Spark Plug Gapping

[brandon]

Hey guys,

I gave my old manual away when I sold my old Galant... what's the proper gapping distance for our plugs?

Thanks!
-Brandon

[Kain]

44 thousandths

[redlobster]

lol this doesnt have anything to do with a galant but my friend bought an 88 civic cuz he wrecked his other one and he asked if i could help him do a tune up, like plugs,oil etc and he came over we found out that his plugs are supposed to be gapped at like 42 thousandths and they were gapped at like 65 thousandths, needless to say it helped his car run better, guess thats what he gets for driven a honda

[JiP]

The all mighty chiltons says 39-43

I got mine gapped at 40 was like that outa the box i just left it alone.

[pinoyesv6]

of course if u have iridium plugs or something, they come pre gapped and gapping them might cause damage...

[brandon]

Will "undergapping" lead to problems? Mine were pregapped to about 36-37 so I just left em that way... but my car's been acting up a bit with misfiring and such.

[HiperSilver]

shouldnt really misfire....its a smaller gap spark isnt jumping, it may be your plugs or cap and rotor or distributer. but u shoudl relal keep it at 40.

[manybrews]

as someone whos worked on these for almost 11 years, i can honestly say this..

there is nothing more unimportant than plug gap on these cars. 20, 30, 40... it doesnt matter.

as long as there are new plugs (factory ONLY) with some type of gap, youre fine.

if youre misfiring, its probably NOT your plugs (provided youre using quality ones like the factory NGKs.)

[JiP]

Ye, think of it like this...for a spark to jump a gap it takes considerable amount of electricity. Larger gap more power needed. So having a smaller gap will justmake it easier to spark, too large a gap however will give you a really weak spark, or no spark at all. Although I remember reading that a certain gap is prefered because its the selected length to give the most complete burn of the mixture.