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I changed out my original AC's after 15 K of fairly mild driving with only a couple trips to the redline or over 5k rpm's. The pucks were missing from all 8 and the gaps from the tip of the center electrode to the ground piece were around .065". However, there appears to be a small crater from spark erosion, increasing the true gap slightly. The tips of the center electrodes appear to be necked down to .040" diameter, but I don't have a new AC to compare with. So ends the myth of the 100 k platinum spark plug! :bs
I just changed to Beru S1K as part of BBP Stage II package. My 99 has 14K on the odometer. Stock plugs looked like I am pretty lean and gap was all over the place, 060 to 085 with pretty siginificant wear on the electrode. I will watch the Berus to see if I experience the same wear as the stock. My advice to anyone with stock plugs is to pull em and pitch em, or at very least pull em and check the gap.
I changed out my original AC's after 15 K of fairly mild driving with only a couple trips to the redline or over 5k rpm's. The pucks were missing from all 8 and the gaps from the tip of the center electrode to the ground piece were around .065".
Are you sure they were ACs? The only reason I ask is that a Japanese plug (Denso, I believe) was used in many C5s and those plugs didn't have any pucks to begin with.
Ed
C5XTACY: The porcelin is marked "AC 41-952" and "12567455", so I assume they were manufactured by AC. (I've also heard that the AC oil filters are supplied by vendors to AC specs.) On one of the hex flats is stamped "096021", but don't know what this means. The area under the positive electrode on the ground electrode seems to have a faint circle approximately .062" in diameter where the puck should have been. If you look in the Tech Tips section on how to change plugs and wires, the very last photo shows the NGK TR55 side by side witht the AC 41-952. A small puck is clearly visible on the ground electrode. This is why I think all the pucks were missing, but things could have changed. Others had previously posted missing a couple pucks out of a set, so by implication, some plugs must have had visible pucks. Hope this helps. :cheers: