How Spark Plugs Increase Mileage
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Crude prices appear to be setting in place at the all time high levels. With this, gasoline has become a pretty premium commodity. The price of gasoline appears to be set for a long time at record high levels and many commuters are left trying to find the most efficient ways to increase mileage. To start saving money at the fuel pump, consider this cheap tip to change your spark plugs.
To start, lets discuss the basics of how the engine creates power. Small amounts of gas and air are introduced into the piston chamber. The piston then moves to compress and pressurize this mixture. Your spark plug then transfers a tiny spark of electricity into the chamber, combusting the gasoline and air.
After this spark is introduced, the mixture “explodes” and the resulting expanded gaseous state is the power used to operate your vehicle. During normal operation, an engine will repeat this process thousands of times every minute (thus - the term RPM’s , or Revolutions Per Minute). Each cylinder in your engine produces this exact same process over and over again - for example if your car has a V-6 engine, there are 6 chambers doing this at the same time.
Now, there are several ways to enhance this process, making it more efficient. A great place to start is with your spark plugs. The electricity emitted by spark plugs can be influenced by the quality of the plug itself. A more efficient, higher quality plug will increase the efficiency of this ignition. For example, the seals of the plug may leak additional air, causing some of the electricity power to be lost and as a result, a less efficient explosion occurs. This leads to needing more revolutions to achieve the same power output, and thus uses more gasoline.
Having clean, high quality spark plugs can increase the efficiency of your engines performance, and in return, increase mileage. Many spark plugs can increase mileage by upwards of 2-5%. While this may not sound like a huge increase, changing your spark plugs (at a cost of roughly $4 per plug) will pay for themselves within that month for an average driver.
Keep Your Money To Yourself!