I recently bought new spark plugs to swap out. They are the OEM NGK with the 3 prongs. I was told they do not need to be gapped. I was curious and checked the gap and they are around .024-.026 and the recommended gap for the car is .035-.043. Why would this be the case? Thanks

 

Update for anyone interested. I called NGK. They said the gap was calculated between the ground electrodes and not between the ground and the center electrode. Anyway they said the gap is correct at .040 but I cannot find a measurement of .040 anywhere. So for me the case is closed.

 

I'm not sure what engine you're running, but I run NGK BKR7E. They're said to be the best for the turbo application and they have always come perfectly gaped (in my experience). The plus side is that they're also the cheapest plug. I'm running 22psi and really rich and the plugs still work great.

Not sure if that helps, but G/L with whatever you choose to run with.

 

Thanks. I chose the BKURET6-10. Oem for the car (2.8L v6). When I got them I did a search and it said NGK plugs were not pre-gapped. Installed them and all ran okay. For some reason something was nagging at me about this so I further searched regarding specifically searched for 3 prong and there is not a lot of info on them compared to single and I was reading they were pregapped. So I called NGK and they said all their plugs do not come pregapped except the multi-prong ones. So I took them out and carefully re-gapped them. I think I am okay in the re-gap since I had 2 extra new plugs that were not altered and I was able to use them as a benchmark to regap the others.

Interestingly when I re-installed them and started the car (it started right up) it idled (and when I revved it a bit) really bad (and I smelled a bit of fuel) for about 30 seconds to a minute. It was like the car needed to re-adjust. Then it ran fine... so far. If I have any issues I will just buy new plugs and install them. I usually just call the manufacturer on stuff but with plugs in the past I always checked the gap.. never had any experience with multi-prong and thought it was the same.

 

I check the gaping on all of my plugs and the BKR7Es have always come perfectly gaped. It's still best practice to check though. Glad to hear you're up and running.