SPARK PLUGS • • • AGAIN

[neoracer]

beware that the major manufacturers spend alot of time developing a spark plug with the correct heat range for applications and i would doubt that a startup company would do the same
using a wrong plug can result in poor performance and sometime engine damage
i'd stick with ngk's myself,they seem to have the market covered with honda motorcycles,but that's mho

[garyft]

Splitfire is as much marketing gimmick as technology improvement. The new E3 plug actually shows measurable improvement on a dyno from what I can gather looking at a few sources. However, they don't make a plug for our Wings.

[Granpah]

According to the Splitfire company itself, their big "innovation" was changing the shape of the electrode, split into two branches:

Then the rest of it is coating the Splitfire's electrode with a thin layer of expensive metal (like gold or platinum) plating -- or not. Reviews are mixed, with most of them luke warm. One detractor pointed out that no matter what the shape of the electrode, each ignition gets ONE spark ... lightning strikes only once per explosion :d .

As for me and a few other Wingers here (discussed in detail above, in earlier posts), we've sworn by the NGK iridium plugs (with an opposite shape of electrodes (tapering to a point) to the Splitfire


that seem to produce a better spark and also lasts much longer. :YMHUG:

[dkrider]

Ok, ya sold me. I'll give the NGK Iridium's a shot. I looked at the pic, man, that's a tiny tip! I have NGK's in her now, same one's that were in her when I bought the bike, just took a wire brush to them, and they work, but they look old and worn. Couldn't hurt, right?
:-J

[Granpah]

Don't worry about the tiny tip ... it's the repeatedly high voltage and consistency of each spark that's important. Plus the best plugs are made out of material with a very high melting point ... hence the iridium alloy.

You can buy the NGK IRIDIUM DPR8EIX-9 for GL1200 GOLDWING at $7.40 apiece on Amazon.com, or on eBay for about the same price ... BUT

I think Amazon.com sets a standard shipping cost while some eBay Sellers add "padding" hock: to shipping costs.

[garyft]

Notice how the electrode and strap on a new plug has lots of right angles. A spark jumps "easier" from a sharp angle than a rounded edge. If you look at a set of plugs that have been in use a while, they will likely have an electrode that looks like a dome, much less effective a surface for getting a good, strong spark.

[Granpah]

Notice how the electrode and strap on a new plug has lots of right angles. A spark jumps "easier" from a sharp angle than a rounded edge. If you look at a set of plugs that have been in use a while, they will likely have an electrode that looks like a dome, much less effective a surface for getting a good, strong spark.

I agree 100% with you Gary.

Getting back to why NGK made the core ( charging) electrode in their iridium plugs pointy ... gets back to a debate that began in Benjamin Franklin's time: should the end of a lightning rod have a sharp point or sphere? Believe it or not, this was only scientifically settled in 2003!

Getting back to the iridium plug, according to AA1Car.Com : "Every time a spark plug fires, the hot spark blasts a few molecules of metal off the electrodes. As the miles add up, the electrode gap widens and the center electrode becomes rounded and dull. This increases the firing voltage needed to jump the gap. Eventually the point is reached where the ignition system can't generate enough juice to jump the gap, causing the plug to misfire."

With very small gap distances, pointy edges (or right angles as Gary wrote) allows a high voltage bunch of electrons to suddenly "boil" off and jump across the gap (spark) to the grounding electrode. The lightning rod people eventually found the opposite to be true because it is the build up of ionized air particles at the tip of a grounded lightning rod that attracts the far distant high voltage bolt from the blue. So the bigger the area at the tip of a lightning rod (that is, a sphere) the higher is the concentration of charged particles located there to attract a lightning strike (AWAY from the roof !). Franklin couldn't have known any of this ... making his lightning rod invention based on pure intuition something of a miracle.

NGK engineers developed the Iridium plug by applying two main principles: iridium has a MUCH higher "evaporation" temperature than nickel-iron (earlier used for plugs), so the electrodes are more stable and last a lot, lot longer (so do more expensive platinum and gold coated electrodes in those plugs). Plus they made the center, high voltage charging electrode pointy and the grounding (outer) electrode tapered to more narrowly focus and concentrate the spark. And ... it works!

As soon as I switched to iridium plugs, ignition was crisper, performance was better, and I haven't had to look in on them in over two years ! :d

[wildhorse]

Just purchased my first set of NGK iridiums, will install in the morning. Hopefully these will help in raising my fuel mileage back up, last check I was only getting 30 mpg... A lot lower than it should be getting.

[joe turner]

I tried iridium plugs and only got about 5,000 kl out of them and I had two cylinders missing. I went back to regular NGKs and this is my second season with them. I think I will stick with the regular NGK.

Mine went 20,000 running cheep champion now,will change next spring .

[Granpah]

MY LAST WORD ON SUBJECT



Rather than go on and on, I looked for a definitive article by an impartial automotive engineer who ... as it turns out ... designs and modifies high performance engines for racing. So read what he has to say about iridium plugs, and then there are two choices left: 1) take it, or 2) leave it. :YMHUG:

Switching to Iridium Spark Plugs
Eliminate misfiring by upgrading to Iridium spark plugs
by Leonard Emanuelson


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: By the way, in Canada

Club Plug CDN sells iridium plugs for about CDN$ 10 each (free shipping)

while

Stateside a set of four (4 ) New NGK Iridium IX Spark Plugs Honda GL1200 1984 1985 1986 1987 via eBay
goes for about US $32.80 PLUS $23.25 shipping to Canada comes out to $14 per plug.

So buying them from Club Plug CDN can save you about $5 per plug or $20 per set. Wow!

NOW THEN, yes indeed, the iridium plugs cost about double the OEM variery, BUT the iridium burns at least four times as long as the conventional plugs. Plus, as the above article confirms, whether low end or high end engine performance is the issue, the iridium plugs are the most effective under ALL combustion conditions.

Why some who posted above had various problems with iridium plugs, who can say? Certainly in my case, I've been running a set of iridiums in my GL1200 for over three years and 8-10K miles, but they perform now just like the day I first screwed them in.

[SIR tricky]

I am not a fan of the stock plug by any means, even though gasoline has changed over the years, I think Honda knows something when they recommend changing the plugs every 4000 miles... yes, unless it is a misprint

After one year in the engine I do notice a definite mis-firing on start up with the recommended NGK plug.

I do get excellent mileage on my bike compared to some others.

I havnt tried using iridium plugs..... yet.

The article is about really high performance engines so it might or might not be relevant in the plodding 1200 engine... I did say MIGHT or MIGHT NOT

When I am on the bike I am not riding like I am first out of the gate.

Will the price of the plug give me enough in fuel economy to justify the extra cost?

Remember I am in Canada where we get reamed for costs of shipping etc etc and by the local auto parts stores, prices at NAPA in Canada are almost 20-50% higher than in the US etc. eg $8.50 for a fuel filter compared to $3.50 in the US.

Probably the same will apply to iridium plugs no doubt