s2kbtos

It's been about 20,000 miles , since i changed the spark plugs. I currently have the stock ngk double platinum.


I took them out today and this is how it looks......



http://www.flickr.com/photos/93730432@N05/8525874623/http://www.flickr.com/photos/93730432@N05/8525874623/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/93730432@N05/, on Flickr


http://www.flickr.com/photos/93730432@N05/8525875221/http://www.flickr.com/photos/93730432@N05/8525875221/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/93730432@N05/, on Flickr






Why is so burned around the spark plugs?...

Yoohoo

If by 'burned' you mean the whitish color it means your car was running lean. It also looks like two of your spark plug tube seal are busted or seated improperly based on how your coils look.

zeroptzero

Like mentioned above the plugs may not have been properly torqued (18 ft lbs), or you have oil seeping into the spark plug tubes (the bottom of your coils look oil soaked from leaky tube seals or possibly burned by combustion gasses from loose spark plugs.

s2kbtos

How do i know if the coils are bad? I don't have a check engine light or anything like that..

zeroptzero

The coils look to be in tact, so they should work fine and may only need to be cleaned up. I would clean them up and try to re-use them. You will need to address the spark plug tube seals if you were getting oil in the tubes. You didn't mention if you found oil in the spark plug tubes ?. If you didn't find oil in the tubes then the plugs were simply too loose and they were likley backing up causing the issues you now see. If the coils are bad they will let you know when you fire up the engine, with a mis-fire.

I would clean the coils, address the issue of oil in the spark plug tubes if it exists, and buy new sparkplugs and make sure they are torqued to 18 foot lbs.

starchland

18 is the old spec I believe?

what is the gap on the plugs?

zeroptzero

No that is the new spec, the factory spec was lower - 13 ft lbs ?. You can safely go with 20 ft lbs if you want.

The spark plug gap is approx. .043" / .044" , but oem plugs come in at .039" to start as the gap opens up over time and those plugs are supposed to be used for up to 100,000 miles according to Honda. With a service limit of .051" they have to start with lower gaps as the electrode wears and the gap increases over time. I put my plugs in at .043-.044 range to get the best performance, and I plan on changing them every few years well ahead of 100k miles. I would never leave my plugs in for that long.

My factory plugs were over the service limit at 55k miles, they never would have made it to 100k miles.

starchland

Oh ya thanks! 100k would be misfire city. So what's better for performance? I always did tight end of the spectrum.

zeroptzero

Oh ya thanks! 100k would be misfire city. So what's better for performance? I always did tight end of the spectrum.
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The largest gap you can run without mis-fires will get you the best performance, but I'm good with .044" or .043 (depending on what wire gauge you have). That is the upper end of the new spec so perfect IMO. The ground electrode is still pretty level at that measurement too, if you go too large or too small the ground electrode can get cock-eyed. You still have lots of safety margin at that setting as you won't have any issues up to .051" as the plugs wear. When I replaced my factory plugs they were over the .051 service limit - maybe as high as .055" ?, no mis-fires but definitely due for a change.