I've done a fairly large amount of time working on Volkswagen engines - from stock to all out race (which is currently the state of my race car). I've done a large amount of research on ignition systems to go along with that. However, my experience is limited to normal aspirated engines and without electronic ignition systems. The most often electronic upgrades on these engines comes in the form of replacing the points with a magnetic sensor or installing an electronic ignition computer.

With the Xterra, I'm wondering if the old methods still apply and are beneficial, or if the electronic system just kind of "evens out" your upgrade.

Here's what I was thinking.

Platinum plugs are crap. They have a tiny little electrode and it's main benefit is providing a better spark for weak ignition systems and not fouling as quickly.

I'm thinking about the first tune-up, and replacing the wires with better quality aftermarket ones, replacing the plugs with traditional plugs or maybe multi-electrode ones and looking into the coil and spark plug gap.

By putting in a hotter plug and coil, along with the wires to support it, you can open the plug gap more and get a nice juicy spark. This ensures good, complete combustion and increases power output (read: hp) and efficiency (read: mpg).

Now - will the brain of the X circumvent these modifications? Or will it improve the system overall? Has anyone tried playing with the ignition system?

I'm suspecting that it's not a bolt-on miracle cure by a long shot, but will certainly help boost a typically underwhelming system of most engines out there. Not so much for hp, but at least mpg and knowing you got some good stuff under there.