[Healeys] Spark Plugs

[healeyguy at aol.com]

There is a lot of fudge room on the plugs. How many of our BN1 and 2's out there are still at factory specs. Our BN2 has nearly flat top pistons which bump the compression, yours may have electronic ignition or  a special coil, cam, carbs of something else. Most likely a large number of the cars are not even tuned to get a clean burn. The plugs give you a reading on what is going on inside the combustion chamber. Sometimes a factory recommendation is not the best choice. That said the N5C plugs in our BN2 seem to work well. Perry


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net>
To: Bob Haskell <rchaskell at earthlink.net>; healeys at autox.team.net
Sent: Mon, Feb 1, 2021 10:51 am
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Spark Plugs

Since we're on the topic--sorta, we now know what the 'official' plug 
recommendation was/is--what do the numbers mean? An N5C is a 'hotter' 
plug than an N3C, but what are the real world ramifications for, say, an 
old Healey 4-banger? As I mentioned, I have the N5C in my BN2, and they 
seem to work fine; presumably, they run hotter than the N3Cs, but what 
does that do for performance, etc.? I know hotter plugs are sometimes 
suggested for engines that burn a lot of oil, but do they cause the 
engine to run a bit hotter? What if I dropped an alloy head on my 100's 
engine, would I want to run a colder plug?

In aircraft piston engines that still run on heavily-leaded fuel, 
residual lead can foul plugs quickly; for problematic engines, a 'fine 
wire' plug is sometimes used (just like it sounds, these plugs have 
smaller center electrodes that are less likely to harbor unburned 
elemental lead).



On 2/1/2021 3:25 AM, Bob Haskell wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Looks like NA8 were replaced by N5C.  But if you're looking for 
> originality:
>
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-NOS-Champion-NA8-Black-Body-Spark-Plugs-Austin-Healey-100-4-Jaguar-XK120-MG-TD/393094267661 
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bob Haskell
> Austin Healey 3000 BN7/BT7 registrar
>
> On 1/31/21 6:48 PM, Bob Spidell wrote:
>> We are running Champion N3C in our BN2; they work well.
>>
>> The shop manual calls for Champion NA.8 (whatever those are):
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/27/2021 1:16 PM, Michael MacLean wrote:
>>> Not to get too far off the subject about Healeys, but my Harley 
>>> Davidson (30s technology like our cars) runs the best on the 
>>> cheapest Ford Autolite 4164 copper plugs.  I tried "high 
>>> performance" plugs from Harley Davidson and saw no difference.  Best 
>>> of all they are only 89 cents a piece when on sale and I only need 
>>> two at a time.  Does anyone know for sure which Champion plug works 
>>> for the BN2?
>>> Mike MacLean
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 10:18:57 AM PST, Kees Oudesluijs 
>>> <coudesluijs at chello.nl> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Never had much problems with trouble because of plugs on any of my 
>>> vehicles in the past 55 years. The only thing that is more or less 
>>> important is to gap them, clean them once in a while and replace 
>>> when they are to far gone. I do not think I even did that in the 
>>> last ten years or so. I have nearly always used Champion plugs as 
>>> they are very cheap: between €8 and €15 for four.
>>>
>>> I presume that electronic ignition (Pertronix in my case) may also 
>>> help.
>>>
>>> Kees Oudesluijs
>>>
>>>
>>> Op 27-1-2021 om 18:27 schreef Laurie Wilford:
>>> I continue to use only Champion plugs in my Healeys but have 
>>> experienced at least two episodes of plug problems over the years. 
>>> Based on the number of miles covered that is probably not too bad, 
>>> but the second time was with a newly installed set of plugs. One was 
>>> defective.
>>> Both times the symptoms were intermittent missing both at idle and 
>>> on the highway.  Finally changing plugs was of course one of the 
>>> last things I did.
>>>
>>> Laurie Wilford
>>>
>>> Sent from my Galaxy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
Suggested annual donation  $12.75

Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys http://autox.team.net/archive

Healeys at autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys

Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/healeyguy@aol.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/healeys/attachments/20210201/62060df1/attachment.htm>