Silver spark plugs (Brisk DR15YS) - theory & installation how-to
#1
05-26-2012, 02:40 AM
Silver spark plugs (Brisk DR15YS) - theory & installation how-to
I just installed the silver Brisk (DR15YS) spark plugs into my Audi Quattro 225bhp (which I've remapped to about 267bhp).
Driven 30 miles so far, and everything's looking good. Gap width set to .30. The four NGKs I took out had a gap of about 0.65!! I have no idea how the car kept running before that without any symptoms, but there you have it.
As for the argument on this thread about whether to go for Iridium, Platinum, Copper (or in my case Silver) spark plugs, all I can comment is sports racing cars use copper plugs. The argument for using Copper over Iridium or Platinum is that Copper is near enough twice as conductive of electricity as the other two. Silver is even more conductive than copper. How this affects engine performance or if you get any real-term power gains, I don't know. Whether this affects engine efficiency, whether it improves the completeness and force of the combustion, I don't know.*
However, the only argument I can see supporting use of Iridium or Platinum plugs is that they last longer. They're standard in all European cars because, from my understanding, it's law that they have to last at least 100k miles, and only something solid (and craply conducing) like Iridium and Platinum will achieve that. Frankly, when I've just spent £160 on a dump valve, the last thing I'm worried about is having to replace £16's worth of spark plugs after 20k miles; Silver has a lower melting point, so my plugs aren't expected to last long. I'm cool with that - they only cost £4 each, and any potential improvement in performance and I'm game. It also makes me feel warmer and fuzzier inside knowing I have more conductible spark plugs! I know, stupid right...
Anyway, I installed them in about 60 minutes' time without any problems. It was my first time replacing spark plugs on an Audi TT, and my 3rd time ever. The process went thus:
1) Pop hood.
2) Remove the battery's plastic cover, disconnect your battery's negative terminal then remove engine plastic cover. Take a few photos of your engine and spark plugs and where all the pipes are going, just in case you forget. Do this throughout the process, just so you can work backwards in the worst-case scenario.
3) Gently maneouvre the electrical box from under its snug wee hole over the engine, which should be covering plugs 3 and 4. I had to keep manipulating it throughout my work to keep it out the way, which worked out fine.
4) remove the four or five hexagonal bolts holding the metal casing where the electrical box was nestled (you'll need an alan key)
5) remove the metal casing; you should now have clear access to spark plug coils 3 and 4.
6) pull the plastic snib on each of the plastic female connectors that attach onto your spark plug coils towards the rear of the car about 1mm (I used a flat-head screwdriver) - be gentle as they apparently break easily - then pull the female connector from the spark plug coil. In case anyone's a total novice (like me), the spark plug coil is the thing which sits on top of your spark plug and connects it to your car's electronics.
7) Once the female connector is off, turn the spark plug coil 90 degrees (a quarter-turn) anti-clockwise, then pull it out. Rinse and repeat for the other 3 coils.
8) Get a 10mm spark-plug socket and connect it to a long socket-set bar, then connect that to your spanner, and screw out the old spark plugs. Lift the old plugs out gently - you don't want the crud that might have accumulated around the engine spilling inside the combustion chambers.
9) Take note of the colour of your spark plugs' tips. I wouldn't know what the heck to do if it weren't anything but a light grey, but apparently white ash on it means your engine's running lean, and black means it's running heavy on the fuel:air mix.
10) Fit your new plugs, making sure you set their gap width to 0.28-0.32. I used 0.30 - can't go wrong with averages*
11) I set my torque wrench to 22Nm, or just over 15 ft/lbs. If you prefer doing it by feel, you probably don't need to read my post and know what you're doing. If you don't want to fork it out for a torque wrench, then the spark-plug manufacturers recommend something like a sixteenth or eighth of a turn after finger-tightness; I forget - be sure to check.
12) Re-attach everything in reverse order. Before you screw the five hexagonal screws back in to hold the metal plate, fire up your engine to be sure things are working.
13) Enjoy your new plugs!
Driven 30 miles so far, and everything's looking good. Gap width set to .30. The four NGKs I took out had a gap of about 0.65!! I have no idea how the car kept running before that without any symptoms, but there you have it.
As for the argument on this thread about whether to go for Iridium, Platinum, Copper (or in my case Silver) spark plugs, all I can comment is sports racing cars use copper plugs. The argument for using Copper over Iridium or Platinum is that Copper is near enough twice as conductive of electricity as the other two. Silver is even more conductive than copper. How this affects engine performance or if you get any real-term power gains, I don't know. Whether this affects engine efficiency, whether it improves the completeness and force of the combustion, I don't know.*
However, the only argument I can see supporting use of Iridium or Platinum plugs is that they last longer. They're standard in all European cars because, from my understanding, it's law that they have to last at least 100k miles, and only something solid (and craply conducing) like Iridium and Platinum will achieve that. Frankly, when I've just spent £160 on a dump valve, the last thing I'm worried about is having to replace £16's worth of spark plugs after 20k miles; Silver has a lower melting point, so my plugs aren't expected to last long. I'm cool with that - they only cost £4 each, and any potential improvement in performance and I'm game. It also makes me feel warmer and fuzzier inside knowing I have more conductible spark plugs! I know, stupid right...
Anyway, I installed them in about 60 minutes' time without any problems. It was my first time replacing spark plugs on an Audi TT, and my 3rd time ever. The process went thus:
1) Pop hood.
2) Remove the battery's plastic cover, disconnect your battery's negative terminal then remove engine plastic cover. Take a few photos of your engine and spark plugs and where all the pipes are going, just in case you forget. Do this throughout the process, just so you can work backwards in the worst-case scenario.
3) Gently maneouvre the electrical box from under its snug wee hole over the engine, which should be covering plugs 3 and 4. I had to keep manipulating it throughout my work to keep it out the way, which worked out fine.
4) remove the four or five hexagonal bolts holding the metal casing where the electrical box was nestled (you'll need an alan key)
5) remove the metal casing; you should now have clear access to spark plug coils 3 and 4.
6) pull the plastic snib on each of the plastic female connectors that attach onto your spark plug coils towards the rear of the car about 1mm (I used a flat-head screwdriver) - be gentle as they apparently break easily - then pull the female connector from the spark plug coil. In case anyone's a total novice (like me), the spark plug coil is the thing which sits on top of your spark plug and connects it to your car's electronics.
7) Once the female connector is off, turn the spark plug coil 90 degrees (a quarter-turn) anti-clockwise, then pull it out. Rinse and repeat for the other 3 coils.
8) Get a 10mm spark-plug socket and connect it to a long socket-set bar, then connect that to your spanner, and screw out the old spark plugs. Lift the old plugs out gently - you don't want the crud that might have accumulated around the engine spilling inside the combustion chambers.
9) Take note of the colour of your spark plugs' tips. I wouldn't know what the heck to do if it weren't anything but a light grey, but apparently white ash on it means your engine's running lean, and black means it's running heavy on the fuel:air mix.
10) Fit your new plugs, making sure you set their gap width to 0.28-0.32. I used 0.30 - can't go wrong with averages*
11) I set my torque wrench to 22Nm, or just over 15 ft/lbs. If you prefer doing it by feel, you probably don't need to read my post and know what you're doing. If you don't want to fork it out for a torque wrench, then the spark-plug manufacturers recommend something like a sixteenth or eighth of a turn after finger-tightness; I forget - be sure to check.
12) Re-attach everything in reverse order. Before you screw the five hexagonal screws back in to hold the metal plate, fire up your engine to be sure things are working.
13) Enjoy your new plugs!
#2
06-02-2012, 03:16 PM
Brisk spark plugs
would have gone with Lambo by Brisk LORGS14's no GAPPING runs colder
all are good..... adds horespower Mini's run them a lot of Mini's
if you do a SAI delete and convert to the FSI/TSI 2.0 coil packs changing the spark plugs will take 15 min.
have a good one.....
all are good..... adds horespower Mini's run them a lot of Mini's
if you do a SAI delete and convert to the FSI/TSI 2.0 coil packs changing the spark plugs will take 15 min.
have a good one.....
#3
06-02-2012, 07:37 PM
Well... before someone else says something gap them at .32 if you can. Actually, the bigger your plug gap the better. I wouldn't go much over .32 because the tighter the gap the easier it is on the coils and the 1.8t coils are notorious for going out so no need for extra strain. But like you said with you .62 (i think it was) gap... they can fire larger gaps but might as well be easy on them. Anyhow, I've never had any issues with plug gaps till i went big turbo. I have mine gapped at .25! Turns out once you start running so much boost .32 gaps misfire. I took mine out, gapped them to .28 and kept upping the boost till they misired too. Now I'm at .25 and all is good so far. The bigger gap results in a larger spark which allows more surface area of spark to contact the air/fuel mix and therefore a larger initial flame-front called a kernel. But bigger is better, or rather more efficient. So keep it at .32 (just because that's the largest agreeed upon gap w/o straining coil packs) as long as you aren't studdering and dying under full boost.
#4
06-02-2012, 07:42 PM
Oh, and don't run colder plugs unless you're running quite a bit more air/fuel via lots of boost. Maybe full intake/exhaust but I don't think that would even be enough. All a colder plug will do for you if you don't actually need them is foul out faster. There isn't really a power difference in running a cooler plug... it's more of an issue of avoiding pre-ignition under a lot of boost.
#5
06-02-2012, 07:47 PM
Oh, and about the plugs adding more power on the Mini's... how does that work? Anyone know? Like the e3 plugs they run on Horsepower TV... they SUCK in a 1.8t but in other cars they're great. All I can think of is that it's all about compression? 1.8t = low compression = e3s suck, whereas something with a higher compression like 10:1 and up maybe they rock? I don't know that one...
#6
06-02-2012, 09:57 PM
Oh, and don't run colder plugs unless you're running quite a bit more air/fuel via lots of boost. Maybe full intake/exhaust but I don't think that would even be enough. All a colder plug will do for you if you don't actually need them is foul out faster. There isn't really a power difference in running a cooler plug... it's more of an issue of avoiding pre-ignition under a lot of boost.
Two basic conditions for proper performance of a spark plug are given by sufficient electrical insulation between the center and ground electrodes and heat transfer from the parts of the spark plug projected into the combustion chamber. Both conditions are directly related.
In order to ensure sufficient insulation between center and ground electrodes it is necessary, during operation, to keep the insulator tip (the part of the insulator projecting into the engine area) within an optimum temperature range. Insulator tip temperature influence on the proper choice of spark plug heat range.
A. Too cold spark plug for a given engine
B. Suitable spark plug for a given engine
C. Too hot spark plug for a given engine
If the insulator tip temperature drops into the so-called deposit zone, combustion deposits (carbon, non-combusted fuel, lubrication oil, impurities from the atmosphere) start to form on the insulator tip surface. A consequence of these combustion deposits on the insulator tip is reduction in electrical insulation resistance accompanied by failing ignitions and after a certain period of time even by a failure of the spark plug performance.
Providing a higher temperature of the insulator tip, no further combustion deposits are formed, but those already existing will not be burnt until the insulator tip temperature rises above 500 °C - the so-called self-cleaning zone. In this temperature range, no new deposits are formed and those existing will be burnt. The spark plug operates in an optimum manner.
Too high temperature of the insulator tip is undesirable. High temperature results in pre-ignitions of the air-fuel mixture and further compression of the mixture already ignited leads to high temperature, which can cause serious damage to the engine.
In order to achieve the correct temperature of the insulator tip for a given engine, the spark plugs are produced in various thermal values. The range of thermal values for BRISK spark plugs extend from the warmest to the coldest, namely 19, 18, 17, 15, 14, 12, 10 and 08.
Agreeing with your Quote use what is right for your engine......
Owner: Ratt Fink
Car: 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra
I have used iridium plugs, and stepped up to the Brisk Silver Racing plugs because I run about 24 PSI boost on my car, and add C16 racing gas. I NEED the spark plugs to work properly, and the BRISK Silver Racing G14YS spark plug has done the trick. The car was running 10.0x to 10.1x quarter mile times, and with the switch to the Silver racing spark plugs, the car has been running 9.8x to 9.9X times at 138-139 mph !!
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