opinion on iridium plugs

[Road_Clam]

You can grab another 30 by painting the engine black.

You have been listening to Doug, aka "crag antler" too much......

[cberkeley]

You can grab another 30 by painting the engine black.

Gloss or flat black?

[newbomb]

ngk plugs

I am also A snowmobiler and I ran the irridium plugs last year in My ZR800 2 stroke motor.I ran almost 1200 miles without changing plugs this is A rarity in snowmobiling I did not see A significant increase in power but at 2.00 A pop for 16 or so regular plugs A season I will gladly buy another pair of irridiums




Rich


3Katsinthegarage
1982 GS1000SZ Katana
1982 GS550MZ Katana
2002 ZR800CCE Arctic Cat

[txironhead]

Gloss or flat black?

Gloss. Flat has more wind resistance. And eat a large can of baked beans before every race, the added thrust is good for 2/10 of a second.....\\/

[drhermanstein]

Hi all,

I just ordered some iridium spark plugs for my '80 GS1000E. The ad for them made it sound like they were the equivalent of rocketfuel... I was more interested in their dependable performance record. What is the opinion pool of this forum on iridium plugs? worth the extra $'s? Hype?
I'll stick them in this weekend when they arrive (hopefully). Thanks!

I used to own a V4 suzi Madura 1200. On the Madura forum the iridium thread went on for weeks. Maduras are set rich from the factory. Many of us tried the DR8EIX NGKs iridium. The majority of users found easier and quicker starts, no more fouling and longer plug life. Some claimed better mileage but those seemed to be the ones who had the most fouling(rich condition) From the feedback I kind of deduced that Iridiums work even in poor conditions and they are tougher than most plugs.
Years ago I had a chat with an automotive engineer who still builds winning cars in SCCA GT3 and GT4. (He has his own engine dyno room) His advice was "get it running right and use a lot of copper plugs". They conduct electricity much much better than platinum and almost as well as silver. Sparks use one path and one path only. Sparks are easily generated if there is a real sharp edge or point. That is why splits and grooves work. There are a lot of sharp edges. They don't make two sparks but do provide a lot of sharp edges.
Conductivity is also important. Four metals are common in plug construction. Gold, silver, platinum, and copper. The best is silver, very close second is copper a distant third and fourth is gold and then platinum. Platinum is great for longevity and is great if coil output is high. Gold is just a poor choice because it doesn't last long and conducts poorly and plugs are very expensive. Silver doesn't last well is extremely expensive but conducts the best. Copper is the hands down winner as it conducts very well is inexpensive and lasts reasonably well. The advice I recieved from my friend was change them every 8000 miles.

I have no idea how iridium stacks up in the conductivity dept but they worked great on my Madura and lasted a long time. 13,000 mi and still looked sharp and relatively clean. I used to foul coppers in 2000 mi.

Herman

[gsgeezer]

I have only used NGK plugs on my bikes, but I would be curious to know if the iridium plugs work. (Maybe I can drop one in a KGB agent's soup.)

[cberkeley]

A raceboat buddy of mine sent me a set of NGK DR8EIX Iridium plugs (We use NGK 1ZFR5G Laser Iridium plugs in the Mercury Opti-Max outboard on the race-boat). I put the DR8EIX on last week, they work fine and so do the original NGK D8EA plugs. I can feel/see/measure no difference in in performance given my usage of the bike with the Iridium plugs. So, at this point, they're on strictly for braggin-rights.:-D

[cberkeley]

I am however, impressed with my new NGK Plug Boots ....now I can ride in the rain without the engine throwing a hissy-fit.

[RacingJake]

Well if any of you guys have a Ford Triton engine in your car or truck you know why we use platinum plugs. It's a real pain to change plugs like 2 hours and I see why they recommend replacement at every 100K.

Now on a GS it's a piece of cake to do and 5 mins later your done. I've use NGK's since the 70's in all my bikes without any problems and always have new ones laying around just in case. Even run them in my SeaDoo's. Don't expected a plug to fix a rich/lean problem, new plugs will be a bandaid for so long until you fix the real problem or need new plugs again.

[akier]

i'm going to stick with NGKs. however, that has nothing to do with plug life or performance gains. it has to do with crackheads trying to steal my plugs. can you imagine how much more they'd want them if they said 'iridium' on the plug? or 'platinum?' 8-[

[rustybronco]

Well if any of you guys have a Ford Triton engine in your car or truck you know why we use platinum plugs. It's a real pain to change plugs like 2 hours and I see why they recommend replacement at every 100K.

Try changing them on a 5.4l 3v that's broken one off in the head...

[RacingJake]

Well since Ford had that blowout problem with the 2 valve engine I guess they got it fix with the 3 valve motor Who ever designed that plug should be shot!

[rustybronco]

nope, they created a monster with the early 5.4l 3-valve spark plugs, special tool to remove them when they break off upon removal and if you can't get all the porcelain out of them to remove the tip thats left, off come the heads...

[steely]

i'm going to stick with NGKs. however, that has nothing to do with plug life or performance gains. it has to do with crackheads trying to steal my plugs. can you imagine how much more they'd want them if they said 'iridium' on the plug? or 'platinum?' 8-[

I have heard that the crackheads steal them for the porcelain tubes (insta-pipe). I had a buddy of mine who parked his bike in a bad part of town. When he came back to it, the tops of the plugs had been broken off.

[themess]

Well if any of you guys have a Ford Triton engine in your car or truck you know why we use platinum plugs. It's a real pain to change plugs like 2 hours and I see why they recommend replacement at every 100K.

Chevy had one early 70s model (used some of the glass as the last Corvairs) that was so tight that changing the plugs required partial removal of the engine. My '67 pickup needed a new heater core. I had to loosen the fender to do that job.