Plugs, revisited. Options

[awd4kicks]

Interesting stuff.

Sunday at the cook out, NCGalant and myself attempted to tune the now-running Talon in, burning new data to the EPROM. To our dismay, we found the O2 sensor readings to be untrustworthy and worse yet I had a violent popping when trying to make WOT pulls. The popping changed, but continued through all attempts to richen or lean the mixture and adjut the timing. The popping also seemed to be unrelated to knock for the most part.

I came up with a theory that the problem was at a more basic level that effected all things more equally. I knew my plug gap was good because I purposely narrowed it to .025. I suspected that my NGK BPR7ES's that I had been running for so long were maybe out of their legue with this set-up.

I got a fresh set of 8's locally on Monday. Low and behold 95-98% of the popping was gone instantly! Later that evening Spyguy and I made another test run. This time the popping had come back a bit. Not much, but it was present.

Now I'm wondering if I need to go to 9's or if the 8's I'm using now are already prone to fouling from intown slug driving. The NGK info says a rule of thumb is to go one range colder for every 70-100 HP the engine is upgraded! DAMN! That would put me at something like 10ES's if I truely get to the HP level I'm looking for. I just can't imagine that I wouldn't foul the plugs by normal street driving. I know Nate had some issues with 9's.