How Many Spark Plugs Does a V4 Engine Have?

A 4 cylinder engine can have either 4 spark plugs or 8 spark plugs. Usually, a 4 cylinder engine has 4 spark plugs, a 6 cylinder engine has 6, and an 8 cylinder engine has 8.

The number of cylinders determines the number of spark plugs required. Generally, one spark plug is needed for each cylinder in the machine. But few cylinders are designed to house 2 spark plugs. In engines with such cylinders, there will be spark plugs twice the number of cylinders.

You can dig deep about the number of spark plugs in different engines here.

Why Does a V4 Cylinder Have 8 Spark Plugs?

To ensure a complete combustion, extra spark plugs are used. The extra 4 spark plugs fire into the gas stream to burn the leftover (unburned) gasoline. This improves the EPA rating by burning off surplus gasoline.

V4 Engines with 4 Spark Plugs and V4 Engines with 8 Spark Plugs

1. Honda F20C/F22C

Honda F20 has the finest capability for making top-quality V4 cylinder engines. It produces 240 horsepower from a naturally aspirated 4 cylinder engine with 4 spark plugs which are incredible and add variable valve timing and a 9,000 rpm redline.

2. Alfa Romeo Twin Spark

The Twin Spark variant is termed Alfa’s visionary structure that used a second smaller spark plug for each cylinder to increase quality. They generated a 4 cylinder engine with 8 spark plugs.

3. Volkswagen EA888

Volkswagen EA888 is best known for its flexibility, and outstanding performance with 8 Spark plugs EA888 Gen 3 Audi Volkswagen.

4. Ford 2.3L EcoBoost

This full set of four spark plugs come stock in newer 2019 to 2020 Ford Ranger 2.3L EcoBoost trucks and provide excellent performance improvements on 2.3L EcoBoost.

5. Fiat Twin Cam

The later 16-valve engines were part of Fiat’s “Pratola Serra” modular engine series, and had an impenetrable iron engine, with an alloy head, and the camshafts were belt-driven. The Twin Spark name is termed from its feature that there are two spark plugs per cylinder, which makes a total of 8 spark plugs in the particular V4 engine.

How Can You Determine the Number of Spark Plugs You Have?

If you are not sure if your engine has one spark plug per cylinder, your best approach is to find out what engine that your car has. You can identify your engine by the information of the exact model and year of manufacture of your car. Once you know the engine, it will help you to be able to identify how many spark plugs your car uses from that information.

To learn more precise information about your engine, you may need to know its capacity, commonly measured in liters. If you can’t locate the power of your machine by searching in the engine compartment, then you have to learn about your car’s trim.

Also, by looking at the trim level of your car, you will be able to determine the number of spark plugs.

When Should You Change Spark Plugs in a V4 Cylinder Engine?

In any engine, may it be v4, v6, v8 or any other, the standard advice would be to change the spark plugs at least after every 30,000 miles. But the range can exceed if you use Iridium spark plugs or do not make random changes like modifying the engine by installing a larger diameter throttle body or attaching a new exhaust header in the car.

These additions will make your car run smoother and faster but while affecting the spark plug. Therefore, keeping these things in mind, you will need to understand the capacity or the load your car will take and change the spark plugs in due time.

Why is a V4 Engine so Rare?

The V4 engine is one of the fastest engines ever built. It is a structure of 4 cylinders in a ‘V’ formation, which is very compact and stiffens the engine by making the packaging of such an engine significantly easier. The engine also has nice short crankshafts, which means less unwanted vibration as the engine rotates.

Even more, the ‘V’ shape sets the engine banks at 90° to one another. The particular form balances the primary forces during reciprocation, generating an excellent smoother operation. Apart from all these reasons, the V4 engine is rare because it is more complicated and expensive to develop than other engines. For example, the Porsche 919 Hybrid is one of the fastest cars powered by a V4 engine.