how do you determine when to use a colder spark plug, how much colder, & when to start closing the gaps further than stock calibration?

 

The reasons that your would be going to a colder Plug would be Power adders such as nitrous or a supercharger .
Use of such Spark plugs NGK TR6's,Autolite 103's and a few other brands are most commonly used with these power adders
Gapping these plugs is anywhere from .35 -.45 depending on the amount of boost and or size of Nitrous shot used
Compared to the stock gap of .55-.60 the smaller gap is used to avoid Pre-ignition of the air fuel mixture and thus contributing to detonation which Is hard on the internal parts pistons and so on .
Hope this help
Jim <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

 

As a follow-up question, if I am experiencing some slight detonation even though I don't have nitrous or a supercharger, would a smaller gap or colder plug help me? Would it stop the detonation but, in turn, I would lose horsepower? Then again, the detonation would probably mean a loss of horsepower, so perhaps it would even out? I guess what I'm trying to say, is would a set of NGK TR6's be worth a try in my naturally aspirated 5.3?

Thanks,
Travis

 

Do you have a hypertech ?
I've heard that they can cause some detonation with bad Fuel
What makes you think you have detonation ?
What are your mods?

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by GMC SKI:
<strong>Do you have a hypertech ?
I've heard that they can cause some detonation with bad Fuel
What makes you think you have detonation ?
What are your mods?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">My mods are (in the order I installed them):

Custom exhaust (after the factory Y, they put on a 3 1/2" glass pack, which splits into 2 1/4" pipes all the way to the 4" tips)

Hypertech Power Programmer 3

K&N FIPK II

160 degree Hypertech Thermostat

Taylor 8 MM spark plug wires

In addition to that, I've experimented with some different spark plugs - I tried the Bosch Platinum+4's, but they misfired pretty bad - I pulled them out and they were all inconsistent. Since then, I put in a set of regular Bosch Platinums, I inspected them yesterday and they looked perfect.

One thing I should mention is that my detonation has been there for as long as I can remember. I put the exhaust on about 3 days after I bought it. It was a month or two before I got the Hypertech, and I didn't get the other stuff until about a year ago. As well as I can remember, the detonation was always there. At first, people were telling me I had the notorious cold knock, but it didn't seem to fit that description - my truck does this under acceleration, cold or hot. It was worse when I had the Platinum+4's. It's better now, but not totally absent. The FIPK sucking sound kind of makes it hard to hear it, too. Do you think I'm on the right track, or maybe I'm just imagining it? Maybe the exhaust is an issue (at the time, nobody seemed to know what they could do with the exhaust for LS1 trucks)? Perhaps I have a weak coil? I usually run the 92 or 93 octane fuel. I'm thinking maybe I should break down and buy some sort of OBD-II code reader (preferrably one that could show misfires by cylinder, and doesn't require a laptop - any recommendations would be good).

Thanks for helping me on this! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
Travis

 

Do you have enough snap to put the wires to the right cylinders Then if you think about it you should have bought a ford then we would not have to here the whinning.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by hyde:
<strong>Do you have enough snap to put the wires to the right cylinders Then if you think about it you should have bought a ford then we would not have to here the whinning.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> I think I got the plugs wired up right - there are 9, right?