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Spark plug dilemma

G

g zero

Well Known Member
About half way done with phase 1 . Pulled the cowl ,put a wrench on everything , changed the oil and filter . Now I am contemplating what to do with my Champion Spark Plugs . Thinking of OHM testing them , if good reinstall and test again at next oil change or should I replace with Tempest and be done ?

Champion is on my list of venders to see a Sun & Fun
 
Clean, gap check with hole gauge and reinstall. At 27 bucks each you should get at least 100 to 150 hrs per set.
 
Pitch them. They are junk, champion refuses to acknowledge the issue. I just pitched 12 plugs which only one had less than a half megohm of resistance. Im had a rough running engine and one totally dead plug. New tempest took care of the issue. Just 350 hours on the champions.
 
Wait till one fails and causes arcing in your mag. That will cost a lot more than addressing the issue today. Check them with an ohmmeter. I bet you already have some over 5k
 
Yep...

Doing my annual today.
Original Champions with 250 TTSN

One was almost 7000 ohms

Question/observation;
I have been rotating them up the firing order and switching top to bottom every service.
All the bottoms are 4000 to 7000 ohms and all the tops are 1200 to 2500 ohms.
Testing was done after sandblast cleaning.

I was experiencing mag test drop differance between sides of about 300 rpm on preflight run up

Tomorrow I will buy the Tempest.

Anyone know where in Portland area?
 
g zero said:
Looks like Champion has a warranty, anyone try it ?
Click to expand...

On Mike's blog someone reported a response to your question;

Hey Mark, a local flyer here was having some trouble with his Comanche running smooth so we started with his SP only to find (1) out of the (12) to be in "serviceable" condition. I tested them first on the Tempest gizmo ( it is fairly quick and accurate) then because of the red light (failing), tested for the Ohms value.They were all very high. He called Champion (BTW these are fine wire plugs too) and they told him to send them in. So he did. They cleaned and replaced all the resistors, replaced a couple plugs that had other defects, turned them around and sent them back to him in a week and free of charge! I was floored! He said that the rep he talked too was VERY nice and accomodating and even stated that "the competition" was killing them so they are trying to regain the market. If you call them to send them in they may replace them all for you.
 
I was into my plugs often during phase one and early afterwards. Rotated them many times to keep them clean during engine break in.

I thought about replacing with Tempests also, but I could not see throwing away $250 worth of plugs at the time. I bought 8 Tempests to keep as spares. I have replaced 2 Champs so far (350 hrs). One was at 10K ohms and I dropped the other one.

I say run them and keep an eye on them. "IRAN" them until they are gone. It could be many hrs.
 
The real issue is not whether Champion will replace the plug under warranty. The issue is how long before the replacements will fail. It seems to me they have a manufacturing or design issue but not willing to acknowledge it. I personally have seen two different failure modes. The first is cracking of the ceramic insulator and the other, seemingly more prevalent, is the resistor failure. The defective ones that I have dissected have lost the plating normally found on on the "hot" side of the carbon insert, but not on the plating on the cold side (upper). Whether this is caused by vibration, heat or some other electrolysis process, is unknown to me. My guess is the resistance increases with the depletion of the material. When tested under 80-100 PSI the high resistance plugs will not fire.
 
I have electronic ignition one one side and a mag on the other. My first set of Champions lasted 400+ hours. My second set of Champions only lasted about 150 hours before I began to have trouble with my ignition on the mag side. Two of my plugs measured well over 5K and one was almost there. The worst plug had caused arcing in the mag. I cleaned the mag and made sure the leads were in order. I tossed the Champions for the Tempest and have had no problems in the last 300-400 hours.

I'm a big believer in Tempest products. I just had a Tempest vacuum pump fail with almost 1000 hours. I'm told the typical pump only lasts about 600 hours. My new Tempest vacuum pump has a 3 year/1300 hour warranty.

I would say toss them before they cause problems with the mag or leads..

Jerry Esquenazi
RV-8 N84JE
1002 hours!
 
Tempest Spark Plug PN? Titan ECI IO-360

Looking for the Tempest Spark Plug part number.

I've followed this thread and another regarding the Champion spark plugs with great interest. Tempest plugs sound like cheap insurance (press check).

I'm a new RV-8 owner (not builder) and just had my slick mags rebuilt after just over 500 hours. According to the mechanic my Slick exhibited some of the problems described here and on a previous thread.

As I understand it Slick mags are also Champion products and can be adversely effected by the high ohm Champion spark plug issue.

What part number are you using for the Tempest plugs?

I will use these in an ECI Titan IO-360 with Airflow Performance FI.
 
Champion replaced four plugs for me under warrantee but it took about a month and a few phone calls. Tempest is the say to go unless you want to use auto plugs. Send any defective ones back for replacment to new ones, replace those on your engine with Tempest then sell the new ones you get back to one of your spamcan buddies that swears by Champion.
 
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