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Re: Champion Vs. NGK

To: Adrian Jones <AdrianJones@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Champion Vs. NGK
From: Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 20:48:52 +0000
Adrian Jones wrote:
> 
> This is a good subject.  Today I picked up a box of Champion and a box of
> NGK spark plugs.  Not so long ago I had a bad Champion straight out of the
> box.  I mean, an infinite resistance from the top of the plug to the center
> electrode.  So I now make a point of checking them with the multimeter.
> 
> Anyway, if I'm reading the multimeter correctly,  the Champions were
> between 50 and 100K ohms.  The NGK plugs were between 2.5 and 3K ohms.
> What's the deal?
> 
> Old farts want to know.

A while ago I bought a set of Champions and noticed that the ribs in the 
porcelain, 
instead of being curved like sine waves, had flat sides and bottoms.  Didn't 
think 
much of it till I came to remove them some time later to check the gap, and 
broke 
three of the buggers.  Before that I had only broken one in 30 years.  Last 
time I 
use them.

The spark-gap thing reminded me of a gadget that was available in the 60's 
called a 
Scrutton something or other.  It consisted of a stack of washers each insulated 
from 
the next, and each with two grooves cut across the diameter at right-angles to 
each 
other on the same face.  This construction resulted in many small spark gaps 
throughout the device that was said to give rise to a high-frequency spark that 
would fire a fouled plug, having been developed for the Navy in WWII.  The 
extra 
gaps probably allowed the coil voltage to reach a higher value before it fired, 
something I found useful when my Mini van suffered from fouled plugs and 
wouldn't 
start.  I would pull the king lead out of the coil such that the metallic 
contact 
was broken but the lead was still held loosely in place by the rubber cap.  As 
I 
recall it usually fired up right away whereupon I pushed the king lead home 
again 
and went on my merry way.
 
PaulH.



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