Iridium Spark Plugs

Message

mrapriliafalco · #1 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Sat May 09, 2009 12:36 pm

Is there any point in shelling out on Iridium Spark Plugs at £56 when the NGK High Performance are only £16.80.
Its a hell of a difference!!!!!

fastasfcuk · #2 Post by **fastasfcuk** » Sat May 09, 2009 1:51 pm

iridium's will last at least 3 times longer than a standard plug so they can work out cheaper.

Falken · #3 Post by **Falken** » Sat May 09, 2009 2:57 pm

Think NGK Iridium are only about £6 each on Fleabay.

EdinburghFalco · #4 Post by **EdinburghFalco** » Sat May 09, 2009 10:10 pm

Yeah I got Iridium for way less than that on flea bay and I think I am getting slightly better mpg with them and maybe a better response from the throttle, but that could all just be in my mind

Aladinsaneuk · #5 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Sat May 09, 2009 10:37 pm

having dissed these for a long time i am getting close to trying them....

anyone know what the difference is between the ngk and densos are in real terms?

i rarely see densos on evil bay and want to know if there is a difference

Falco9 · #6 Post by **Falco9** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:54 am

Aladinsaneuk wrote:having dissed these for a long time i am getting close to trying them....

anyone know what the difference is between the ngk and densos are in real terms?

i rarely see densos on evil bay and want to know if there is a difference

Hi M8, I've got the Denso's fitted to the Tuono and they are no different to the NGK's I had on the Falco (I appreciate it's a different motor etc..) They still provide (for me at least) Instant starting, nice steady tick over and instant pull (just like the std plugs did (lol))

Just be careful on the E-bay Denso's, as the Tuono plugs (and probably the Falco ones) are also suitable for cars and as such have the thicker plug top moulded as standard as opposed to the bit you can unscrew on most NGK's. These will fit the std Aprilia plug leads and caps but may not fit any aftermarket ones.

IMHO on a good well serviced motor you will not notice any difference on the actual running of the bike. The bike does start easier and idles nicely but actual riding? I can't feel any difference personally. The makers claim an improvement and maybe a dyno could spot a "before & after" improvement. But "seat of the pants" feel? for me its the same.

Still bl**dy fantastic every time!

F9

D-Rider · #7 Post by **D-Rider** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:43 am

The NGKs have a 0.6mm centre electrode whereas the DENSOs have a 0.4mm centre electrode.

For the DENSO plugs this requires a lower voltage to create a spark - working better in marginal situations.

BTW you may be wondering why DENSO always has to be written in capitals.
We used to be called Nippondenso (it translates as Japan Electric) but the company wanted to give a more global image and drop the Nippon part of the name. There is another company called Denso - so the legal agreement was that we could be called DENSO if we always wrote the name in capitals.

shootmyscoot · #8 Post by **shootmyscoot** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:11 pm

try sparkplugs.co.uk

they do ngk and DENSO lol

sms

Aladinsaneuk · #9 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:52 pm

so without any bias, the denso plugs would be the ones to go for - sorry - DENSO....

and excuse me greybeard san - but exactly which ones for the falco???

D-Rider · #10 Post by **D-Rider** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:13 am

As to which ones are the best to go for - well who knows?

Theoretically the DENSO ones should be better in the marginal situations that the NGK ones might struggle with.
Depends on price and how often you think you are going to encounter those conditions.
I dare say that somewhere in the company there are back to back comparisons produced from test comparisons - but I don't have contacts in that division of the company and they'd all be written in Japanese anyway.

If you go for the DENSOs, the ones you are after are IXU27.

Don't know whether you spotted this that I posted in a different thread a week ago:

D-Rider wrote:NGK's Iridium plug that is spec'd for the Falco is the DCPR9EIX
Of course there's also the DENSO IXU27 (I've been running these for the past year)

The following is an interesting comparison between the DENSO and NGK plugs (and it's probably a bit more independent than me re. DENSO products)

http://www.spark-plugs.co.uk/pages/tech ... _plugs.htm

TwinNut · #11 Post by **TwinNut** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:20 am

shootmyscoot · #12 Post by **shootmyscoot** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:03 pm

cheapest place i know

sms

mrapriliafalco · #13 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:21 pm

the changing of the plugs is not to hard then,someone with not much experience should be able to cope with.
Can you tighten without the use of a toque wrench

Aladinsaneuk · #14 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:22 pm

should be finger tight only i thought?

and... a point re these plugs

if they are so good - then the enduro racers and other long haul folks would be using them.....

D-Rider · #15 Post by **D-Rider** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:51 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:should be finger tight only i thought?

and... a point re these plugs

if they are so good - then the enduro racers and other long haul folks would be using them.....

Assuming you mean Endurance (though the answer is similar for Enduro) ....
Don't see why - that's hardly long distance in plug terms and the engines will be stripped and rebuilt anyway between rounds - so fitting new plugs at every rebuild will be routine.

I did discuss the benefits of iridiums with a bike riding colleague (who happens to be the General Manager in charge of our Engine Management department). His view is that for well designed engines, combustion is not likely to be greatly improved by using Iridium plugs.
However, for engines that have less optimum combustion characteristics then they will bring benefits.
This combined with the long lifetime (fit and forget) and better sparking with marginal battery conditions certainly gives real-world benefit.

I wonder how optimal the Rotax combustion is - I don't know. What I do know is that the usual reason for twin plug heads is to improve combustion.