Iridium plugs after 60,000 miles

[ka9mnx]

The article is by no means bogus! Waste spark ignition requires the use of double precious metal electrode plugs be them Iridiums or Platinums if you expect any sort of longevity out of the long life plugs. Read this and you will understand why.

I did. The Denso's I used were iridium fine wire with platinum electrode. The iridium wire completely melted away on the 2 waste spark engines I tried them in.

The elecrtical theory in the article is solid but the performance claims are a little wonky.

 

[Trav]

I have no idea what the problem was except depending on where you buy them there are a lot of counterfeits a few have been posted here on Bitog. I spoke to NGK about this a couple of years ago, they said ebay, some Amazon sellers and surprisingly RA are the ones they get the most complaints about, none are authorized retailers. There is a list of authorized retailers on their website.
I have used the NGK laser platinums and Iridiums in many a waste spark system without issues even after 60K.

Where to Buy - NGK Spark Plugs

Where to buy NGK and NTK products near you.

ngksparkplugs.com

 

[92saturnsl2]

The man cut his own nose off to spite his face. We can go on and on about the benefits of precious metal electrode but this guy wrote a pretty good article, it is worth reading and as far as I can tell accurate without deep diving into technical aspects.

13 Advantages and Disadvantages of an Iridium Spark Plug

The majority of spark plugs that operate in vehicles today feature a copper core center electrode. This design takes advantage of the excellent conducting rates that copper has with electricity, which is better than any

greengarageblog.org

That article lost me at #1 - it can improve the acceleration profile of a vehicle. Didn't appear to get any better from there.

I've seen a dyno here and there comparing plugs online, but IMO, the 3-4hp differences claimed are statistically insignificant as few dynos are that precise. While Iridium and other finewire plugs do have inherent advantages, a power adder is not one of them.

For performance over the long haul though, he'll regret tossing the Iridium plugs.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Iridiums have been around for over 10 years. The normal run is 100,000 miles. No more checking copper plugs every 30,000 miles.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I did. The Denso's I used were iridium fine wire with platinum electrode. The iridium wire completely melted away on the 2 waste spark engines I tried them in.

The elecrtical theory in the article is solid but the performance claims are a little wonky.

I felt the same way about the article.

But that doesn't change the fact that you should use a double (insert precious metal) plug for a waste spark ignition system. Because one half of the plugs have opposite polarity, you end up with uneven wear, but also greatly accelerated wear due to the plug firing twice as often.

I'm confident the waste spark design had nothing to do with your iridium plugs melting.

 

[Gillsy]

Exactly!

Years ago I pullled the plats out of my wife's 3800 Regal at 110,000. They had opened up .002, and they weren't rounded off. They do last!

 

[andyd]

The blue Camry SE has just turned 62K miles. I'm gonna price factory plugs. I bought I-4s for 2 reasons. One was plugs,

 

[Trav]

That article lost me at #1 - it can improve the acceleration profile of a vehicle. Didn't appear to get any better from there.

Depending on the ignition system and previous plugs that were installed this can be certainly true. No need to get lost by it, research what you don't know or understand. The acceleration profile does not necessarily mean faster in fact most plug manufacturers data sheets describe it as "smoother" acceleration which can be very noticeable with smaller engines in stick shift cars when initially letting up the clutch for example, the same thing is happening with a larger engine with an automatic it just isn't as noticable.

Putting a fine wire plug in OPE can really show a noticeable difference especcially in older models due to their flywheel magneto ignition systems.

 

[1978elcamino]

He needs some Cummins or Powerstroke plugs in that Chevy!

 

[dubber09]

I just changed original Iridium Denso plugs in daughter's car a week ago at 106k miles (170k km) and they looked decent, in went NGK Ruthenium plugs.
Also, many Iridium plugs have one of the electrodes in Platinum, FYI.