[5soko]

Just hit the 25,000 mile mark, even though the car is running great, i thought it would be a good idea to change the plugs out since i have been tuned since 2-3K miles.

The car has about 22K-23K tuned miles. About 3K of the last miles on E85.

Ordered the plugs from Evan @ tischer, as always great service and OEM parts.


Here are some iphone pics (bad quality)


Plugs 1-6 ( in that order)


New vs Old


Took me about 1 hour and a half from start to finish with the help of my pops.. Super easy job.
The DIY on the forum helps, but its a pretty straight forward job.

Havent done any logging to compare or any WOT yet, but the car does idle smoother and seem smoother around town.
I use to get some jolts on cold starts, those are gone now with the new plugs.

[MileHi335xi]

Looks like it was a good time to change them. You may want to look at putting some oil on those air filters tho! Unless it just can't be seen in the pic.

[robc1976]

Originally Posted by steve.kodra

Looks like it was a good time to change them. You may want to look at putting some oil on those air filters tho! Unless it just can't be seen in the pic.

I have he same filters...l believe those are CP-e filters and are always that color.

[themyst]

Your valve cover gasket is toast. Look at the oil on the threads of cyl 3. I have the same problem on cyl 6 when I pulled my plugs

Overall those plugs don't look all that bad. Could have gone a bit longer IMO. These are my plugs at 32k miles below. They didn't look all that bad either.

[robc1976]

Originally Posted by themyst

Your valve cover gasket is toast. Look at the oil on the threads of cyl 3. I have the same problem on cyl 6 when I pulled my plugs

Overall those plugs don't look all that bad. Could have gone a bit longer IMO. These are my plugs at 32k miles below. They didn't look all that bad either.

I wonder if mine is to....when my car sits it has smoke come out of it...wonder if the oil gets past the plugs while the car sits.... Burns the oil when it starts. May investigate this farther!

[benzy89]

Why do you cloud the forum with another misfire/spark plug thread?!?!

Congrats on finally getting to 25k, now get your car off its pedestal and go drive it

[5soko]

Originally Posted by steve.kodra

Looks like it was a good time to change them. You may want to look at putting some oil on those air filters tho! Unless it just can't be seen in the pic.

Originally Posted by robc1976

I have he same filters...l believe those are CP-e filters and are always that color.

Yup, the CP-E filters come white in color.

Originally Posted by themyst

Your valve cover gasket is toast. Look at the oil on the threads of cyl 3. I have the same problem on cyl 6 when I pulled my plugs

Overall those plugs don't look all that bad. Could have gone a bit longer IMO. These are my plugs at 32k miles below. They didn't look all that bad either.

Yea, you called it before i changed em that they wouldnt look too bad.
Interesting on the valve cover gasket. WTF 25K and its due for a change.

[E90Company]

I am at 18k miles now with Original spark plugs. Tuned since last week (lol). Considering your's don't look that bad, safe to say I can change mine around 30k?

[5soko]

Originally Posted by E90Company

I am at 18k miles now with Original spark plugs. Tuned since last week (lol). Considering your's don't look that bad, safe to say I can change mine around 30k?

O yea! I hope thats something people can take away from this thread..

I have run E85, octane booster, 100 octane race gas, agressive maps, etc. and the plugs still dont look horrible on a FBO car. Couldnt went a little longer on these plugs as themyst mentioned, but i just changed them out early as a precaution.

[RaNMaN]

an easy way to know if you valve cover gaskets are leaking is by looking at the head around the cylinder in question. i wouldn't assume that just because the threads have some carbon build up on them that the gasket is leaking, there should be some oil residue on the head or near the vavle cover.

also, be sure to use some anti-seize on the threads so that they are easy to go in and out in the future.

[BES335xi]

Yeah looks like u could of wrnt a few more but IMO cant go wrong that you had em changed a bit early and itll save you those misfire headaches lol

[Lulz_M3]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

an easy way to know if you valve cover gaskets are leaking is by looking at the head around the cylinder in question. i wouldn't assume that just because the threads have some carbon build up on them that the gasket is leaking, there should be some oil residue on the head or near the vavle cover.

also, be sure to use some anti-seize on the threads so that they are easy to go in and out in the future.

I would advise against anti-seize and advise to use the copper compound. Some people have argued that anti-seize causes grounding problems for the spark plugs.

[5soko]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

an easy way to know if you valve cover gaskets are leaking is by looking at the head around the cylinder in question. i wouldn't assume that just because the threads have some carbon build up on them that the gasket is leaking, there should be some oil residue on the head or near the vavle cover.

also, be sure to use some anti-seize on the threads so that they are easy to go in and out in the future.

Good points.. Thats exactly what im going to be doing tonite.. Except around the valve cover.. I didnt see anything early but ill keep an eye on it.

Originally Posted by BES335xi

Yeah looks like u could of wrnt a few more but IMO cant go wrong that you had em changed a bit early and itll save you those misfire headaches lol

Yup

[RaNMaN]

Originally Posted by Lulz_M3

I would advise against anti-seize and advise to use the copper compound. Some people have argued that anti-seize causes grounding problems for the spark plugs.

if anti-seize is the cause of your grounding problems then you have grounding problems despite the anti-seize.

my 700 hp 2jz with new teflon ignition wiring loves anti-seize.

[Lulz_M3]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

if anti-seize is the cause of your grounding problems then you have grounding problems despite the anti-seize.

my 700 hp 2jz with new teflon ignition wiring loves anti-seize.

The issues are more common on porsche and VAG offspring, but the theory behind it makes sense. As prone as our N54 is to misfires, i try to eliminate all variables whenever possible. A 2JZ is nowhere near as picky as the electronics in the N54. Pretty sure you could run your spark plugs and injectors off some string and a tincan and it would run fine. Cheers to the good ol' days.

[RaNMaN]

Originally Posted by Lulz_M3

The issues are more common on porsche and VAG offspring, but the theory behind it makes sense. As prone as our N54 is to misfires, i try to eliminate all variables whenever possible. A 2JZ is nowhere near as picky as the electronics in the N54. Pretty sure you could run your spark plugs and injectors off some string and a tincan and it would run fine. Cheers to the good ol' days.

lol, riiiight! a string and tincan, uh huh, and guess what? that 2jz will eat your n54 for dinner, breakfast, or whatever you fancy. you're "so advanced" with your picky engine management.

on the 2jz when properly set up the factory ignition coils are good to 1400+ whp. show me some real world engineering facts to back up your silly copper compound claims and i might start to believe it.

[Lulz_M3]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

lol, riiiight! a string and tincan, uh huh, and guess what? that 2jz will eat your n54 for dinner, breakfast, or whatever you fancy. you're "so advanced" with your picky engine management.

on the 2jz when properly set up the factory ignition coils are good to 1400+ whp. show me some real world engineering facts to back up your silly copper compound claims and i might start to believe it.

Its advice no one is asking you to believe it. I'm not going to spend my precious time creating an engineering report to prove you wrong, just dont listen to the advice .

Yes your 2jz would fuck me up. Yes our cars are advanced, which often gets in the way of making big power. Yes the BMW ignition coils suck ass and would never support 1400 whp.

Seems you took my comment as an insult, sorry buddy. I meant to point out that older technologies have their strong points, hence the comment about the good ol' days.

[RaNMaN]

Originally Posted by Lulz_M3

Its advice no one is asking you to believe it. I'm not going to spend my precious time creating an engineering report to prove you wrong, just dont listen to the advice .

Yes your 2jz would fuck me up. Yes our cars are advanced, which often gets in the way of making big power. Yes the BMW ignition coils suck ass and would never support 1400 whp.

Seems you took my comment as an insult, sorry buddy. I meant to point out that older technologies have their strong points, hence the comment about the good ol' days.

don't discount my advice with your own if you have nothing to back it up with.

[805beemer]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

don't discount my advice with your own if you have nothing to back it up with.

here you go: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ize+spark+plug

[Lulz_M3]

Originally Posted by RaNMaN

don't discount my advice with your own if you have nothing to back it up with.

heres the Pelican Parts explanation
" While writing "How to Rebuild and Modify Porsche 911 Engines", I discovered that Porsche doesn’t recommend the use of anti-seize compound, as detailed in Porsche Technical Bulletin 9102, Group 2, identifier 2870. The bulletin applies retroactively to all Porsche models and the theory is that the anti-seize tends to act as an electrical insulator between the plug and the cylinder head. This could have detrimental effect on the firing of the spark due to the loss of a good, consistent ground connection. Keeping those findings in mind, I would make the same recommendations for the BMW cars."

Enjoy!

[5soko]

FWIW, i didnt use anything on my plugs, and i didnt TQ them with a TQ wrench.

[RaNMaN]

Originally Posted by 805beemer

here you go: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ize+spark+plug

ok, and.. imo nothing is explicitly inclusive or exclusive from that discussion either. i've rebuilt plenty of stock motors and race motors and i agree with JamesM3M5 in that thread. torque is done primarily to seal the crush washer, don't get anti-seize on the electrodes and you will be fine.

after using anti-seize on your aluminum head for a while you won't need to continue using it.