Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Its been at least 30k since I last changed spark plugs so I'm doing some research to see if swapping to platinum and/or iridium plugs are worthwhile.

The suzuki worldwide catalogue says to use either NGK BK6E or ND K20P-U as standard plugs.

NGK say to use BKR6E and Bosch spits out FR7DC+

All these standard plugs are about the same price ~$5.
I think there is no difference between the BK6E and the BKR6E.

There is also the Bosch FR7DP platinum plugs at ~$7 each.

At the pricey end are the NGK BKR6EIX iridiums and the Bosch F1-4 platinum/iridium fusion. They are around the $25 mark.



Has anyone found any particular benefit to using the super expensive iridiums or the more reasonable Bosch platinums?

Also I found a suzuki TSB (TS404R) that said the bosch plugs were no longer used. Anyone care to guess the reason behind that?

Cheers

For non-peformance engines like the G16B, especially when its naturally aspirated, theres not a lot of point to using expensive sparkplugs. The normal range of plugs are more than good enough to get a good burn in the cylinders. Its mainly in forced induction applications is where you want decent plugs with a good driving unit, to get a decent solid spark to ignite the fuel mix and not blow out.

Platinum and iridium plugs are used because they last alot longer before you have to swap them about 100,000kms. Copper actually lets current flow easier and i've even seen silver spark plugs and they are slightly better again but they wear out even faster than the copper ones. I'd stick to the copper ones. You could cut them back so the face of the spark is going straight into cylinder but they will wear out very fast doing that.

Kitika wrote:Platinum and iridium plugs are used because they last alot longer before you have to swap them about 100,000kms. Copper actually lets current flow easier and i've even seen silver spark plugs and they are slightly better again but they wear out even faster than the copper ones. I'd stick to the copper ones.

I thought that all plugs are cooper cored and its just the electrode that changes. Nickel for standard and platinum/iridium for the dear ones.
Oh well, either way, I can see the argument for high service life plugs on modern engines. You have to remove a lot of gear from the engine of my V6 camry to get to the plugs in the rear bank. I wouldn't want to be doing that every 40k. Given the relative ease of changing plugs in the zook and the high cost of iridium plugs I reakon I'll stick with the cheepies.

I did find one interesting reference where a guy said that platinum plugs require a larger gap to get the same voltage spark and that not running the larger gap is a reason why people were complaining about reduced power on platinum plugs. However this was in the context of performance engines so it matches up with PJ.zook comments.

i prefer the ngk brand over the bosch