Good luck Boston...let us know how things turn out.

 

Partially mistaken. Electrical flow is proportional to the risistance. If there are two paths then the ammount of electricity that flows through each path will be inversly proportional to the risistance on that path. With that said, I would guess that there IS in fact a spark across both tabs, but prabably not perfectly divided 50/50.

 

I remember upgrading the ignition on my 350 89 suburban a few years back and the aftermarket ignition company was explicit on not using any other plug than stock.
My 99 runner plugs were 3.95 each this week.

 

I got this from www.sparkplugs.com:
"Some combustion chamber designs (such as a rotary motor) require that the spark plugs have the ground electrode placed to the side of the center electrode rather than below as on a traditional plug (see photo). This firing tip design tends to erode the tip of the ground electrode faster than a traditional plug, erosion at these points creates a larger gap between the center and ground electrodes causing plug misfire. Thus by having more ground electrodes you extend plug life. It is important to note that multi-ground does not mean multi-spark, there will still only be one spark at a time. Therefore a multi-ground plug will not perform any better and may actually perform worse than a traditional plug, unless the engine is designed for a multiple ground plug. (http://www.sparkplugs.com/glossary.a...&manID=0&pt=1; 1-21-2007)

As this states, multi-ground DOES NOT mean multi-spark. The designe of the 3.4L V6 required a side mounted ground sparkplug. The multiple grounds are designed to increase the life of side mounted ground sparkplugs because these types of plugs experience larger amounts of electrode erosion than traditional ground plugs.

 

I wavered between the NGK standard plug with dual ground and the NGK iridium plug today at O'Reily's. The iridiums were only $3 more so I went with those and they are single ground. However the iridium plugs are said to last pretty much forever. I'll probably run them for 100K but check them at 50K just to be sure.

For only $3 more it's worth it to get the iridiums. For whatever reason this same plug at Advance Auto was $13 per plug so get them at O'Reily's.

At 60K my stock plugs are slightly worn.

 

apparently there is a difference between dual-ELECTRODE and dual GROUND setup sparkplugs... I know they look slightly different, and that dual electrode plugs (or 4) are supposed to have 2 or 4 sparks, while dual-ground still has one spark. Dual ground is what is stock, not a bosch or other dual-electrode.

I just switched from Denso dual-ground stock plugs to denso dual-ground platinum plugs, new ones have slightly smaller center part, but still look same overall, so far no difference and haven't even gone through a tank of gas to see if they help at all.

I also got new NGK wires

all from sparkplugs.com with "dodgetalk" in promo code to save 10-15%
(just googled for sparkplugs promo codes and found it, i guess we don't have a promo code with them on this forum yet)

 

wow, i completely missed the second page, flyfishexpert also touched on what I am saying

 

Just finished all my 60K maintenance. I did the ISR mod, put in a new stock air filter, changed the oil and filter, put in a new PCV valve, and put some BG44K in the tank. Drove it around all day yesterday and the ISR mod made a pretty big difference.

Today I did the fuel filter, new plugs (NGK Iridium), and lubed all the zerks in the drive shafts with Mobil 1 Synthetic grease. Then I went for a test drive.

WOW! It's like a new truck. At 60K my stock plugs were worn. With these new iridiums it is night and day. I don't know if standard plugs would have the same result but now the truck runs much more smoothly and acceleration is 110% better than it was yesterday. I'll report back on gas mileage once I go through a couple of tanks.

I ran a 10 month gas study where I documented each tank and had an average of 18.70MPG with a high of 20.02 and a low of 15.88 so we'll see how much of a difference all this makes.

I plan on doing the deck plate mod next.

 

actually you are wrong............. electricity flows to the path of least resistance, which means the spark will jump ONLY to one side or the other and does not split in two.

 

Bruce is right, but I will also add that as the gaps wear, a dual electrode plug will change the side it fires on following the path of least resistance rule. Thus the plugs will last roughly double the time a single electrode plug would (if made of the same materials). Materials like iridium are much harder, have much higher melting temps and wear very slowly in an engine so a single electrode iridium plug is likely to outlast most other types including multi-eletrode standard plugs.

 

So I would be OK using traditional ground spark plugs, like the iridiums, in place of the stock multi-ground plugs? I have talked with the service people at my local Toyota dealer, and they made it sound like the 3.4L was designed to use the multi-ground plugs. Even my Haynes repair manual specifies the NGK BKR5EKB-11 (OE) multi-ground spark plugs. I thought it was because of engine design that the side mounted ground plug was used, but because the side mounted plugs degraded faster, they added a second ground to make them last as long as the traditional plugs. Any in site on this?

 

All I can chime in on this is the fact that my stock plugs were evenly worn on each side at 60K miles so spark had to have hit each side of the plug symmetrically, whether that was both sides simultaneously or one side for a while then the other I have no idea.

It's easy enough to test though if you're really curious. Just pull one of the plugs out and test it to see how the spark reacts.

 

That's perfectly normal since the plug will fire on the narrower of the 2 gaps (on a dual electrode plug). Then as the electrode material wears away, the spark will continue to chose the path of least resistance (usually dictated by the narrowest electrode/ground gap) often jumping from side to side. It is possible to have instances where the spark does fire from both sides, it would do so in a case where the gaps and conditions were exactly equal, but highly unlikely to see that very often (think 4-leaf clover.....or better yet, Bigfoot).

 

Yes, you can certainly use an iridium plug in there, but the 3.4L motor was originally designed for use with a dual electrode plug and you are right as well that the side ground plugs do wear faster than a normal plug so you certainly aren't comparing apples to apples when comparing a side ground and a standard ground spark plug (when I mentioned double the life I was referring to if Denso had a single side electrode plug). The iridium plugs are not anything like a standard electrode plug because the iridium metal's resistance to spark induced errosion allows the point on the electrode to be very pointed and this greatly reduces the voltage needed to fire thus improving the spark plug's efficiency.

From NGK:
"Some combustion chamber designs (such as a rotary motor) require that the spark plugs have the ground electrode placed to the side of the center electrode rather than below as on a traditional plug (see photo). This firing tip design tends to erode the tip of the ground electrode faster than a traditional plug, erosion at these points creates a larger gap between the center and ground electrodes causing plug misfire. Thus by having more ground electrodes you extend plug life. It is important to note that multi-ground does not mean multi-spark, there will still only be one spark at a time. Therefore a multi-ground plug will not perform any better and may actually perform worse than a traditional plug, unless the engine is designed for a multiple ground plug."

 

Hello all - I just joined today and happened by this thread and became curious about this platinum plug thing, because I had put them in my 96 Tacoma 3.4, a few months ago and I am now having a problem with a misfire on the #2 cyl, according to the retrieved code I got today. (P0302= Cyl #2 cyl. "misfire detected" ). I am an old points and distributor kind of guy so please go easy on me. This three coil on six cylinder is a bit new to me. I get it but I do need some help here to determine what the culprit is in this line that would cause the engine to example that of a fouled sparkplug in an old v8. If the coil was bad I would be "Not Firing" on two cylinders correct? Coils are an expensive guess as well. Anyone have some experience with these codes and the resolve? Thanks guys for sharing all this info.

"S"

 

Start by testing your coils with a DMM (digital multi meter). The values for a good coil should be floating around this site somewhere. I used to have them but I sold my Taco repair manual long ago.

 

Thank you.

 

Well, you just answered your own question. Overlooked the best source, because you though they were going to "steal" something form you., How about all the wasted time you stole from yourself going everywhere except the dealer, who has them in stock? Sometimes the simple fix is right under you nose. But some folks are to stubborn to even realize it. Keep searching, maybe Shucks, or Kragen. hey, grab a set of Botched (<--no, its not a typo) platinums...

 

I noticed the same thing with mine. If I run 87, it's sluggish, 89 it pings, and 93 it runs like a raped ape. Maybe someone can explain.

 

Take them out, get some factory Densos from the dealer and install them, pull the negative battery terminal to reset the ECU and drive it until you get another CEL. If you still have a misfire, then we'll help you troubleshoot any further issues. Those Bosch plugs are just nothing but problems in the 3.4L motor IMHO.