The Basics: Spark Plugs and Heat Ratings Introduction: Here at Treadstone one of our main goals is to educate our customers to provide them with the knowledge to safely boost any vehicle they desire. This is why we have decided to introduce “the basics,” which will be a series of blogs that will present information in a simple to understand format with liberal use of lamens terms. Today we will cover the topics of Spark Plugs and Heat ratings, how they function, their importance and the different variation. First a few definitions, A spark plug is an electrical device for delivering current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air mixture. Background: Spark plugs conceded a “portal” into your engine and subsequently your engines performance, and such is a valuable diagnostic tool. A spark plug displays the condition inside the combustion chambers of your engine. A experienced tuner can use a spark plug and its condition to find the root cause of problems, determine air-fuel ratios, and most importantly increase engine performance. Spark Plug Basics: Spark plugs must provide a path and a location for electrical energy from the ignition coil to create a spark used to ignite the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber. A sufficient amount of voltage must be supplied by the ignition system to spark across the spark plug gap, commonly referred to as “Electrical Performance.” The spark plug firing end temperature must be kept low enough to prevent pre-ignition, but high enough to prevent fouling. This is commonly referred to as “Thermal Performance”, and is determined by the heat range of the selected plugs. Spark Plugs Heat Rating: The spark plug heat range has no relationship to the electrical energy transferred through the spark plug. The heat range of a spark plug is the range in which the plug works well thermally. The heat rating of each spark plug is often indicated by a number; lower numbers indicate a hotter type, higher numbers indicate a colder type. i.e. One step colder Spark plug has more insulation then a one step hotter. The rule of thumb is, the end user shoud chose one step colder for every added 100-200hp when forced induction is added to the equation Click here for more product info!