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From: M. Balmer on 23 Sep 2009 22:56



About a week before installing them I was watching some hot rod tv
show where they were testing OEM vs, Iridium spark plugs in a
performance engine with various lab test equipment.
The results showed not only a 4 horsepower gain (in a 350hp engine
though), but also a very slight (.07%) increase in fuel economy.
They then showed the difference in spark the two plugs make...the
Iridium plug was much brighter and had a much thicker spark than the
OEM plugs.



So they glow brighter and in a 150 hp 4 cyl you'd see a 2 hp gain? This
reminds me of teenage boys comparing a certain part of the male anatomy and
one crowing because his was 2mm longer. I think I will stick with the $3.00
dealer plugs. Let's see. What do those cost per mile over a 30,000 mile
change interval? Good luck getting those Iridium "glow plugs" out after
they've been in for 50,000 miles or longer -anti seize or not.

you don't have one of these, do you?
http://www.vorteccyclone.com/index.html


From: studio on 24 Sep 2009 22:48
On Sep 23, 10:56 pm, "M. Balmer" <boogerpic...(a)wazoo.net> wrote:
> So they glow brighter and in a 150 hp 4 cyl you'd see a 2 hp gain? This
> reminds me of teenage boys comparing a certain part of the male anatomy and
> one crowing because his was 2mm longer. I think I will stick with the $3.00
> dealer plugs. Let's see. What do those cost per mile over a 30,000 mile
> change interval? Good luck getting those  Iridium "glow plugs" out after
> they've been in for 50,000 miles or longer -anti seize or not.
>
> you don't have one of these, do you?http://www.vorteccyclone.com/index.html

lol...nope, don't have or believe in cyclone thingy's.

The Iridium plugs are designed to last 100,000 miles.
And I don't believe I'll have any problems removing them at that
point. I've dealt with tough plugs before.

The OEM plugs will work just fine. Indeed the ones I removed were in
perfect condition for the time they were in.
Like I said twice before, I was a skeptic of plugs touting they could
do so much....but I'm not a skeptic anymore, and neither are a growing
amount of professional mechanics.
From: studio on 24 Sep 2009 22:53
On Sep 23, 8:02 pm, cl...(a)snyder.on.ca wrote:
> I put Iridiums in my Chrysler PT Cruiser - and a couple months later I
> developed a #1 misfire at idle.. I ruled out plug wires and coils by
> switching them, and figured I'd switch plugs between #1 and #4 to see
> if the misfire followed the plug.
>
> Misfire went away.
>
> It appears ONE of the plugs wasn't happy firing "backwards".

Strange that it would develop an unhappiness months later. Or that one
plug would be unhappy and the other not.
Sounds more like a faulty wire connection problem to me.

> That's the only experience I've had with Iridium or "fine wire" plugs
> in the last 20 odd years.

Did you check your gas mileage at all, or notice any other
improvements?

From: M. Balmer on 24 Sep 2009 23:20

Well I must be a traditionalist. I have 153M on my 98 (auto) 4x4. I got
150M on my original oxy sensors (only changed them because they were old!)
and CV boots. Have always used Toy oil filters, plugs and that pink coolant.
Getting 20mpg even though the gov says it's a clunker. Plan on keeping it
another 12 years. The original seat fabric is starting to wear a little
thin; other than that it looks like new. Oh yeah; no body rust either. Of
course our 7" of annual precip (all rain) helps too.


From: clare on 25 Sep 2009 11:13
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:53:31 -0700 (PDT), studio <tlack(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Sep 23, 8:02 pm, cl...(a)snyder.on.ca wrote:
>> I put Iridiums in my Chrysler PT Cruiser - and a couple months later I
>> developed a #1 misfire at idle.. I ruled out plug wires and coils by
>> switching them, and figured I'd switch plugs between #1 and #4 to see
>> if the misfire followed the plug.
>>
>> Misfire went away.
>>
>> It appears ONE of the plugs wasn't happy firing "backwards".
>
>Strange that it would develop an unhappiness months later. Or that one
>plug would be unhappy and the other not.
>Sounds more like a faulty wire connection problem to me.
>
>> That's the only experience I've had with Iridium or "fine wire" plugs
>> in the last 20 odd years.
>
>Did you check your gas mileage at all, or notice any other
>improvements?
Definitely not a wire or connection problem - and I've been a licenced
mechanic since 1971 - wrenching since I was 15 in 1968.
The misfire was getting progressively worse. When I first noticed it,
there were not even any "incipient" codes registered on the ECU.
When I decided to really dig into it was after it misfired regularly
enough to actually set the code and turn on the CEL.
The misfire only occured under 1500 RMP and basically under 1200 - at
or just off idle in gear only. If I reset the ECU and drove down the
highway there was no misfire detected - so I doubt there was MUCH
effect on mileage.
Spark plugs can be strange - years ago in the days of leaded high
sulphur fuel we had lots of trouble with plugs "glazing" - a light
yellow-green glaze would build up oin the insulator cone that was a
semi-conductor and under certain conditions would short out.
The coating was Lead Sulphide - otherwise known as Galena

I suspect there was something similar going on with these plugs,
although there is no lead in Canadian motor fuel any more. Sulphur
levels are getting much lower now too - but PERHAPS I may have put
some aged 2 stroke fuel into the tank in low quantities that was
mixed from 100LL AvGAs. It would have only been a couple of liters at
most of 50:1 in 50 liters of unleaded regular so I doubt that was the
mechanism involved - and the insulators looked PERFECTLY clean.

At any rate, one plug either shorted or would not fire when reverse
polarized.

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