Irridium Plugs???

There are replacement plugs in Irridium that NGK offers in the same heat range/setup as the BR8ES

They are BR8EIX

Anybody try them? i'm curious...

Apparently they require a third less voltage to fire a even fatter/hotter spark.

I could use that...

My new Chevy came with "100,000 mile Irridium" plugs. They lasted about 25,000 miles. I replaced them with platinum plugs because nobody had the Iridiums. No difference in performance.

I worked 33 years as an electrical engineer and about ten of it was spent designing high voltage power supplies. That said, I have carefully read the "tech info" on the new irridiums as well as the claims. I think they are a good spark plug and I think they do last longer than standard plugs because of the characteristics of irridium itself (it doesn't burn away as fast from the sparks). I think they do absolutely nothing to improve performance. The reason is simple: if they did, the manufacturer could take new bikes and run dynos on the engines, install irridium plugs, and rerun them showing the increase in HP. Independent labs should also be able to do this, and bike makers would immediately switch to them as OEM parts for the increase in performance.

So far, all I have seen is inflated (and unsubstantiated) claims. I think they are a ripoff. And as for "fatter sparks", I have yet to see any reliable data showing that super duper sparks work any better than the bike's stock ignitions, providing it is working as designed. Again, if they did, the bike makers would be jumping on it. They do anything to squeeze an extra HP out of their bikes.

I think irridiums are a good idea in cars where you have to take half the engine off to change the spark plugs. Longer service life means less changes. On bikes, I don't see the point.

EDIT TO ADD:

Here is an example of what I was talking about for specious claims:

www.spark-plugs.co.uk/pages/technical/iridium_spark_plugs.htm

Iridium spark plug specifications and benefits
Relatively recent advances in fabrication techniques have enabled the use of Iridium - an incredibly hard precious metal, for the construction of spark plug electrodes. Laser technology is used to weld the Iridium tip to spark plugs manufactured by both Denso and NGK. It's worth noting that spark plugs can't increase the potential power that an engine can generate but a more efficient spark will provide more efficient combustion and associated performance and economy benefits. A poor spark from a worn or low grade spark plug will reduce efficiency. An Iridium plug will produce a more efficient spark.

This is a particularly noxious form of lie, namely the Half Truth. Yes, it is a fact that a poor, misfiring spark plug will cause a reduction in power and efficiency. However, note the scam they try to pull next when saying that this proves that the super duper spark from an irridium will "provide a more efficient spark".

More efficient than what? The misfiring standard plug which needs replacing or a properly running stock ignition system?

hence, my skepticism. I have seen no proof that these plugs increase performance over a properly tuned stock ignition. If they did, it would be easy to show on a dyno. It's BS.

Here is more of it:

Advantages of Iridium spark plug types

Due to the properties of Iridium, the spark plugs centre electrode can be made with a much smaller diameter than with platinum, Gold or gold palladium and copper/nickel types without sacrificing service life. The spark plugs potential difference is more concentrated at the tiny Iridium tip and hence less 'spark jump' voltage is required - this can be as much as 5,000 volts less than with standard plug types. Ignition is improved and less strain is placed on the ignition system.

BALONEY. The ignition system can handle open circuit voltages up to 50 kV or more, and doesn't care at all if the spark plug flashes over at 5kV or 10kV. Not only that, since the coil operates as a flyback transformer, it stores energy in the core when the points are closed and dump it into the secondary when the points open. The same energy is stored regardless of what secondary voltage it fires at. This really is pure gibberish and it is just inventing reasons you need to pay a whole lot for spark plugs.

Advantages of Iridium spark plug types

Benefits of improved ignition/combustion include better fuel economy, increased power/acceleration and especially better throttle response.

Same crap as before: improved ignition? Over what? If it is actually an improvement over the stock setup, let's see some new bikes from various makers run at independent labs on dynos with stock plugs and irridiums. Would be very easy to test this claim..... guess why they don't.

Found some "DATA" on spark plugs tested:

www.sparkplugs.com/sparkplug411.asp?kw=S...ults&mfid=0&KID=3147

It was done by a place that sells spark plugs. Go down on the left and click on: Spark Plug Dyno Results

I can't get the image to copy, but one thing I noticed: the performance between the NGK Laser Platinum, NGK Iridium, and Denso Irridium are indistinguishable and within envelope of test error. You have a measured HP of 203.4 (lowest average) to 204.0 (highest average). That is a difference of about one quarter of one percent between the best irridum plug and their platinum plug.

Another data point:

www.carbibles.com/productreviews_pulstar.html

With the Pulstar plugs, the average gas-mileage went down slightly over the course of the test. This bears out similar reports from other group tests of these spark plugs published elsewhere on the web.

Horsepower did go up but only slightly using the testing method here. As I said above, it's not the absolute value that is important - it's the difference between the before and after figures. In this case half a horsepower equates to about 0.4% difference. Any sort of dyno testing whether it be rolling road or dynamic in-car testing like this will typically have an error tolerance of about 5% so the difference in horsepower results in this case is negligible.


I rated the plugs as 2 stars because they're good quality plugs and make fine replacements for anything you might have in your engine right now. But they simply do not live up to the claims made in the advertising.

Good job on the investigative expose' of exaggerated spark plug claims, bountyhunter. I think I'll stay with my standard NGK B7ES'.

On most 4-cycle engines, there's not much benefit from either the platinum or Iridium plugs.

I found running platinum plugs in a 2-cycle engine does seem to reduce fouling.

My car (Nissan) still has the factory original, ho-hum plugs. They have 200,000 miles on them. But I'm planning on replacing them as soon as possible, along with the original wires, cap, and rotor

I've tried the Bosch platinums in a few cars and had nothing but problems. Not with fouling, but they simply stopped sparking. Seems the cheap NGK's work the best for me. Hell, in my old Dodge, the Bosch platinums barely made it a couple years, but the Champions went over 100,000 miles.

As Bountyhunter stated. The spark plug material is for longer lasting, not performance. My Nissan Frontier came with platinum, supposedely for 100,000 miles, yet it's got 50,000 miles now and idle is not as smooth as it used to be.

Because changing or cleaning spark plugs on a V6 can be a pain (Passenger side plug looks like mission impossible, in my case), it does make sense long lasting plugs.

In a inline four cyl bike, changing plugs is a breeze, therefore I prefer the inexpensive short lasting plugs, and I get to change or clean them more often, which is rather entertaining to me, plus lets me see how my engine is doing. It is like a physical exam to a human animal.

I just brought a honda Del Sol back to life that was wasting away on the side of my garage. After about 10 man hours of cleaning, we changed the rad, battery,air filter, and spark plugs (to BOSCH PLATINUM) in about 25 mins. IT seems I had more luck with the car than my bikes.

Anyways, I did notice that the car idles at 200 rpms lower, however, with all of the variables that changed who knows what difference the plugs made.

I will say that the original NGK's (that looked worse for wear) were still sparking after 172,000km's and sitting for 2 years.

Never heard anyone with any real claim to knowing much say one kind of plug would "perform better" than another when new. "Splitfires"....now that was the REAL joke. Talk about BS claims. The difference between standard, gold-palladium, platinum and irridium plugs is nothing more than how long the electrodes hold-up to wear.

As for Bosch plugs? LMAO!! As a professional auto mechanic, my thoughts on those, platinum or otherwise, was like my opinion of Champions: I wouldn't screw those shitty things into the ground. The fact that Autozone claimed Bosch Platinums were "the best" only proved my point, since I avoid any parts from there like the plague.

I tend to buy the more-expensive plugs for my bikes because plugs in-general tend to wear-out much faster in my air-cooled, high-compression machines...

NGK OR ........

This is what I switched to. They are fantastic.
nology.com/silver.html