Gas Mileage Increase Tip - Spark Plug Performance
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Price levels for oil are gliding up to unprecedented highs. This is caused fuel to increase to prices never seen before. The average level of fuel per gallon is in the $4 range now, and most folks are looking for alternatives to increase mileage. Thankfully, there are several ways to increase mileage without breaking the bank.
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.
The action of creating the supercharged gas through the spark the best transfer possible can increase mileage. If the spark plug is losing some of its output before it reaches the compressed gas and air mixture, the resulting combustion will not have as much power available for use. A spark plug can lose it’s power through seals not being tight and corrosion of the spark tips. A new spark plus with platinum tips will result in a much higher transfer rate, reducing the amount of cycles needed to extract the same amount of power. This increases mileage by using less fuel.
Your vehicle will operate more efficiently with new performance level spark plugs. Most plugs will get you an additional two to four percent increase in fuel mileage. Fortunately, a great performing plug is also inexpensive - usually around $4 each. This makes your return on investment very attractive.
