problems under high boost

[h100vw]

I'd re-gap them to 28. Did you look at the closely when you did them. Take some close-ups when you remove them. Lets have a look.

My dodgy one had a distinctly green colour to it.

Gavin

[bujna]

I'd re-gap them to 28. Did you look at the closely when you did them. Take some close-ups when you remove them. Lets have a look.

My dodgy one had a distinctly green colour to it.

Gavin

Ok, will do.

[bujna]

I gapped the new bkr6e's to .028 today and installed them. I also cleaned the contacts on the ignition sensors/mafs/n75 electrical connectors just as a bit of a precaution too (i read on another forum that some people had fixed strange timing behaviour by cleaning the ingition sensor plugs in particular).

I only had a couple of quick drives today, and things are back to normal with the fresh spark plugs... I'm boosting up to around the 18 psi mark with no problems. I'll have to see how things are going after a few weeks...

The one thing i did notice while changing the spark plugs today is that my 2nd and 3rd coilpacks have hairline cracks on the front side of them as in the picture below...Is this something to be worried about? (sorry about the iphone fuzziness)



I took the following photos of the bkr7e's that i pulled out of the car. Note that i only had them in for a few weeks (~1200kms). The scratches on top of the plugs is just from regapping them the other day...

1

2

3

4


Other angles:

[h100vw]

Those plugs look ok.

Usually the cracks in the coil packs wouldn't be the best thing. If it comes back again, let me know and you can borrow my coil packs for the cost of postage. That should prove whether they are bad or not.

Gavin

[Jmac]

Sounds like all you have done is lowered resistance there mate, plugs look ok but new ones would lower the resistance, at WOT if there is resistance the spark can be temp blown out ,i would be suss on the coils for sure. dont normally see that with these coils,any cracks near coils isnt good mate, spark wants to find the quickest road to earth ALWAYS, thats why it does so across the electrodes.
Jmac

[gmx]

How did you come to the conclusion to use 7 (too cold!) in a stage I car?

I did check the gaps before i installed them and they were at 28. They seem to be at that gap by default. I'll pull them out on the weekend though and see if the gap has changed. If i don't get any luck there, then i'll change to the bkr6e's you mentioned and see how they go.

Thanks Gav! Once again

I haven't found anyone that does the BKRxE lower than 1.1mm or 0.032
You should always check the gap from factory.
With a mild stage I tune, yoiu could probably get away with 0.030.
In your pics, the 7s don't look like they're gapped to 0.028.
I just re-gapped mine tonight to 0.027, and they're much smaller than your pics indicate.


My take:
I'm guessing you have a ignition controller (as you said you replaced this part) and coils.
A good conversion is to switch to "newer" coils.
You need to be handy with a soldering iron and electrical diagrams.
The advantage? Since these newer 1.8T cars had to comply with more stringent emissions, they also provide a better/higher voltage.
This allows you to get away with more gap and tiny bit more powah on the dyno

[bujna]

How did you come to the conclusion to use 7 (too cold!) in a stage I car?

I haven't found anyone that does the BKRxE lower than 1.1mm or 0.032
You should always check the gap from factory.
With a mild stage I tune, yoiu could probably get away with 0.030.
In your pics, the 7s don't look like they're gapped to 0.028.
I just re-gapped mine tonight to 0.027, and they're much smaller than your pics indicate.

My take:
I'm guessing you have a ignition controller (as you said you replaced this part) and coils.
A good conversion is to switch to "newer" coils.
You need to be handy with a soldering iron and electrical diagrams.
The advantage? Since these newer 1.8T cars had to comply with more stringent emissions, they also provide a better/higher voltage.
This allows you to get away with more gap and tiny bit more powah on the dyno

I tried the 7's previously based on some postings over at vortex. I read that the rule of thumb was go a step colder every 50hp higher than stock. I figured i was probably most of the way there.

I think i probably was a bit rough with setting the gap previously. I made sure it was absolutely tight at .028 on these new plugs.

Will these coils be a straight swap? I'm not sure about the soldering you mentioned in your post? Do the newer coils have a different socket? I'd rather just do a clean swap...

http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_IV--1.8T/Engine/Ignition/ES7536/

[bujna]

The site i bought my ignition sensor from has the same coils as mine for US$60 a coil.

http://www.aboveallmotorwerks.com/BVModules/ProductTemplates/Bvc%202004%20layout/Product.aspx?productid=BERU_058905105

I'm going to give my local dealership a call too.

[gmx]

No they will not be straight swap because the newer coils don't need an ignition controller. Instead they have this on the coil itself to eliminate the need for it.

You basically need to create a little harness to delete the ICM.


058905105 are "old" style coils, just like mine.

[bujna]

A quick update.

The new coils and better gapped plugs have been running well, so all is good with the high boost issue.

I still have the warm start issue though. I've just sent my mechanic an email to see when they'll be able to look at it...