E3 Spark Plugs News

Team Diva hat worn by reality show star and former Poison lead singer Bret Michaels.

E3 Spark Plugs sends congratulations to Poison rocker-turned-reality TV star Bret Michaels for nailing this season’s Celebrity Apprentice win despite a much-publicized bout of medical woes. Oh — and we dig that hat, Bret. You all know the one. Several times throughout the season, Bret rocked a spark plug- and feather-adorned cowboy hat by designer extraordinaire Amy Skaling, founder of Team Diva. Known as “Diva Amy” to her growing fan base (which also includes celebutantes Miley Cyrus and Paris Hilton), Skaling creates cowboy hats, caps, tank tops and bandanas embellished with an array of accessories including Swarovski crystals, nail heads, feathers and tiny ceramic skulls. Hers is a brawn-meets-bling style that’s getting lots of attention. Hey Amy – might we suggest using a shiny new E3 spark plug in your future designs?

Raygun / Sonic Disruptor Pistol by Scupltor "Skunk."

Team Diva’s designs got us wondering about other artistic uses of spark plugs and a Google search turned up an amazing sculptor who goes by the name “Skunk.” Also an avid biker, Skunk creates robots, ray guns and bicycle contraptions that bring to mind scenes from the sci-fi Western “Wild, Wild West.” His creations are made using bicycle chains, old gears, vending machine parts, discarded musical instruments and, of course, spark plugs. See if you can spot the spark plug in this image of a ray gun available via Skunk’s website.

Spark plug grasshopper featured on the Greensmithy Blog.

Oh, and then there’s this little guy, posted by blogger “Cameron” on the apparently defunct Greensmithy Blog. Not quite the glam of a Team Diva hat or the detail of a Skunk sculpture, but he’s got the warm and whimsical charm that only a spark plug bug can exude. Got some great spark plug art of your own to show off? Become a fan of the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook Fan Page and post your pics on our wall feed. And, watch for some incredible spark plug-inspired  tattoo art in an upcoming E3 Spark Plugs blog.

Not all spark plugs are created equal. Some spark plugs are made to burn hotter than others. Making sure that you install the right spark plugs can make a critical difference in the way your engine performs.  Using spark plugs that burn too hot for your particular engine can result in pre-detonation and cause your engine to overheat. But if your spark plugs burn too cold, your engine may perform sluggishly and you can end up with carbon fouling requiring you to clean or replace your spark plugs.

Don't let this happen to your spark plugs! Make sure you get the right hot or cold spark plug for your engine based on its model and use.

Spark plugs work by forcing electricity to arc across a gap, much like a bolt of lightning arcs from a cloud to the ground. A high voltage – anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 volts – is needed to create a strong enough spark to ignite the fuel/air mixture and start your engine. All spark plugs feature ceramic inserts designed to insulate the high voltage at the electrode tip, where it can jump the gap and be directed into the engine’s cylinder. The resulting heat also helps to burn excess fuel and carbon deposits from the plug’s electrode.

Hot spark plugs feature a ceramic insulator designed with a smaller contact area surrounding the metal electrode to reduce heat transfer and keep the spark plug tip insulated. Cold spark plugs have a larger contact area and transfer more heat away from the spark plug tip. Because ceramic is such a poor conductor of heat, these spark plugs run cooler. Manufacturers specify a spark plug’s heat range using numbers but always ask before you buy as differing brands may use larger or smaller numbers to indicate a specific temperature range.

For many years, auto makers and mechanics recommended hot spark plugs for vehicles that primarily were driven slowly and for short distances, and cold spark plugs for automobiles driven on long distances and sustaining high speed highway use. Today, car and truck fuel/air mixtures and cylinder temperatures are electronically maintained within a much narrower range than before, primarily in an effort to minimize emissions. So, the practice has become a bit obsolete except when it comes to high performance race car engines, boat motors and truck engines. Because these engines generate crazy high heat, they often require colder spark plugs to keep the fuel/air mixture from igniting before the spark fires.

The best way to make sure you are using the right spark plug for your vehicle’s engine, based upon its primary use, is to check your vehicle owner’s manual. You also can find the right E3 spark plug for your car, truck, boat, power sports or lawn & garden equipment engine by checking our online interactive catalog.

Racing history was made this weekend at the opening round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship when rookie Eli Tomac became the first rider to ever win a debut event. The 16-year-old son of multi-time mountain biking champion John Tomac dominated an impressive field that included the reigning world champion and a couple of recently crowned U.S. supercross champions. The Geico Honda rider led most of the opening moto before dropping his bike with only a couple of laps to go. He would remount to finish third.

Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Champion Eli Tomac

After a red flag on the opening lap of the second moto sent the 250cc Lites class back to the starting gate, Tomac charged off the line, took the lead and never looked back. Honda’s sophomore sensation Trey Canard picked up the chase but could only watch as the rookie sensation pulled away for the second moto win. A 3-1 finish left Tomac tied in points for the National Championship chase with veteran French-rider Christophe Pourcel but a second moto tie breaker put Eli on the top tier of the podium for round one of twelve in the 2010 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship.

Defending outdoor national motocross champion Chad Reed swapped moto wins with KTM’s Mike Alessi in the 450cc class with Reed eventually claiming the overall victory by a slim two point margin. After a long awaited debut for KTM’s 350cc rocket ship, Alessi pulled the holeshot and dominated the second moto in the big bike class. Factory Honda rider Davi Millsaps finished third and trails Alessi by a single point in the national championship hunt. Yamaha’s Josh Grant returned to racing with a fifth place overall finish after being sidelined by injury for the entire supercross season.

Yamaha’s Jessica Patterson of Tallahassee, Florida, won both motos of the Women’s AMA Pro Championship class and holds an eight point lead over second place finisher Ashley Fiolek of St. Augustine. The ladies from Florida dominated the opening round in Sacramento with Tarah Gieger of Winter Park bringing her Honda home third overall with a 2-6 finish.

If you are looking for E3 Motorcycle Spark Plugs check our Power Sports Catalog for crossover part numbers to select the right plug for your street bike, chopper or dirt bike. E3 DiamondFire spark plugs are available at Advance Auto Parts, Baxter Auto Parts, Home Hardware, JC Motors, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Checker Auto Parts, Schuck’s Auto Supply, Kragen Auto Parts, LORDCO Auto Parts, Summit Racing Equipment or online at Amazon.Com or SparkPlugs.Com. Don’t forget to catch round two of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship in two weeks at Freestone Raceway in Wortham, Texas.

If your vehicle has a little less spunk lately, it might be time to change your spark plugs. A quick inspection can not only tell you if it’s time for new spark plugs, but can speak volumes about your automobile’s engine condition as well. Light brown or tan colored deposits on the tip of your spark plugs are normal. But deposits of different colors and consistencies can be indications of bigger problems. Here are a few things to look for:

Your spark plugs hold numerous clues about your engine's conditition.

A yellow glaze on the spark plug’s electrode and the tip can inhibit conductivity, keeping the spark from being able to jump the gap. Clean it by spraying your spark plug with brake cleaner, letting it soak for about 10 minutes, then wiping it with a clean cloth.

If your spark plug is white in color or appears blistered, that means something is making the plug run too hot. Check for problems in your engine’s cooling, a lean fuel mixture or incorrect ignition timing. A melted electrode on your spark plugs means that they’ve been running too hot for too long and could burn a hole through the top of a piston.

A black, feathery carbon deposit on your spark plugs can be an indication of a weak spark or an overly rich fuel mixture. Causes may include a stuck choke, misadjusted or heavy carburetor float, a leaky injector or carburetor needle valve, low coil output or high resistance in your spark plug wires. A dead oxygen sensor or coolant sensor also can be a cause of carbon fouling.

A heavier, oily black deposit means that oil is being sucked down into the combustion chamber, likely via worn valve guides, guide seals or piston rings or a cracked piston. Check for oil consumption problems including leaky valve cover gaskets, crankshaft end seals and oil pan gaskets. Tightening your automobile’s valve cover or pan bolts may prove a temporary fix, but you’ll likely need to replace the gasket.

A wet spark plug likely means that it hasn’t been firing due to engine flooding or a bad ignition cable. Dirt or moisture on the outside of the spark plug that provides a conductive path to ground, or an internal crack in the spark plug’s ceramic insulator that shorts the plug to ground also can be the culprit.

If your spark plugs’ electrodes are smashed flat or broken, they likely are the wrong spark plugs for your engine. If a spark plug is too long, it can protrude into the combustion chamber and hit the piston or a valve. This could not only shatter your spark plug into the piston, but shatter the piston itself or damage the head. A spark plug that is too short will cause your engine to buck. The spark won’t ignite your fuel correctly and can cause poor gas mileage, plus prompt your check engine lights. E3 Spark Plugs provides online catalogs to make sure you’ve got the right spark plug for automotive, power sports and lawn & garden equipment engines.

A split or chipped spark plug insulator is a sign of pre-detonation, also called “spark knock.” Check for engine overheating or ignition timing problems, a faulty EGR valve or excessive compression caused by a clogged combustion chamber.

Reading your spark plugs can provide multiple clues about your engine’s condition and save you tons of money.

Compared to older competitive designs, E3 Spark Plugs‘ patented DiamondFire technology was recently and conclusively proven to provide more rapid and robust combustion by research engineers at Michigan Technological University.

In reality, spark plug technology hasn’t changed much since the original “J-Wire” side-wire electrode was developed and patented in 1904 and used in the Model T Ford.  Real-time combustion images were captured during advanced testing methods employed at Michigan Tech, a nationally-acclaimed automotive research facility, to show a comparison between conventional competitive designs and E3’s revolutionary DiamondFire technology. The images prove that E3’s “diamond-shaped” side-wire electrode projects the combustion spark in a way that more quickly ignites the air/fuel mixture, thereby creating a significantly faster and larger flame kernel.

In effect, this burns more of the available fuel, resulting in increased combustion efficiency for improved power and fuel economy with reduced emissions.

“I have had an active role in the automotive industry for about forty years, so new technology surprises are rare to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the scientific data from Michigan Tech when they tested the new E3 technology,” stated Jim McFarland, veteran automotive engineer, and Research consultant for E3.

While conducting engine dyno tests comparing E3 technology to competitive brands, Jeremy Worm, lead Research Engineer for the Advanced Power Systems Research Center at Michigan Tech stated, “We found that the E3 spark plug produces a faster burn, especially in the early stages of the combustion process.  In an engine, the early burn duration translates to the stability of the combustion process.  By making that early burn more stable, we can run more dilution in the cylinder, and that directly translates into improved engine efficiency.”

Backed by a five year, 100,000-mile warranty, E3 Spark Plugs with DiamondFire technology, are now available for most automotive and motorsports applications at automotive retail stores nationwide.  For more information and complete test results, visit www.e3sparkplugs.com.

Ordinary Plug Flame Kernal vs. E3 Spark Plug Flame Kernal

E3 Spark Plugs-sponsored racer Kevin Probst is no newbie on the tracks. He began his racing career in 1978 at just 16 years old and since has landed upwards of 230 wins and 18 class championships. In fact, he is one of the all-time winningest drivers in the history of the famous Crandon International Off-Raceway in Wisconsin.  But his racing experience goes even further back than the start of his 32-year professional racing career.

E3 Spark Plugs-Sponsored Off Road Racer Kevin Probst

“My dad started racing the old fiberglass dune buggies back in the late 60’s,” Kevin recently told EPN Newswire. “All of us on the team got our start racing buggies. One year, my brother and I raced every buggy class that was available. Sometimes we would run nine races a weekend between the two of us.”

Fast forward 30 years, and Kevin is still running the tracks hard, recently debuting his custom-built Pro 2 Unlimited truck at the 2010 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series in Las Vegas in March.  It’s the third consecutive season of the Probst Motorsports team being sponsored by E3 Spark Plugs. Kevin and his brother Jeff (no, not the Jeff Probst from CBS’ “Survivor”) own Probst Motorsports and Probst Collision Center in their hometown, New Lennox, IL. There, the family team including dad Steve, wife Vickie, son Ryan, daughter Kara and nephew Jon (a promising young racer himself) work tirelessly to create racing excellence. The Probst Collision Center is a GM-certified collision center and ASA and I-CAR certified repair facility. So, racing isn’t just a profitable hobby – it’s in the Probst blood.

“Probst Motorsports is a racing business we started for the love of off road racing,” Kevin says. And as all the greats in any sort of venture do, Probst is still learning the racing biz.

E3 Spark Plugs-Sponsored Kevin Probst's new Chevy UWeld Chassis truck developed for the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series

“That season was a learning curve,” Kevin said of the Lucas Oil 2009 season which featured a new off road-style racing facility. “I had to learn how to race the motocross style tracks that the series developed. We had only three days notice to come out and start the season, so we played catch up all year just trying to get up to speed and learn the system.”

The Probst team has since responded by developing the new truck, a Chevy UWeld chassis, specifically for the 2010 Lucas Oil series, and early indications point to a promising season. E3 Spark Plugs is excited to sponsor Kevin for the third consecutive season. Check the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series TV schedule on CBS Sports, SPEED TV, Versus and MavTV and stay tuned for some spectacular racing action.

Basically, indexing a car spark plug faces the open gap of the plug’s ground electrode toward the direction for the optimal burn of the fuel mix in an engine’s combustion chamber. Although technical experts often disagree as to the actual performance enhancement attained by indexing a car’s spark plugs, it can’t hurt. In fact, with the price of gasoline skyrocketing in today’s economy, do everything possible to reduce the amount of raw fuel that escapes from your car’s engine is probably worth the effort.

Before you begin, you will need a spark plug wrench, a permanent marker and a pack of indexing shims. Almost any auto parts store that sells E3 car spark plugs should carry shim washers of differing thickness. It is also a good idea to check your car’s fuel mileage before you replace your car spark plugs for future comparisons. If you’re ready, let’s get started.

Step One – Use the spark plug wrench to remove the old plugs and purchase the correct E3 replacement plugs (see the Cross Reference Guide in the automotive section of the E3 Spark Plugs Catalog page on the company’s main website).

Step Two - This can require some detailed research but it is something you only have to do once (unless you change your engine’s head). To determine the location of the intake valves and exhaust valves in relationship to your car spark plugs will require a technical manual or a quick call to the service department of your local dealership. If all else fails, stop by any high performance speed shop and ask a professional.

Step Three – Scribe a vertical line with your felt marker from top to bottom on the outside of the ceramic insulator to denote the direction of the open end of the ground electrode. The idea is to orient the spark so the back side of the extending electrode does not block any part of the flame kernel from entering the combustion area. Some high performance engine builders prefer to orient the plug’s gap to face toward the exhaust valves while others recommend directing the spark at the opening for the intake valves. For your personal vehicle, just split the difference with the scribed line on your spark plugs and you should be fine. (more…)

Kevin Probst, driver of the E3 Spark Plugs #9 race truck, survived a crash-filled round four at the May 8 Magnaflow Exhaust Off-Road Nationals to finish 14th overall in the Pro 2 Unlimited class. The Surprise (Arizona) off road course had a few surprises for the talented field which included past off-road truck racing champions Rob MacCachren and Carl Renezeder plus former AMA motocross champions Ricky Johnson, Jeff Ward and Jeremy McGrath. Probst qualified the E3 racing truck inside row six and was methodically working his way to the front of the pack when another truck’s flip resulted in the race being stopped due to a red flag.

After the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series event was restarted, MacCachren and Renezeder battled with off-road champ Ricky Johnson for a 1-2-3 finish. Former Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year Jeff Ward continued to show the talent that has earned him championships in AMA Motocross, Supercross and Supermoto as well as a pair ESPN X-Games Gold Medals. The 2009 Lucas Oil Off-Road rookie of the year finished the day in 5th place overall. In the dusty melee that ensued, Probst brought his E3 Pro 2 truck to the checkers to maintain his 11th position in the overall championship hunt.

In the popular Pro 4 class, the current points leader Rick Huseman held off a hard charging Carl Renezeder for the top spot on the podium. The Pro Lite class of the Lucas Oil Off-Road event saw Chris Brandt outlast former series champion and freestyle motocross rider Brian Deegan for the win. Don’t forget to catch Kevin Probst and the E3 Spark Plugs race team in action on July 11th at 2 p.m. EST when CBS Sports Spectacular broadcasts the Magnaflow Exhaust Off-Road National from famed Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, about 45 minutes west of Salt Lake City.

Auto and history buffs know that the spark plug dates back at least as far as Edmond Berger’s never-patented, experimental design of 1839. But how about a 500,000-year-old spark plug? That’s how some explain the “Coso Artifact.” Found in 1961 by three rock hunters searching for geodes (rocks with hollow interiors studded with mineral crystals such as amethyst) in California’s Coso Mountains, the find has baffled geologists for decades – Is it the world’s oldest spark plug or just an unexplained geological happenstance?

X-ray image of the Coso Artifact

The Coso Artifact looked much like the fossil shell-encrusted geodes that the rock hunting trio often sought for their gem store. It wasn’t until one of the three, Mike Mikesell, took a diamond saw to the rock that something proved amiss. The rock split open, but instead of crystallized mineral, it revealed what looked like a porcelain cylinder surrounding a shiny metal rod. Also encased in the rock’s layers were what appeared to be a washer and a nail. Closer examination revealed that the porcelain was surrounded by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray showed a tiny spring at one end.

In 1969, Ronald Willis of the International Fortean Organization, a nonprofit organization that promotes and facilitates research into unexplained phenomena, suggested that the threaded, corroded metal object might be an aged spark plug. The find might not be so curious save for one detail: According to geologists, the object’s rock encasement, assuming it was a bonafide geode, would have taken nearly half a million years to form. Even Berger’s very first spark plug would have been little more than a century old at the time. Willis’ report caught the attention of creationist organizations, since such a find might well force a revision of known history – at least the history of spark plugs – should the rock prove to, in fact, be a geode.

Three decades after the find, multiple organizations reopened investigations into the Coso Artifact. During the late 1990s, a researcher with the Spark Plug Collectors of America declared the object a 1920s-era Champion spark plug. So, how could a 40-year-old spark plug get inside a half-million-year-old rock? Skeptics say that the rock may not be a genuine geode but a much more recently formed rock. And even if it is a geode, it might have been covered in mud and clay sometime between the 1910s and 1930s, picked up a few hitchhikers as it rolled along and finally hardened in the California sun, baking the spark plug, nail and washer into its outer, much younger layer.

Unfortunately, we may never know for sure whether the Coso Artifact is in fact the world’s oldest spark plug and proof of ancient technology much more advanced than previously thought, or a simple geologic collision of the old and not-so-old. Attempts over the past few years to reach the Coso Artifact’s owner and its original finders have failed and no one else knows where the artifact is today. In any case, we at E3 Spark Plugs bet you’ll never look at a spark plug the same way again.

Catch E3 Spark Plugs on SPEED and CBS on May 8th, 2010. Starting at 9:00 A.M. EST on SPEED, watch the hit DIY show Stacey David’s GearZ and host, Stacey David, walk you through five things you can do to any vehicle, installing E3 Spark Plugs included, to take it from clunker to daily-driver. Then at 5:00 P.M. EST on CBS you can catch E3 Spark Plugs as a part of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series action. Highlighting action from Round Four of the Magnaflow Exhaust Off Road Nationals in Surprise, Arizona, the mile long course at the Speedworld facility features challenging terrain and action at every turn. Then at 7:00 P.M. EST turn it back over to SPEED to catch the season opener of 2010 Nitro Jam, with another episode immediately following at 7:30 P.M. EST. The huge debut will feature the Palm Beach Nitro Jam in West Palm Beach with the Mardi Gras Nitro Jam from Baton Rouge immediately following. All of the shows will showcase IHRA’s three nitro classes along with the Elite 8 Top Sportsman and Top Dragster shootouts and much more. With four different opportunities to catch E3 Spark Plugs, you can’t miss it!

The E3 DiamondFIRE spark plug design features an open, diamond-shaped electrode that offers fuller flame growth and more complete fuel combustion, thus providing reduced emissions, increased horsepower and better engine durability. Whether it’s a motorcycle, snowmobile, ATV or jet-ski, E3 has you covered with the advanced technology your machine needs.

For more information about E3 spark plugs, including performance and emissions test results, or where-to-buy, visit www.e3sparkplugs.com.