I saw E3 spark plugs advertised in a magazine, and was wondering if they lived up to the height. If any of you have tried them, let me know how you like them.

 

I have been watching for posts from people who have tried the E3 sparkplugs in Magnum 3.9/5.2/5.9 engines so that I could update the sparkplug FAQ.

So far I would guess I have only read 2-3 posts and no one has claimed the E3 worked noticeably better than the 'front runner' plugs like the cheap Autolite 3924 or the expensive Denso IK16's.

I would like to put a stock Champion RC12YC or RC12LC4 in cylinder No.1 and an E3 in Cylinder No. 2 and then do some voltage and burn time measurements with a device like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ACTRO...QQcmdZViewItem
or
http://tinyurl.com/yqjkga



Then swap the Champion over to cylinder No 2 and the E3 to cylinder No 1 and repeat the test to get a better average.

The Magnum Engine Sparkplug FAQ
(a long read)
is at post 27 at:

https://dodgeforum.com/m_714145/mpage_2/key_/tm.htm

 

e3s were designed for small motors like lawnmowers....no way will i put one in my truck.

 

According to the magazine I saw them in, the only real difference in the spark is the shape of the flame it makes. It seems to me that a fast, energetic flame is better than one thats just hotter. Just wondering if it works

 

plugs dont make a flame, they make an electronic ark. the arc is the same with the e3 plug as with conventional plugs,the only diffrence is, as far as i can tell, you can not gap them. the ark goes sideways across the Y rather than verticle.

 

It is worth noting that when Delco came out with the 'Rapidfire' sparkplug several years ago they did hire an independent company to do a SAE/TMC official MPG test and found a slight gain. Delco then advertised this on the package and to the best of my knowledge no one challenged them or sued saying it was not true.

E3 sparkplugs has a webpage claiming 'academic partners' have done CFR40-90 test on engines in the lab. This is not the same as a SAE/TMC approved test, and makes we wonder more, not have confidence.

http://www.e3sparkplugs.com/performance.asp

CFR stands for 'Council of Fuel Research'
My engineer grandfather was on the Council of Fuel Research during World War II when it was doing extremely important work developing 130 octane qasoline for B29 superfortress bombers.

CFR also developed the special single cylinder variable compression ratio engine that most labs still use to test gasoline octane.

After the war my father did his 1951 engineering thesis on CFR's project moving a **** synthetic-fuel-from-coal plant from Germany to Missouri and testing how well it did.

I can tell you with confidence that CFR40-90 is not the way to test whether a sparkplug improves MPG in a vehicle...the TMC/SAE tests are the 'gold standard' for doing that.

 

That's what I was thinking. By flame I meant the ignition of the fuel/air mix by the spark. It kinda looks like the mix will just burn quicker, expanding more rapidly. I was skeptical when I read it, but thought I'd look into them before I made any kind of decision