Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
At the risk of be risk of being attacked, I think folks get a bit anal about gaps. I have see plenty of Iridium and Platinum plugs that operate just fine near the end of their service life with gaps that are 50% larger than the factory recommended gap. The recommended gap is the starting point. The manufacturer knows this gap will grow with time. In the case of GM, the service life of an Iridium plug is 100,000 miles. The plug starts out with a gap of 0.044. By the time 100,000 miles go by, that gap will be as much as 0.060. When you change the plugs there will usually be no noticeable change in performance.
The engine will not know the difference between a 0.032 and a 0.040 gap. Theoretically there will be a slight energy difference but in the real world you wouldn't be able to notice.
I notice a difference in MPG's. It takes a huge dive down, which gets costly, more than the cost of replacing plugs. Manufacturers know about the growth in gap, due to electrode wear, that's why they mostly stopped using nickel alloy plugs with standard ground electrodes and transitioned over to precious metal alloy tipped center electrode and ground electrode, to keep the gap as constant as possible throughout the plug's service life.
Then there is the strain on the ignition coils, which VAG coils produced by Bosch are already fragile as it is.
Some engines may be less sensitive to spark plug gaps.
Also, gap of the plugs affect nitration, according to Terry Dyson.
If there was a Laser Iridium equivalent for the BKR7EIX, I would get them. Denso VK22's are not available in the US, which the Laser Iridium and Denso V-series have a platinum disc on the ground electrode.
I've also noticed a difference in the power delivery switching from the Laser Platinum (stock plugs) to the BKR7EIX plugs.