Michigan24HourMechanic
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Hey there folks, I recently bought a 2016 Equinox with the 4cyl engine. It’s a one owner 70k miles. I’m an engine builder so I wanted to see how this engine was taken care of, I went to look at it and I looked in the engine with a scope. Looked new, even under the valve cover. Was honestly surprised it has the oil changed more than frequently. It was time for coils and plugs and the guy didn’t know what he was doing whatsoever It was left half apart so I threw it back together and drove it home. Ran OK but drove great, was a brand new car basically. I went to the parts store and I wanted to test out E-3s in the back of my head I was thinking it would burn too hot and really wasn’t made for the motor but everyone online literally preaches about it. I wanted to see if it got better fuel economy compared to the standard fuel economy rating. The first drive before plugs and coils was an hour drive and was good, I went ahead and replaced the coils and put in the E-3s I toured them and all that good stuff per the GM book specs the next drive it was a 125 mile drive, 2 and a half hour drive it was great drove it from Fort Wayne to Detroit on the last 40 minutes I was going 80mph in the fast lane and all of the sudden boom, I thought I had blew a tire because it shook the car that bad, then my powersteering went out, one by one lights started coming on lol so I pulled over and got out the car and just saw a big puddle of oil, for me this is unfortunately my luck all the time with cars so I kinda just say there staring at it for a minute knowing what happened but just kinda in shock because theoretically nothing should have happened I had did a fresh oil change drove it around Fort Wayne for two days prior and made sure all fluid levels were okay, took off the oil pan and the rod blew threw the crank and self destructed I added a engine oil flush additive and my theory is that the mix of the higher burn rate and the engine flush additive which was really thin and as you all know the oil is already thin enough. I couldn’t get a number on the temperature that these plugs get up to but my estimation is at least 200 more degrees at least it. So yeah I’m not too sure what truly happened here but that would have to be my best hypothesis. So yeah just be aware if the guy at the parts store tries telling you that you should run these plugs since they say they get more fuel economy burn more efficiently, sure yes they do but probably not in all engines I wouldn’t recommend it. I really doubt it was the oil additive because the oil still had a decent viscosity. If anyone can get any technical info on the plugs, I couldn’t find anything I really had to go off of the stock ones and try to math it out I came up with around 800Degrees C for the maximum heat tolerance for the motor and I’m guessing the e3 spark plug probably burns at around 500 Celsius on a low rpm range and at a higher consistent rpm range I would guess it could reach up to 1200c if not higher.
