the guy i work with is trying to get me to buy autolite AR33 plugs for my 289 and whats the difference between those and a stock plug aside from the different ground electrode will that really give me more power

 

The most recent Car Craft magazine had a great article on choosing the right spark plug. Look on their site and see if you can find the article. I'd stick with the Autolite 45's if your engine isn't crazy .

 

Those adds for more than one electrode are just dumb, as with the screen under the carb , fan in the intake tube etc.
Your plug can only fire what it is feed, meaning if you have a 8000 volt coil and there is no resistance anywhere your plug will fire 8000 volts, makes no difference how many electrodes are on the plug, if there is one electrode it will have 8000volts across it, if there are two electrodes there will be 4000 on each electrode , same amount of "fire" in the cylinder.
Stick with the recommended plug that Ford says. If you could somehow run two distributors and two plugs per cylinderwith two sets of wires you would then get 2Xs the spark. Your name isn't Tony Schumacher is it? Just kidding. And Top fuel is a good example. If you could get twice the spark on a single plug, why would they run 2 distributors? Just have 2 electrodes.

By the way. A good rule of thumb for any of that stuff out there that will give you better mileage or more power or whatever, is, That if just a little of the claim was true, don't ya think Ford and GM might have them on there vehicles already? There a reason they don't.

 

Autolite sold out to Motorcraft years ago. Get the Motorcraft B-42 plug. The 45 is a little hotter.

 

the point of those plugs is it puts the spark kernal in a better position (its only sparking to one electrode or the other, never both)
so basically instead of the little hook shaped electrode blocking the spark it doesnt. i dont know if that really makes a difference but what the hell i certainly think it doesnt hurt.

see my award winning photoshop skills below for a better idea of what im talking about.....

 

It's hard to beat Autolite plugs. BTW, Autolite is owned by Allied Signal Corp., the same company that owns Fram. IIRC, Motorcraft plugs are made by Autolite.

 

no it is not a multiple electrode plug they look like the pic Autolite Racing Plugs and they are copper core i know copper core plugs are better and even more so with my msd system

all i can see is that it deals with quenching in the plugs

 

a cut back electrode would give the same effect.... a larger spark kernal exposed to the combustion area which is *supposed* to be better. as long as your sticking to the same heat range plug i do not see how it could hurt it.

 

My77
The Gap has to be the same if it's from the top or the side in order to fire the plug correctly. What your talking about does make a difference , but the difference is so small, unless your racing the car, it's not worth it. It has to do with the flame travel being in an open area as apposed to have to travel from behind the electrode. A long time ago, we use to put a copperwasher under the plug and tighten it so the electrode gap would face the intake valve on all 8 plugs. It give a few more HP, but like I said unless you racing its not really worth it.

 

thats why i said i wasnt sure if it really even helped but that i didnt see how it could hurt. then again, from what people spend to get a few HP if you can change plugs and pick up a couple for cheap.... well every little bit helps