Iridium vs. Platinum 06 Tacoma

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Thinking about replacing the OEM plugs in my 06 Tacoma ( 4.0 V-6). For those of your out there with this engine what have you noticed works best, Iridium or Platinum? I realize iridiums will last longer, but I have heard a few stories of iridium plugs causing driveability issues. Your opinions are appreciated!
 
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I have Laser Iridiums in my Santa Fe and they are awesome and last the full 100K KM (60K Miles). Use them with confidence.
 
I don't know if this is the problem, but I went to buy a set of 6 for my Dakota (autolite iridiums) - and really look carefully at the electrode and the ground. two of the six had ground terminal quite grossly out of spec. Use a gapping tool, and a feeler guage
and carefully bend the ground electrode so the little bit of platinum on the ground lines up perfectly with the iridium electrode, and carefully bend it so the gap is perfectly uniform between plugs. i am sure this is what the stories have to do with, people just buying them, being told you cannot gap an iridium plug, they come pre gapped etc, slapping them in, and then not working as advertised. I really like iridium plugs, and they always work perfectly for me. So do platinum plugs too, they all work perfectly, because I pay very careful attention to the alignment of the gap, BEFORE putting them in. Sometimes, I can spend half an hour or 45 minutes on a set of six, before I'm happy, and no mechanic EVER does anything close to that. If it is a pain in the rear installing, then buy the long life iridiums, autolite last for 100,000 miles, so do Champions, and I think NGK also has a long life iridium. All will work equally well if you gap them properly.
 
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I put Autolite Iridium plugs in my Mercury 4.6 V8 over a year ago and so far they are doing just fine. Maybe 25,000 miles and the engine is very smooth.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
I put Autolite Iridium plugs in my Mercury 4.6 V8 over a year ago and so far they are doing just fine. Maybe 25,000 miles and the engine is very smooth.


I have the same engine in my Town Car. Everyone is always saying to use the copper plugs over the Platinums. Do you think the Iridiums are the best out of all of them?
 
Your spark plug wire uses a graphite (carbon) conductor. Having copper in a spark plug makes absolutely no difference to the final product (a spark) as opposed to iridium or platinum. Platinum just holds up better due to superior physical properties, and the iridium makes a nicer spark due to the very fine wire. I replaced the copper plugs in my Mitsubishi Mirage, the plugs actually looked quite good when I pulled them, and replaced them with NGK iridium, BECAUSE THE ENGINE WAS QUITTING AND STALLING with the copper. The iridium made the engine run perfectly.
 
Might find this of interest....






About 50 million years ago an asteroid crashed into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. What was left behind is a layer of Iridium-rich clay all over the world.
They should have left the Iridium buried!

STOP playing around with spark plugs that feature Iridium electrodes, Platinum electrodes, Copper electrodes, fine wire electrodes, split electrodes, ring electrodes or multiple electrodes and get serious with silver electrodes! Silver is the best electrical and thermal conductor of any metal. This makes Nology Silver™ the best spark plugs in the world. Period!

Silver Center Electrode
More Spark Power
Deliver the Most Powerful Spark
Increased Horsepower
Cleaner Combustion
Long Lasting
Race Proven Design
Top Quality Materials
What about Iridium Spark Plugs?
Iridium is a super dense material and therefore extremely resistant to wear. That's it! It is a terrible thermal conductor and a bad electrical conductor, so why would anyone use it to make a spark plug center electrode? Since car manufacturers have to guaranty that their engines stay in-tune for up to 100,000 miles, they can only achieve this with ultra dense Iridium or Platinum.
Nology Silver spark plugs are especially designed for high-performance engines. Silver is the best electrical and thermal conductor of any metal, which makes it the ultimate material for a spark plug's center electrode. The large diameter silver center electrode increases spark carrying ability and spark power. Silver is extremely resistant to erosion, guaranteeing a virtually unchanged electrode gap for the life of the spark plug. Most Nology Silver spark plugs are without a resistor, perfect for performance enthusiasts who demand the most from their engines. For racing or dependability and efficiency for everyday use, Nology Silver spark plugs deliver the most powerful spark.

Properties of Materials
Material Thermal Conductivity W/(m•K) Electrical Conductivity MS/m
Silver 407 66
Copper 384 57
Gold 310 45
Iridium 147 18
Platinum 70 10
Nickel 59 10


If you're not using Nology Silver™, you're not going as fast as you could be.


A Better Spark Plug:
Spark plugs are the subject of much controversy. In comparison to internal combustion engines and their management systems, spark plugs have hardly been evolved much. Malfunctions still occur, but they are not as noticeable anymore mainly because of improved ambient conditions. At least one of the three most important spark plug properties efficiency, durability, and heatrange have to be sacrificed in order to increase or emphasize one of these characteristics.

For high performance or racing applications, an efficient spark plug is needed. Such a spark plug operates optimally only within a narrow heatrange, without any consideration for durability. This is not a good spark plug for street automobiles; as a wide heatrange is essential to assure good drivability under all temperature conditions. Heatrange latitude of standard low cost spark plugs for passenger cars has improved, but with major trade-offs. They are designed to offer a wide heatrange only, without any consideration for efficiency. The ignition system has to compensate for low spark plug efficiency and wide spark plug gap caused by wear.

Original equipment spark plugs offer a wide heatrange and high durability to increase spark plug change intervals. These are the least efficient spark plugs. In order to reduce wear, erosion resistant materials and suppressor resistors are used, considerably sacrificing spark plug efficiency. The correct relationship between efficiency, durability and heatrange is important and has to be considered over the entire life of the spark plug. A functional combination of these properties is possible, it is only a matter of technology and materials used.

When reading spark plug advertisements, one can get the impression that small diameter center electrodes, uniquely shaped electrodes, or built-in resistors are the best. Think again. A RESISTOR is exactly what the word implies. When the spark crosses the point of resistance much of the spark energy is lost. A resistor is like an electronic obstacle and could be the cause for a weak spark. Due to manufacturing tolerances and lack of quality control, even non-resistor spark plugs often have a resistance of 10, 100 or even 1000 Ohms. Always check spark plugs for resistance before use.

What about electrode shape? Spark plug manufacturers will tell you that a small diameter center electrode makes it easier for the spark to jump the electrode gap. This is true, but what they are not saying is that such a spark is also weaker, since it takes a lower voltage to jump the gap. A spark jumps the electrode gap when the voltage at the electrodes reaches the ionization point, since the ionization point, (voltage needed to jump the gap), is lower when a small diameter center electrode is utilized, spark voltage is also lower - exactly what a performance orientated consumer doesn't want.

Nology Silver are designed for modern high performance engines and are the only spark plugs that optimally incorporate all desired properties. The most important decision when building spark plugs is what materials to use. Not the electrode shape. The more than 80 year old original design is still the most successful and widely used.

Silver is the best electrical and thermal conductor of any metal, and therefore the best material for the center electrode. In managing the ever changing combustion chamber temperatures, caused by different engine and load conditions, silver is unsurpassed. To prevent plug fouling, optimum operating temperature is reached shortly after start up, yet under full throttle, when things really start to get hot, heat is dissipated rapidly. Silver provides the widest heatrange latitude. As the best electrical conductor, silver assures that the spark encounters the least resistance and virtually no spark energy is lost. Unlike conventional electrode materials, silver delivers the most powerful spark possible and therefore guarantees combustion initiation. The large diameter silver center electrode increases spark carrying ability and with it spark power. Silver is extremely resistant to erosion, guaranteeing a virtually unchanged electrode gap for the life of the spark plug. This greatly extends change intervals. Nology Silver is the most efficient, durable and thermally adaptable spark plug available and delivers the most powerful spark.

If it is a racing plug you are looking for, or a dependable and efficient spark plug for everyday street use, Nology Silver is the one for you.




Home Performance Fuel Tech Nology Silver :
 
this is just NOLOGY SPAM - administrator please remove, NOLOGY is basically like Snake Oil, it does not deliver the most "dependable and efficient spark", just delivers the most profits for the NOLOGY CEO that depends on people being dumb enough to fall for the phony sales pitch.

Your spark plug wire has a carbon core. putting a little bit of silver on the end will make absolutely no difference, except that it will make ur wallet much lighter. the best plugs, by test, are iridiums. do not believe the above b.s., administrator please remove this spam.
 
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Maybe this one is better....

Resistivity
Is Gold the best conducting metal?
Gold is not the most conductive metal. That spot is reserved for silver, which has the advantage of costing less, but the disadvantage of being more prone to surface corrosion than gold.

For more information, try “Electrical_conductor” at Wikipedia.

The electrical conductivity of all elements can be found by clicking on the Periodic Table at “EnvironmentalChemistry”. This includes:

Silver (Ag) 63,010,000 /ohm.m

Copper (Cu) 59,610,000 /ohm.m

Gold (Au) 45,210,000 /ohm.m

Platinum (Pt) 9,661,000 /ohm.m

Seed Expert Tom Lough adds that "best conducting metal" should include a temperature specification, because conductivity changes with temperature - see Resistivity and Temperature Coefficients at “Hyperphysics” (conductivity is the inverse of resistivity).

In addition, some materials become superconducting at temperatures approaching absolute zero, in which case they behave as a "perfect" conductor, with no measurable loss of electricity.
.
 
Who knows???? The point I am making is if you plugs are easy to change like in my Honda Accord I use the standard copper spark plug and change it every 40 thou or so....
 
ROFL at the Nology marketing B S. They are so good at it that it's entertaining.
 
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I agree with scoobie, buy a good set of iridium plugs and spend a good amount of quality time gapping them.
 
The reason platinum and iridium are used as electrodes are their resistance to erosion. It has nothing to do with conductivity.

The only reason platinum is better than a copper/graphite plug is the service life of the plug as [being more resistant to erosion] it will stay in spec longer. Iridium is even better because a thinner wire can be used and have the same resistance to erosion as platinum, but with less metal between the spark/flame kernel and the combustion chamber resulting in a more uniform flame front.

For emissions reasons, most Toyotas come from the factory with iridium plugs and that is stamped on the valve cover. Toyota certainly wouldn't use an 8 dollar plug where a 60 cent plug would suffice.

The silver spark plug posts are spam advertisements, and a joke at that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but pasting an ad into a post is garbage.
 
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Originally Posted By: Art_Vandelay
Originally Posted By: tig1
I put Autolite Iridium plugs in my Mercury 4.6 V8 over a year ago and so far they are doing just fine. Maybe 25,000 miles and the engine is very smooth.


I have the same engine in my Town Car. Everyone is always saying to use the copper plugs over the Platinums. Do you think the Iridiums are the best out of all of them?



I've used conventional, platinum, and now iridums plugs and the Auto Lite Iridiums seem to be as smooyh are smoother than the others. O'Reilleys Parts said that is the plug that they are recomending for that engine now. My Merc GM now has 214,000 miles on, so we will see how they hold up.
 
Eddie, yes you got that right. The copper is in the core of the plug and is there for its heat transfer properties. The electrodes are steel. The properties of soft iron or iron alloys are favorable to making a spark.

Platinum plugs have copper cores. Iridium plugs have copper cores.

Ed
 
NGK V-power are excellent for your towncar. I had 3 and now only have 2 (2) 1995 sig series tcs', and (1)1993 cartier tc. This is an excellent plug not only for the money, but the overall efficiency!! NGK TR55 (Advance Auto Parts). I CHANGE THEM EVERY 15-20,000 miles.
 
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