Hey guys
Just a little thread out of interest in what spark plugs and gaps u guys use other than the standard NGK.
Have any of you heard anything good or bad about these new NGK Iridium IX 0.6 or 0.8mm plugs? I can get them a fair bit cheaper than retail, but only if its going to make a decent difference.
Catch Yas, Whoooooooooooooooosh :arrow:
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I use NGK BCPR7ET (triple ground electrode), miss a bit at idle but they make a bit more power than std plugs, I also run Champion C55 Race plugs, will just idle, but can handle the heat of 50 hard laps of the track.
NGK make 3 different types of plugs that I know of one being the standard plug the second is the standard with a grooved electrode and the third being the supposedly top of the range performance plug the Iridium with the fine pen point electrode.
I have used all plugs and now only use the standard plug, those Iridiums are over priced and on my car created problems on boost causeing backfireing and playing up, so I pulled them out and replaced them with the standard plug and it solved my boost problem.
A mate of mine asked Dennis at P.E.T about plugs and he said he has'nt used Iridiums yet but is going to do a Dyno comparisson soon.
Personally I don't recommend Iridiums on a Turbo car as they are not supposed to be gapped as damage to the fine electrode can result when trying to gapp, And turbo engines need a plug with a smaller gapp especially when boosting. If anything those Iridiums are nothing more than a sales gimick pithched at gullable people such as myself who get the idea it may make a difference to my car, if anything it makes your car run worse.
Stick with the standard NGK plugs and you can't go wrong. 8)
Cool, guys thanx for da info. I think i'll just get the standard NGK or the V-Grove NGK which really are the same as standard but with a groved electrode pickup, same price anyway these dayz
Cheers ppls 8O
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Standard Plugs all the way.
**** this triple, 4x electroide, iridium tip, v groove.
Standards work unreal. Make sure you pick the right ones, and the right temperature range, and youll be fine.
I cant see how the v grove would work, because the spark will still spark at the electrode in a similar fashion.....
Also those 4x electrode ones, only 1 of those 4 electrodes is used mainly, and the rest will just attract minor sparks, as the spark will travel to the easist part first.
20 bucks for 1 plug? fark that ,ill buy a complete set of standards that go hard for twice as long
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No but do i really need to?
Seriously, the electric pulse only comes in once, and the spark will jump to the easiest Ground.
It will not equally divide into 4 equal sparks, if you have a 4 pronged electrode, as the air is too resistive.
Comming from an entirely electrical point of view, i dont see how spark at the actual plugs will make a heck of a difference, if your running a stock dizzy setup.
Perhaps the Claimed performance output from an MSD ignition might be able to take advantage of a new-fandangled spark plug, but that same improvement could be due to the boost in power(current * voltage wise).
Depends how you look at it HSV SUX. On the track you might find that the standard spark plug is getting too hot, and therefore not sparking correctly ofter so many laps. Therefore a standard might not be upto the task of rigirous circuit work, but on a drag strip and street, the difference between a standard and iridium might be neglegible.
Dyno testing will give you a HP figure, and a nice little curve. that cannot say too much about the "DRIVEABILITY" depending on street/strip/circuit work.
Getting bigger HP is one thing, but getting a reliable spark, that has a higher probability of sparking, in the correct conditions is much more challenging.
I made no refernce to dynos, engine hp, and at the wheels figures, but for arguments sake, i think it makes a neglegible difference.
I was comming from an electrical engineering prospective and looking at it from a practical sense. Getting the correct heat range of plug and gap is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than having more than 1 grounding electrode and a new material tip.
if you want me to go into depth, ill see what i can dig up engineering wise, as the above is from the top of my head.
I realise that the multiple ground electrode plugs dont share the spark at the same time, but it will move around to the path of least resistance, as a particular electrode gets hotter than the others (just had several sparks through it), the spark will go to one of the others (usually the coldest) peventing pre-ignition.
The main reason they make a bit more power is that the spark 'kernal' is facing the bulk of the charge air in the chamber / dome, with a convensional plug the spark kernal is blocked somewhat by the ground electrode, thats why drag racers and top engine builders index there plugs to get the kernal facing the middle of the chamber (if using conventional plugs). I realise that the std ign system on a VL is a bit on the weak side, but this still applies to std ign (100-150mA) right through to high power CD (2A) systems.
Back in 95 I had the car on the dyno when I had no intercooler, the intake temps were clocked at 170 C and the new BCPR7ES plugs broke down (started missing up top) after a few dyno runs, tried the new BCPR7ET plugs and they stayed fine. I pay $7 NZ for these plugs so its not unjustafiable to use them on a road car.
Yes heat range is the most important thing when choosing plugs, the 7 range is about as cold as you want to go on the street and retain a good idle and drivability, but the 7ET's seem to cope with street use and can handle a bit of track abuse unlike the 7ES. the champion race plugs I run are NGK eqivallent of 10 heat range.
On the topic of ignitions is the Ford EA coil really the one to use as an upgrade over the std VLT part......anyone got current specs on this coil??
