sizemoremk
Registered User
I tried to search, but couldn't find an explanation...
Also what is the significance of the length of the plugs?
Thanks!
Also what is the significance of the length of the plugs?
Thanks!
That is likewise my understanding. The beginning of the article seemed to start down another path indicating that the plug is what was cooling the combustion chamber which makes 0 sense. The title of the thread was to eliminate confusion, but the manufacturer themselves only created more by wording such as:Mike8675309 said:The NKG article perhaps isn't clear, but the cooling they discuss is related to the temperature at the tip of the spark plug. This temperature is controled by how much of the insulating material is in contact with the steel body of the spark plug which is in contact with the head.
It is the head that removes the heat from the spark plug. The length of the insulating conductor not in contact with the steel plug body determines the speed at which the tip of the plug can have it's heat removed. Thus a plug with a longer ceramic center section is considered to be "hotter" than a plug with a shorter ceramic center section.
The actual length of the ceramic center section not in contact with the plug body may not always be visible due to the plug construction.
.. OK.. looks to me like the implication is that the plug is what is cooling the combustion chamber which is a bogus statement... the heat from combustion travels primarily out of the chamber in the form of exhaust gas.. thats the bulk of the heat. The remaining built up heat is transferred to the piston, the clinder walls, the valves, the heads, and our teensy little highly insulated (read low heat conductivity) device called the spark plug.SPARK PLUG BASICS:
The spark plug has two primary functions:
To ignite the air/fuel mixture
To remove heat from the combustion chamber
It is important to remember that spark plugs do not create heat, they can only remove heat. The spark plug works as a heat exchanger by pulling unwanted thermal energy away from the combustion chamber, and transferring the heat to the engine's cooling system.
In my case, I'm not a wanna-be, I am. I have taken courses in materials, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, etc. but you don't need very much of that to understand basic heat transfer concepts.Birdman93 said:****-from now on I don't try to help these guys with their questions-you wanna-be engineers can spread your lack of knowledge around.
Bloody amatuers.