Decided to pull out the spark plugs and see what condition they were in before I go get the car emission tested.
I took my trusty 5/8" spark plug socket and proceeded to lower it down into the massive hole towards the plug when I felt some resistence. I quickly pulled back on my extention but the socket popped off and was stuck in the hole
I tried to retrieve it with my extension but it was stuck enough to prevent it from being pulled out. I eventually got the socket out by twisting on the extension and pulling at the same time.
Since my socket doesn't work I called up my friend with an M3 and asked him if I could borrow his socket since the engine should use the same tool. He hands me a 11/16" Snap-On socket which he said would work and I was going to try it out once I pick up the new Bosch plugs I ordered.
So today I go see my cousin, picked up the plugs and I told him my story. He goes back to his shop and shows me the socket I should use, it's a 5/8" Snap-On socket and it fits over the plugs perfectly and I clue in now that the 11/16" one won't work since it is too big.
I head home, put the 'new' 5/8" socket on and sure enough it clears the walls and allows me to extract the spark plug.
So just how much of a difference are we talking about here? Here is my socket at 24.65mm
Here is the 5/8" Snap-On socket at 21.24mm
There is a difference of 0.41mm which is enough to prevent my socket from fitting in the hole.
So here is plug #6 and as you can see there is a nice drip or brown oil on it. Spark plug tip looks good though
Plugs 1,2,3
Plugs 4,5,6
I measured the gap on the old plugs with a feeler gauge and they were around 0.68mm.
Measured the gap on all of the new plugs and they were all at 0.60mm so I put them in, started the car and what a difference new plugs make!
The car idles totally differently than before as it is much smoother and the engine is not jittering around like it used to. Took the car out for a quick spin and the throttle response is much better and the tach shows the idle to be a lower than before as well.
I found this thread about ground wire kits:
I had some left over 8AWG power cable from my last stereo installation so I bought a bunch of ring terminals and decided to see if installing a bunch of extra ground wires would have any effect or not. Worst case scenario I am out $15.00
So following the instructions laid out in the thread I cut and crimps lengths of cable and daisy chained them to the valve cover, throttle bodies and couple of other locations. I did test all locations with a multimeter to make sure they were all currently grounded prior to attaching a cable.
I ended up adding 6 lengths of ground wire and when started the car and I was surprised to notice that the idle was even better than an hour ago when I just swapped in the new plugs. I took the car for a drive and I believe it does drive better than before, in fact the car drives, idles and sounds how I imagined an M5 would sound. I'm going to hold on to my old plugs to swap them in to show any doubters that there is a difference.
So is there any other benefit? I disconnected the battery to recet the OBC and see if there are any improvements in fuel economy and will report back on this.
I took my trusty 5/8" spark plug socket and proceeded to lower it down into the massive hole towards the plug when I felt some resistence. I quickly pulled back on my extention but the socket popped off and was stuck in the hole
I tried to retrieve it with my extension but it was stuck enough to prevent it from being pulled out. I eventually got the socket out by twisting on the extension and pulling at the same time.
Since my socket doesn't work I called up my friend with an M3 and asked him if I could borrow his socket since the engine should use the same tool. He hands me a 11/16" Snap-On socket which he said would work and I was going to try it out once I pick up the new Bosch plugs I ordered.
So today I go see my cousin, picked up the plugs and I told him my story. He goes back to his shop and shows me the socket I should use, it's a 5/8" Snap-On socket and it fits over the plugs perfectly and I clue in now that the 11/16" one won't work since it is too big.
I head home, put the 'new' 5/8" socket on and sure enough it clears the walls and allows me to extract the spark plug.
So just how much of a difference are we talking about here? Here is my socket at 24.65mm
Here is the 5/8" Snap-On socket at 21.24mm
There is a difference of 0.41mm which is enough to prevent my socket from fitting in the hole.
So here is plug #6 and as you can see there is a nice drip or brown oil on it. Spark plug tip looks good though
Plugs 1,2,3
Plugs 4,5,6
I measured the gap on the old plugs with a feeler gauge and they were around 0.68mm.
Measured the gap on all of the new plugs and they were all at 0.60mm so I put them in, started the car and what a difference new plugs make!
The car idles totally differently than before as it is much smoother and the engine is not jittering around like it used to. Took the car out for a quick spin and the throttle response is much better and the tach shows the idle to be a lower than before as well.
I found this thread about ground wire kits:
I had some left over 8AWG power cable from my last stereo installation so I bought a bunch of ring terminals and decided to see if installing a bunch of extra ground wires would have any effect or not. Worst case scenario I am out $15.00
So following the instructions laid out in the thread I cut and crimps lengths of cable and daisy chained them to the valve cover, throttle bodies and couple of other locations. I did test all locations with a multimeter to make sure they were all currently grounded prior to attaching a cable.
I ended up adding 6 lengths of ground wire and when started the car and I was surprised to notice that the idle was even better than an hour ago when I just swapped in the new plugs. I took the car for a drive and I believe it does drive better than before, in fact the car drives, idles and sounds how I imagined an M5 would sound. I'm going to hold on to my old plugs to swap them in to show any doubters that there is a difference.
So is there any other benefit? I disconnected the battery to recet the OBC and see if there are any improvements in fuel economy and will report back on this.
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