Spark Plug Reading, Methanol boosted! How I do it and what I look for.

[@RustyWells2]

You've just helped out a ton of fellow racers who ever watched this are going to get one of the best plug overview I've seen on KZbin! You are going to receive some good karma with all of these helpful videos John!🦅🇺🇸🦅

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Glad it can help!

[@Mdkayakangler]

Thanks John been trying to learn how to read plugs

[@jromem9509]

should call you professor turbo john, mountains of knowledge. knowledge is power!

[@TurboJohnRacing]

lol

[@Stevesbe]

Best racing channel on YT

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Thanks

[@jdubcbr600]

Informative vid as always! But, something I've never heard anyone talk about in these plug tuning videos is which way the timing mark on the plug strap moves when adding and subtracting timing.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

As you add timing, the mark goes closer to the threads and will eventually disappear off the electrode (that’s bad)

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great demonstration video brother keep up the great videos and work and stay safe and have a blast on the track

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Thanks

[@TPVPRO]

I just did a Reading Spark Plugs video on my little street motor but a SBC and #2 in the front was hot as well.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Interesting

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Some good information on your spark plugs data log is going to be very helpful as well

[@RustyWells2]

Best informative Drag Racing channel on KZbin.🦅🇺🇸🦅

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Thanks

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great information and I agree checking plugs can tell you a ton of information

[@jcnpresser]

Awesome plug reading and tuning video man!

[@TrampusWingo]

John, you’re the real MVP. For real.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Just trying to help fellow gear heads!

[@TrampusWingo]

Turbo John Well, I’m here to tell you, you’re succeeding. Thank you. See you at VMP!

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great video John

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Thanks

[@SHOOTSHOW00]

How does that "timing mark" get on the strap? What causes this? If it is just from temp, then couldn't it also be from a lack of fuel? Great video.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

It is the temp of the cylinder. Timing and a/f are directly tied! A leaner a/f mixture generally requires a little less timing.

[@alltheboost5363]

I greatly appreciate the video... I've asked people to explain reading plugs to me several times. I never got a straight answer. Does this apply to any fuel gasoline ethanol methanol?

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Gas reads a little different on a/f mixture, but timing heat line is the same concept. A/F on gas is read by the brown/tan ring that forms where the porcilin meets the metal deep in the plug.

[@davidreed6070]

John do you have a video of your fox body rear suspension correction with factory suspension.

[@ronbown3836]

Holley uses one setting for fuel. Unfortunately megasquirt you have to change the whole freaking table if you want to fuel trim a cylinder or you can just change cells which are in the power range

[@joesf1026]

For anyone reading this now. This isn't true.

[@TorquePowerVideo]

I have a question for you, John. And its it's unrelated to spark plug reading, sorry. I watched your video the other week about your cooling system and was wondering something. Why do upper level drag cars opt out of running water through the engine block? I've heard of aftermarket blocks with no coolant passages and other people filling stock blocks with whatever to make the passages solid. You were the first person I heard explain why you run it through the cylinder heads and it makes a lot of sense. Just wondering why no water in the block? This is coming from a seasoned home mechanic and novice racer just getting into the hobby. Thanks

[@precisiondiesel225]

Mike Boatwright high horsepower, high boost engines need the rigidity of solid engine blocks. The fuel is used to cool the engine. If you have cylinder heads with water passages and you don’t circulate water through them, they are likely to crack.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

The goal is to keep water off the head gasket as well. So that water is not pushed if there is a head gasket failure. They call this dry decking. Next time my heads are off, I’m going to weld or epoxy all water holes. I use a solid head gasket with no water ports.

[@TurboDog73TX]

Great vid with some solid data.

[@jimfranklin2377]

Do you have the Holly dominator or watt??? ?

[@mre7283]

Thanks John for good info. Question, can you beed blast the plugs and still accurately read the plugs after tune-up change or do you need to put new ones in to see if you got the results you want?

[@TurboJohnRacing]

I have used bead blasted plugs, but from what I have seen they cannot be read for tuning changes. But are fine if the tune is set.

[@scottromano6998]

Thank you for all the great information!

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Glad you like it.

[@ronbown3836]

How about if you have 8 EGT all the exhaust ports. That's one way of knowing what cylinder is hotter than others.

[@rongravel4585]

So tuning methonal isn’t much different that race fuel. Way cleaner looking thou. When I raced sleds. We pulled the plugs after every pull. And only used them for maybe 4-5 pulls. But temperatures changing throws off the tuneup dramatically in a two stroke. If it warmed up we’d lose 5-10 hp for every 10 degrees out. And that’s a lot of jet changes. But it’s only 3 cylinders so not too bad.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Wow, that’s big hp loss!

[@richardcarpenter2820]

Thanks for the information!

[@db7069]

Great informative video. Thanks for sharing.

[@mr.know_it_all]

That’s awesome info, I guess the only question is, what is the total timing/boost you are running to use a -10 -11 plug?

[@TurboJohnRacing]

my motor has a very lazy chamber.....I think today, I was at 25 deg at 33ish psi

[@mr.know_it_all]

Turbo John wow! I have a 4.250 bore with a 100cc chamber and .210 dome. I can’t wait to put some more timing to this thing (22’ @19 psi 140mph 1/8th) thanks for the tech!

[@daltongang73]

How much different will the plugs look with E85

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Similar, but it has been a while since I’ve looked at e85 plugs

[@antprice2012]

The man himself

[@r58vrtv99]

good info, thanks for sharing.

[@curlracing276]

Hey John what's the boost psi and compression on that motor that requires a number 10 heat range?

[@armandocampos5493]

So if I'm running a number 11 on e85 on a blowthrough what would be a good way to get a reading on the plugs I'm learning thanks for your time

[@ronn147]

So I’m on e85 and from what I understand methanol plugs will look the same as ethanol. I can tell you my plugs look just like his. So go off of what he is saying in this video

[@nitro1631]

Hi turbo John as always great info hey man I am trying to go to efi from mechanical meth injection I have a f 1 x procharger 421 sbc dart rs series 18 degree heads 13 to 1 comp 2.20 valves my question. Is what size injectors efi do I need and going to get the Holley efi ecu been told anywhere from 570 to 800 injectors help please

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Do the math on what the hp will be, use bsfc of 2.0, that will be close. But then give yourself a little room to grow.

[@norb231]

You don't know at what rpm its rich or lean at? I m sure you can adjust certain rpms in the holley . How can you determine at what rpm you need to add or pull fuel?

[@TurboJohnRacing]

I can tell it what a/f needs to be everywhere, but if I mis judge the requirement at 15psi, it may put extra heat on the plug at that point!

[@curvs4me]

My guess is your number 2 injector has a very slight restriction. You could always swap your 2 and 4 injectors and see if the extra fuel follows it. It's all the little things man. That's why you're consistently so dang fast!!! You have everything dialed to perfection. I absolutely love it when you get these guys running 50 thousand dollar motors coming up against class limits for hair dryer size vs weight etc and they don't understand why they're getting beat bad on the back end. They had a few tuning sessions on a chassis dyno. To win against serious competition, you have to be dam near perfect. Pulling every ounce of power from all 8. Every time I see your car run I'm shocked how fast she is. I'm learning more from watching your channel than I have in YEARS. I understand the principles but you're really driving it home. I've got a 944 body to build now. Gonna make a first attempt at swapping in a complete C7 wiring harness, transmission and diff.. Not the motor, I'll find an aftermarket used block.

[@monstergreen6728]

Can you let me know what you think? I used octane booster in my FE 428 and all of my plugs turned orange? Now did I just shortened my plug life and did i harm anything internally? If I quit using booster will my plugs clean up with just now using premium gas? Let me know what you think on this just worried I screwed something up?

[@321-Gone]

Great video. Keep this content up.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Thanks

[@mikeeagle2653]

you’ll have more difference between cylinders because you don’t have equal length runner intake. With single carb intakes like the one you have this is very common.

[@jaybaptiste6755]

What kind lbs atomizer? I ran NGK I run Brisk on Meth now.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

I run precision 550 injectors.

[@jamesparkerfpv435]

thank you

[@ronbown3836]

Hey John I asked you this before but what kind of timing are you guys runningwith a small block Ford on how many pounds of boost. I'm running a similar combination. I usually don't go over 18 lb of boost on my engine.

[@TurboJohnRacing]

50psi 10-11 degrees.

[@ronbown3836]

@@TurboJohnRacing like all your videos John. I keep wanting to ask you questions if that's okay. Do you guys run a billet crankshaft in your small block Ford or what kind of crankshaft and does the crankshaft have six counterweights or eight CCW ? What kind of temperatures are you seeing from your egts if you log those. I noticed that you have a dry-sump oil system. Does that work better for you guys then a wet sump? Over this coming winter hopefully I'm going to be finishing my build. I'm putting together a Man o war block with Edelbrock SC1 heads. Planning on putting 2 88 mm Garrett or precision turbos. Engine going to is going to be on methanol. 430 cubic. Do you know what RPM your converter stalls at. How high do you spin your engine? If you want you could check out my KZbin it's probably going to be some hardwood floor videos on there. videos.kzbin.info/www/bejne/noapg4iCg8yGedE

[@ronbown3836]

@@TurboJohnRacing kzbin.info/www/bejne/noapg4iCg8yGedE

[@ElJaviTuning]

What's your ECU?

[@ModMotorMayhem]

can I apply any of this to a plug on E85?

[@MET90LX]

ModMotorMayhem yes e85 is similar to methanol. Bear in mind however that the gasoline in it will give you some brown/grey discoloring on the ceramic. I personally use gasoline (100LL) and it’s totally different than alcohol except the timing marks. On gasoline we look at the color of the ring on the inside of the ceramic. Usually I just use a cheap otoscope to look inside but sometimes I cut the threads off the plug. I use ngk 7405 plugs

[@RustyWells2]

Rock Is the best place on the internet to order parts people it's were most mechanics order their parts! 🦅🇺🇸🦅

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Good NGK Plugs

[@woodgrain18]

LoL I hate blow thru carbs even the supposedly one of the best on the market C&S carb we are running on my uncle's new setup f1a, 377sbc on alchohol in his old ex bracket car 90's built back halfed big tire vega that we recently went through bumper to bumper and floorboards to the roof and put it on small tires we are rockin 275's on 15×13" wheels lol. We finally have a tune up that seems to be working but that carburetor and car is driving me crazy, I am learning how to read plugs and alchohol at the same time we have had 3 tuners help us get going my uncle and paw paw are afraid of efi I dont understand why they see how smooth and easy I tune my little turbo ls 99 Z28 with Holley efi the its looking I'm just gonna buy another HP or a terminator X and throw the terminator in my car and put my HP in the vega I cant handle this not having any data after a pass and tuning the car with basically just the plugs and keeping a eye on the afr well honestly all i do is punch in what they tell me on the msd digital 7 and drive it. Its pretty nasty tho its half a second faster than my turbo car at the moment and it's still got more in it, I made my first 4 second pass two weeks ago 4.98 @ 137mph it's a wild ride I really dont want to go much faster lol (in that car). What all are you using in your efi setup its definitely getting a Holley setup in the near future but I dont know if I want to go coil on plug ir not

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Good pass! I run Holley HP on mine, and love it!

[@woodgrain18]

@@TurboJohnRacing what's your opinion on flying magnets and coil on plug. I only have experience with turbo ls motors with efi I personally have never had/installed or tuned a sbc with a efi setup, but the vega is definitely getting it I just dont know wich way to go on the ignition? Any tips would be greatly appreciated

[@forged_billions2]

What size injectors do you run ?

[@TurboJohnRacing]

Precision 550’s

[@KSIXRIDER]

Nice

[@CharlieBrown-pb9xn]

when no ones looking put some nitro in and cut the boost a bit

[@megasharkz1r]

clean and flow your injectors build your own set up trust no one.

[@robertlane7348]

That's not the timing mark. Those plugs are undertimed.

[@treyivey5431]

2 spark plugs didn’t like this vid

[@PeggyParrow]

Cut to the chase , blah blah blah ,over and over ..listen to yourself ? !

[@jonathanmoore5929]

Thanks, john very helpful video