E3 Spark Plugs News

Not exactly but attach a big asterisk to that statement. In recent years, there has been a rise in consumer complaints of poor running engines and sluggish motors that won’t idle properly. Most drivers naturally associate an engine’s spits and sputters with ignition problems. But, the truth is today’s drivers are filling their tanks with gasoline that has a reduced shelf life. Since the signing of the Renewable Fuel Standard Program in September of 2006, the majority of fuel pumped at gasoline stations contains around 10% of Ethanol and is often referred to as E10 gas. The problem is ethanol is not the most stable oxygenator, especially in sub-tropical or tropical climates.

Ethanol, a corn-based alternative fuel, comes with pros and cons.

Ethanol is an alcohol and alcohol separates from gasoline (called Phase Separation) in a relatively short time. In doing so, the alcohol attracts water molecules and gasoline sitting in holding tanks, gas cans or your car can become diluted. As the contaminated fuel mixes with the same amount of air as before, your engine is forced to operate at a lean condition. Running lean means hotter operating temperatures which can cause an increased wear factor for your car spark plugs. In addition, the diluted fuel has a reduced octane rating that may cause your engine to “knock” due to predestination. Some common engine problems associated with E10 Gasoline include:

• Lack of Performance
• Loss of Power
• Hard to Start
• Doesn’t Want to Idle
• Hesitates on Acceleration
• Stall at Slow Speeds

On a positive note, Ethanol is a leading alternative to fossil fuels and is considered to be a “green alternative”. Prior to the mid-1970s, most gasoline contained lead which was replaced by another oxygenating agent called MTBE (or Methyl-Tertiary-Butyl-Ether). Although oxygenates were found to reduce the carbon monoxide emissions from car engines, MTBE would later be scrutinized as a ground water contaminate. So, over 150 years after ethanol was first used to power a motor, the grain or sugarcane based fuel additive was back.

If your engine doesn’t run as well as it once did or if you’ve noticed a drop in gas mileage, it might be a good time to install new E3 car spark plugs. Our patented DiamondFire technology is proven to provide a cleaner, more thorough an engine’s combustion cycle. After extensive tests, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that E3′s “… technology offered clear advantages in HC and CO emissions control while at the same time improving power and fuel economy.” Plus, E3 is the ONLY car spark plug to be included in rulings by the EPA, cited as a “supplemental emissions control device.”

Car spark plug designs have come a long way over the past 150 years since Belgian engineer Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir used a Ruhmkorff induction coil to jump the spark that ignited distilled coal gas in his Lenoir 2-Stroke engine. In those earliest days of automotive development, a wealthy Frenchman could expect to get 10 kilometers or more before the disruptive discharge system needed routine maintenance. Today, a standing joke among auto mechanics is that you need to change your car’s spark plugs when you have your muffler bearings greased . . . meaning never. However, all jokes aside, there are a number of reasons to have your car spark plugs checked more often than every 10 years or 100,000 miles.

Although most cars and trucks use a 12-volt DC battery as an initial source of energy, the ignition system’s coil increases the low voltage input to a high voltage discharge by one to two thousand times. This high energy flow of electrical current sparks across the gap between the plug’s central and ground electrodes. The increase in the temperature of the compressed gas/air mixture results in a small explosion in each combustion chamber for every firing cycle of the engine. So, the actual road mileage for any spark plugs lifecycle is based on numerous variables such as the weather conditions, how the engine is used, the additives in the fuel, etc. In other words, it’s probably a good idea to check your car or truck spark plugs more often than every 100K miles.

Since most of today’s automotive engines use electronic ignition systems, the modern day tune-up is basically limited to changing the car spark plugs and replacing the motor’s air filter, or servicing the P.C.V. (positive crankcase ventilation) valve. Most experienced auto mechanics recommend that these items be inspected every 30,000 miles. Anytime that you notice a loss of engine power or reduction in fuel mileage, then an unscheduled tune-up should be considered to prevent more permanent damage to your motor. When your engine is misfiring or not running properly, excessive heat can leave the plugs worn or galling of the plug’s threads can occur in the motor’s cylinder head. This could potentially cost the owner much more in repair charges than the costs of routine engine maintenance.

E3 car spark plugs come with a 5-Year or 100,000 Mile Warranty from the date of purchase, as long as your vehicle is used for personal or family purposes. Our goal is to always provide you a positive driving experience with more power on less fuel, quicker starts and less fouling than our competitor’s standard spark plugs. This way, your car or truck spark plugs are guaranteed to be free of defects in material or workmanship and you’ll have a good reason to service vital engine components in a timely manner. For additional information about E3′s patented DiamondFire Technology or Combustion Cycle Analysis, visit any of our E3 portal websites for car spark plugs, truck spark plugs, motorcycle spark plugs, snowmobile spark plugs or lawn & garden plugs.

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

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.

171 years ago this month, the first known spark plug was invented by Edmond Berger, historians say. Unfortunately, Berger failed to patent his spark plug invention, so documented history points to Sir Oliver Lodge of England, whose sons parlayed the “Lodge Igniter” into a profitable company founded in 1903. The next year, Albert Champion, a world renowned bicycle and motorcycle racer who made extra cash by handcrafting spark plugs and selling them to friends, moved from France to Flint, Michigan and founded Champion Ignition Company. Investor drama left Champion jobless, but he soon found himself appointed president of the AC Spark Plug Company formed with backing from Buick Motor Co. AC spark  plugs were used in Charles Lindbergh’s and Amelia Earhart’s trans-Atlantic flights and fired the second and third stage rocket engines that took Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the moon.

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