A Day Off Devoted to the Car

[MaximumBrian]

Even though I woke up at 2pm lol.

I'm anal about servicing and operating my car. If my life depended on it I couldn't drive it hard if it wasn't fully warmed up. I'm meticulous about fluid and filter changes.

I bought some 5w-30 Mobil 1 cause it's been aobut 2,500 miles since the last change. I'm religous about changing my oil before 3,000 miles.

I decided since I'm into the 50K zone that I'd buy some spark plugs. I couldn't find the NGK Platinums that most people use so I took a chance with Autolite's new Titanium Dual Firing Spark Plug. I decided these over Bosch's Quad-Fire because the fundamentals of quad-fire really don't do anything except increase longevity of the plug. I've never been a fan of platinum, it lasts long, but isn't the best source for electricity. Copper is a lot better, but I also know Titanium is better than copper. Anyways I decided to take the chance with these new plugs.

I installed the spark plugs, which was a pain in the butt because of several reasons. First, I hate how our hoods don't pop up fully, so reaching into the intake manifold is tight. Then, my Stillen strut bar made it very difficult to manuever around the rear bank spark plugs. Third, I didn't have proper spark plug removing apparatus so I had to make my own rig out of duct tape and deep sockets. Finally, all those sensors, lines, and canisters get in the way of that one plug.

Finally after three hours I get everything done. Funny how your friends are always busy when u need help.

Impressions, well I let the car warm up then I opened it up. One of two things happened, psychologically I thought my car was faster/smoother, or it really was. Now it seemed exactly the same to aound 4,500 RPM, but it definately seem to rev a lot faster/cleaner up top. Lately I've been complaining about the CAI killing me up top. Well I feel more top end power now then before. I'm still going to goto the Stillen Intake probably. Last weekend at the track I was running decent times, but not as good as about 7,500 miles ago. Perhaps the plugs really made a difference. However, the NGK R's I pulled out didn't seem in too bad of condition.

Anyone have comments? I let my friend drive my car too, didn't tell him what I did. He said straight out that the car seemed to be pulling better and running smoother than ever. He didn't know I did anything to it.

Well someone let me know if it's my head or if something this small could make that big of a difference.