I have had spark plugs in for about 2 months now and they have alot of carbon build up and just dont look good. i got a full exhaust and i'm going the same speed as i was on stock exhaust with new plugs back 7 or 8 weeks ago. the car feels strong in the mid range but power starts to fall off after 6000 or so rpms.

could my spark plugs be hurting me? they do have considerable carbon buildup on them and dont look too good. just fyi, i am buying new ones tomorrow, just wondering if these dirty carboned sparkplugs could be hurting me (everything is functioning as it should, 6pi, vdi, etc.)

also, i have been running the 9's instead of 7's if that matters at all.

 

What about wires? Filters? Just replace everything and see how it goe s

 

well the wires are old, and the spark plugs have carbon buildup. i'm just making sure that this can really hurt performance (looking for excuses after installing full exhaust and being the same speed) hehe

 

Spark plugs being old will hurt performance. Especially in the higher RPMs. Alot of people change them with every oil change. I do it about every 10k miles, the Manual says 15k miles. Definately more important in the wankel than in a pisston engine.

 

i've often wondered about this....can you pull your spark plugs and, say, clean them off with a wire brush? it does't seem like it would hurt anything and it would get all the crap off of them. or is this just an idiocy floating around in my head with no worth?

 

Yeah. Doing that will extend the life for a little while. But its nothing like actually putting new plugs back in.

 

BTW Jacob, you could be getting more carbon build up because of running all 9's. You do just have a regular old NA engine...

Maybe you should try actually getting 7's and 9's...Or maybe all 7's

 

yeah i'm gonna go buy all 7's today.

 

i could tell the day my plugs got to worn, it was missing and i would backfire like hell

 

Spark plugs are only specified to be replaced every 30K miles, not 15K miles even in "Unique driving conditions" (read hard, heavy driving) in the manual.

At 15K miles, the gap and condition should be checked, but the normally don't need replacing.

If the car is running correctly, then once a year or 15K miles (which ever comes first) for replacement is more than enough and you are wasting money replacing them before that.

 

hmmmm I think NGK's should be used. No gap check really required

 

well, the edges get rounded as they age... if they are too rounded, the gap has increased. But yes ytou are correct pointing out that the gap is not adjustable.

Sparks fire best from a sharp edge.

 

For a second there I was like thinking you had a 7 sec car. LMAO!!!!!

 

rx7guy... that's excellent! Usually if you clean the plugs off, you might want to check the gap too, right?

8 inches of powah... most girls would think that not bad, or atleast my girlfriend says so... HAHAH

 

if the gap and the electrode are all good, a wire brush works great for removing carbon build-up.

i just put new plugs and wires in my car. the ones i took out looked pretty bad, i dont think iv ever seen a plug that worn, and on one, the electrode was pretty much gone. i really didnt notice any big performance gains with the new plugs, but i did notice the gas was more responsive.