The reason for the polarity reversal is that the mags have a magnet with both a north and south pole, and both are used. Look up the firing order for your engine. The first, third, and fifth cylinders in the firing order use one polarity; the other tbree, the opposite. Move the plug from one polarity to the opposite. For a standard IO-540, you can move cylinder 1 to cylinder 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, etc.
your not moving wires your moving the plugs that spark in the proper order mentioned above so nothing changes as for the order of "timing".
- spark plugs actually only spark on one side of the two, not both, so what happens is the spark plugs get worn out on one side (polarity) so switching them will allow for the other side of the spark plug to spark and wear out that side, by moving the plugs as Lycoming states it wears the plugs evenly over time.
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This is a bit unclear, IMHO. The arc jumps across between the electrodes. Within the arc, you have electrons traveling in one direction, and ions (the metal atoms, minus an electron or two) traveling in the opposite direction. The side from which the ions are traveling is losing mass, atom by atom, and will get thinner. Reversing the polarity at plug rotation will even out the wear.
This is a bit unclear, IMHO. The arc jumps across between the electrodes. Within the arc, you have electrons traveling in one direction, and ions (the metal atoms, minus an electron or two) traveling in the opposite direction. The side from which the ions are traveling is losing mass, atom by atom, and will get thinner. Reversing the polarity at plug rotation will even out the wear.
For a standard IO-540, you can move cylinder
Keep it simple- find out where the Mags wires go and change the spark plugs as close as mentioned above ONLY for the ones the MAGs provide spark to, for the EI, replace those spark plugs if they are automotive, otherwise stick to Lycoming plan in general.
Of course make sure you clean and regap the plugs to the proper range (.016-.021 for IO540) I use .018 since that is what my feeler is- also allows for my margin of error over or under tightening- but I ALWAYS need to regap it to this setting every year.