked at me and said, You are using Champion spark plugs aren't you? I told him I was and he told me to throw them away and put a set of Auto-lite plugs in there and the issue would go away. I put a set in that day and have been running them ever since. Zero complaints

25 years ago or so I was building 318-2bbl motors for a local oval track series.

I generally prefer to use NGK plugs, and the normal plug for those was a BPR6ES.

I don't remember why I tried them, but the BPR6ET is the same plug with three ground straps and the electrode in the center of them.
No big gains, but they seemed to consistently add a number or two over the std plugs.
They were basically the same price...... So we stuck with them.

Piston engine aircraft engines have used multiple ground strap spark plugs for years, they have two plugs per cylinder and two magnetos also.
They would last about 500 hours in my 260 HP Lycoming 540 C.I. opposed flat six cylinder air cool engine.
They call for .016 air gap on both sides and I would have to gap them again after around one hundred hours due to wear on the center ground electrode and a little wear on the plug straps The instructions called for replacing them after the center electrode started looking a lot like a football instead of a baseball, which they would get like
Nothing magical or better about them is my impression, not cheap though either
Seems like several years back there was another attempt by a different company to market multiple ground strap spark plugs which never gain popularity or a large enough use to keep the company in business

Guess that would be me. "The older I get, the faster I went".

50 years ago JC WHITNEY was selling that type of plug. They were a cure all for every problem your engine had. LOL

Where does this leave plug-indexing?
I'm seeing more ground 'posts' blocking flame.

Only advance I can see right now is this plug will last longer because there's more ground area the spark can 'land'.

LOL, snake oil. Maybe try some Split Fires next?

As long as you have the right heat range and reach, all it has to do is make a spark.

I remember trying splitfire plugs many years ago and all i got was a lighter wallet out of the deal. The only bigger scam in my book is a cold air intake/filter on a stock car.

one of my favorites was the "hurricane" intake propeller thingy !

I love this web sight! Gives me a "procrastination" break from this.

You mean like every carmaker is doing these days?

Yep, cold air is not a scam.

We tried the E3s on back-to-back pulls on a 600HP small block. The dyno said we gained 1 HP. What is that, 00.1667% gain? Whoop-tee-damn-do! A few degrees more in oil temperature could net us that.

[quote=LaRoy Whoop-tee-damn-do! A few degrees more in oil temperature could net us that. [/quote]
Only if your using thick oil

I've seen top fuel plugs and they only had
1 ground strap but they say they run then

There was an episode of Horsepower TV where they did some fairly extensive tests on the E3's with regards to economy and emissions.
I think if they have any real advantage over a std plug...... that's probably where it is.

What I liked about the NGK T plug was the way the ground straps are oriented it wouldn't trap the spark/kernel under the ground strap.

I run the 2 strap one

The problem is every one I've seen has a crap cone filter and sucks hot underhood air, I've seen them butted up against the radiator . Watch and learn Cold Air Intakes Mythbusted NOT by "The Mythbusters".

A lot of factory installations get true cold air. Hell, even my 77 Volare had a true functioning cold air intake.
Now the ricer junk with their K&N cones under the hood are another matter.

Top Fuel Dragster Info

I can't verify this information, but it all sounds very realistic when you think about it.
Either way its a good read


1. One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

2. Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

3. A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger.

4. With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

5. At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

6. Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

7. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

8. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After ½ way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

9. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

10. In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

11. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

12. Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

13. Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

14. The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

15. The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second.

16. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher).

17. The top speed record is 333.00 mph. (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).


Putting all of this into perspective:

You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06.
Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass.
You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph.
The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.
The dragster launches and starts after you.
You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you.
He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.
Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.

That is awesome acceleration !!!

With such strict emission standards, as well as MPG requirements, I would think that if these plugs performed that well, the OE's would be using them, or a version there of.
Does anyone know if any manufacturer is using a plug like this?
I'd suspect you'd get more from basic ignition and carburetor tuning.

I have run NGK plugs for years. I switched over to E3 for the contingency payout in NMCA. $150 to win $75 to runner up for each event.
I expected the plug to be the same as the NGK and thats exactly what you get.
I know several of the NMCA NSS folks run them for the same reason. None of us have had any issues with them.