madscientist

I recently bought a 1999 Civic EX, so I have been wanting to change the spark plugs since I had no idea how long the old ones have been in there.
So I went to CT and bought some NGK plugs, got back home, let the engin cool, pop the hood open and took out the old plugs.... Yes, they seemed to be in there for some time now, so it's a good thing I decided to change them. But, here is the thing. When I took the first plug out, the gap seemed too big (it's supposed to be .045 inch according to NGK). I was like WTF! So, I measure the gap and found out that it was ~.055! So, I take the other 3 plugs out of the engin and again, they all had similar gaps I'm not sure what kind of effects large spark plug gap have on performance of the car, but can't be that good.
Has anyone had similar experience??

punkindrublic

not me

black86hatch

nor me
i changed mine yesterday too.
w/ NGKs

christopher g

Large gaps will just make the car run crapier, you may waste more fuel then you are supposed to.

If all three had the same gap then things should be ok, it looks like you were just overdue for a spark plug change. It would be worse if you had different gaps on the plugs for each cylinder.

imported_Torrey

I always gap mine at 0.36

Not sure if its engine dependent for our honda's but, I have a b16a and researched what people usually use on similar setups and it's great.

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

high velocity and saturated mixtures have the ability to blow the spark out. the increased gap is due to electrode erosion... the electrode actually wears out as the metal vapourizes.

imported_MassOfBass

Bah! Never buy spark plugs from the gap!

Buddah

.....lol. A larger gap than otherwise specified by the manufacturer means you'll be wasting a lot of gas and performance...in short, if properly maintained, you're vehicle should travel 550 kms to the tank but with a larger gap, it may only get 400. The reason is it takes just a split second longer for the plug to spark and combined with the compression stroke, it should spark exactly at the moment you reach max compression...if it sparks just a milisecond off max compression, you're loosing power and wasting fuel.

Cheers,
Buddah.