I was wondering what the best plug out there is for the LSJ. I am mildly modded with just the gmpp exhaust right now with the possibility of a intake at some point. Also I may get the gm stage kit as well.

Now on crateengine depot they have ACDELCO plugs Ecotec 2.0 LSJ Spark Plugs 41-106 12610767 - Crate Engine Depot

But i heard the NGK plugs are great and dont mind getting them either
NGK Iridium Spark Plugs 05-07 Cobalt SS - 05-07 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged Spark Plugs

So whats the best plugs and gap for my car. Basically I am getting new plugs for preventative maintenance. Going to hit 75k shortly.

 

regular bkr7e's .. they are pretty good all around plugs, was running over 24psi with them gapped at .036 for about 6 months lol...

 

u got like nothing for mods so i would just buy stocks again, and gap em to .034 or .032 i forget what stock is.

 

NGK, nor NKJ's

But yeah, I have those bkr7e's in my car and it's been a smooth ride.

 

im going to try out the ngk bkr7eIXs which are the irridiums

 

where can i find out info on the stock lsj plug gap if i went with bkr7e's?

 

just gap them between .032 and .035. .035 might be pushing it though. Although that is the gap I'm running, and so far I'm good. No knock, pre-det...nothing.

 

Stock Gap for the LSJ accoding to the Haynes and Chilton's manuals is 0.040" or 0.042" But that covers many cobalts in years 05-07

 

The stock LSJ plug gap varies, but mine came from the factory set at 0.035". I have mine set at 0.032" now due to experiencing some spark blowout. I didnt notice spark blowout until i changed blowers and went to a smaller pulley. I ran my stock gap all the way to a 2.9 w/o any issues.

The ACdelco plugs sold on CED are the stock iridium plugs that came in most 07's (05' & 06' came with platniums). They are made by NGK by the way.

Yeah, that gap is no good for the LSJ.

 

From my personal experience the iridium plugs are crap in these cars. Also, people need to be changing there spark plugs VERY often, these cars eat them up like no other. I change mine with every oil change aka every 3k miles. From the factory these cars run EXTREMELY rich, almost dangerously rich. Untuned vehicles especially will notice spark plugs wearing out quickly due to extreme cyl temps and over fueling.

Personally I feel that the ngk bkr7e's work very well in most cars, there is also an autolite 3922 I believe is the number that I haven't had to much issues with. As for gapping most people run between .032 and .035, it just depends on the pulley range you have.

This information is for people running on 93 octane, if you are running on e85 you DO NOT want to run a 1 step colder plug. STOCK HEAT RANGE AND HIGHER FOR E85!

 

these cars don't run rich if it's tuned properly... that happens with canned tunes and mods with no tunes. think my plugs have been in for 2-3 years through a ottp stage 2, a TVS setup and now a turbo setup, and I have never once pulled a plug and seen excessive carbon.

 

I said "From the factory these cars run EXTREMELY rich, almost dangerously rich. Untuned vehicles especially will notice spark plugs wearing out quickly due to extreme cyl temps and over fueling."

Meaning anything that is not properly setup is running very rich. Everyone who has had dyno time with stage 2 cars or factory tuned cars have seen the 10 afr that they leave behind. These types of tunes should be changing there plugs more often then leaned out cars in the mid to high 11s / low 12s.

I still change my plugs every time I change my oil even though I have a proper running tvs setup just because they are very cheap and only take a short amount of time to install.

 

I paid like $39 for my ngk iridiums, I haven't installed them yet I may return them and I think I'm gonna stick with the bkr7e's, I was able to gap mine at .038

 

they don't run "dangerously rich" from the factory

 

I'm starting to loose faith in those Chilton's and Haynes' manuals....
They tell me to check my Power Steering Fluid weekly, or every 250 miles,
They tell me to turn in my rear brake caliper with needle nose pliers,
They tell me to change my oil filter and oil every 3,000 miles,
They tell me to set my spark plug gap to 0.042"....


Currently I'm running at 0.040" spark plug gap, as recommended by my tuner for the setup that I have. I've had this setup for slightly over a year with no problems.

 

Im surprised you arent experiencing any spark blow out with that large of a gap. You do want to maintain the largest gap possible w/o spark blowout, so if 0.040" works for your car than it's fine. Every car will react differently. Like I mentioned I ran a 0.035" gap for years w/o issue. It wasnt until I changed superchargers and pullied down that I experienced spark blowout on cooler nights. No doubt due to the increased air flow blowing out the kernel.

 

this...if anything those stock injectors are ****. They come from factory already maxed out as far as idc's on that stock pulley.

 

this part at least is true. And there's nothing mechanically wrong with changing your oil and filter every 3k miles. It' just a waste of money. But that power steering thing is a royal fail, lol.

 

It has nothing to do with the injectors, it has to do with the tune. Both stock and gm stage 2 do run EXTREMELY rich. I know of a cobalt on this forum who washed out his cyl walls after a rebuild on a 10ish afr because of an o2 sensor error. Now I am not saying that this will happen to any of the gm builds, however running that rich is NOT good. Hence why so many stock/gm stage 2 cars gain a decent amount of power from a custom tune after leaning out the car.

You can run any injector you want, but keeping the same air to fuel ratio as stock/gm stage 2 has it you are still going to run way way way to rich.

 

Also as staged07ss has said most modified cobalts running 2.8 and smaller pulleys generally need to lower there spark plug gap down into the .035 range as to not have spark blow out. If you have an interceptor check it and see how many misfires you are having while at wide open throttle, if you have a lot then re-gap them or replace and then re-gap them.

 

i run the bkr8e coppers which are 2 steps colder than stock and 1 step colder than the bkr7e's.
im was running the bkr8eix iridiums and after 8 months i fouled them out on a 33 gap, i put the bkr8e's in half way through the season and they were fine at a 34gap but now im experiencing blowout at 6200ish rpm. im going to pull them and regap to 32 if they arent fouled.

for the OP's car i would just run the stock heat index and maybe a slightly tighter gap, like 38 or something. mine came stock at 40.

hope this helps.

 

Yeah man try it out. When I started experiencing spark blowout I tested each gap from 0.035"-0.032". I wanted to maintain the largest gap possible w/o experiencing blowout. On my car 0.032" worked out the best. I found this due to almost "chasing" the spark blowout. When i was at a 0.035" gap spark blowout was noticed around 5750 rpm. At 0.034" it was noticed around 6000 rpm, and at 0.033" it was noticed around 6750 rpm. This is how I found my largest spark gap w/o blowout.

 

you can see misfire (aka spark blowout) on the interceptor? thanks guys
also, how do you know when either to make your plugs smaller gap or get colder ones?

 

Yep.

Look at the color of your plugs. That is the best indication of heat range.

A proper heat range plug in a healthy engine should be a light tan to brownish grey color.

 

good, mine are in the tan area and look alright. I'm using the ngk 7's they're v-power. I may have spark blowout, though, they're gapped at .038 you're not supposed to gap these things, I heard. I may do it anyways and lower it down to about .034