Iridium Plugs,not worth the money!

[xlewisbdx]

Besides, from what I can see on ebay the prices between sets of standard & Iridium plugs are fairly similar

This. I paid £30 for mine delivered.

[JoeRock]

[quote author=kebab19 link=topic=2610.msg20194#msg20194 date=1334574545]
I thought Iridium plugs lasted about 4 times longer(?), therefore saving money in the longer term.

Besides, from what I can see on ebay the prices between sets of standard & Iridium plugs are fairly similar

I'd rather change cheaper spark plugs every 24000 kms, than use 3 times more expensive ones and change them every 80000 kms.
[/quote]

As they're nowhere near 3 times as expensive, that seems a tad silly  :lol

[Slaninar]

As they're nowhere near 3 times as expensive, that seems a tad silly  :lol

Used to be in Serbia and at the time that post was made.

I see at Louis.de it's around twice the price.  Even less. 9e for regular, 15 for iridium.  Since regular ones last around 20+ thousand kilometres, which is 2 to 3 seasons for me, I'd still rather use the regular ones.

[unfazed]

I have been using them for years. I noticed that the bikes runs and starts better with them in and they last longer. Replaced the originals at 12000 miles with CR8EIXs and just put in a second set a week ago at 74000 miles. Going to put them in the 400 and 1000 this weekend.

[Anarch]

I remember one comparision an old mechanic told me - you can spend 10 minutes trying to scoop out every last drop of your soup from your bowl - but is it really worth it ?

I didn't buy them because they increase the bhp - they probably don't, or you won't notice it.
I bought them because they seem to be a bit more reliable and never had a problem with them. Plus I feel good about getting the best possible stuff for the bike.

[Mark YPVS]

I fitted these to mt Fazer 600 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110823536730?s...1439.l2649 .
My old Rd350N (2 stroke) dosent like them but the Fazers fine :lol
Mark

[bozboz]

The benefit of iridium is because the electrode is smaller you get a stronger more reliable spark than on a standard plug and they last longer.

Well a spark is a spark, Ive certainly never had an 'unreliable' spark caused by a plug after 200k in the last 4years using normal NGKs. In terms of them lasting longer, Ive never had a spark of normal type fail on me. Ever. Before I was despatching/saving my pennies I had IRs fitted to my cbr600 but that had everything done to it (full ex system, power commder, etc...) so I can't say they did much.

I remember one comparision an old mechanic told me - you can spend 10 minutes trying to scoop out every last drop of your soup from your bowl - but is it really worth it ?

I didn't buy them because they increase the bhp - they probably don't, or you won't notice it.
I bought them because they seem to be a bit more reliable and never had a problem with them. Plus I feel good about getting the best possible stuff for the bike.

Something to consider for those of us who are looking to get the most power/performance out of our road bikes: A smaller electrode means less material in the combustion chamber which means a very VERY mild drop in compression (in turn a less complete burn and hence less power-maybe). Seems silly but Ive heard of  many R6 club racers use the CR9EK plugs which have 2 electrodes(EK) and sit 1mm deeper into the chanber. No advantage to two electrodes (you can only get one spark at a time) but that bit of extra meat increases compression (oh so slightly) and therefore horsepower.

[simonm]

The number is the heat rating of the plug a 9 is a colder plug

Please can you tell me what difference the hotter and colder plugs make over the short term and long term and the benefits/disadvantages ?


cheers
Simon

[Ebme Geek]

The tip of the spark plug needs to be kept at a reasonable temperature - about 650C if I remember right.  Basically but not covering everything : .....
  If it runs too cool it will be prone to fouling building up on it, which may lead to the electrical energy travelling through the fouling or across it's surface as the path of least resistance to the metal shell of the spark plug rather than jumping the gap, hence no sparks. 
  If it runs too hot this will lead to excessive electrode wear and a fraction hotter it will lead to pre-ignition where the fuel-air mixture ignites under compression on this hot spot at the wrong time instead of when the spark happens later in the cycle, an extreme case of this can burn a hole in the top of the piston  :'(

The difference between plugs in a temperature range is the length of the thermal path from the tip to the threaded body shell, the longer the insulator path the hotter the tip will run under the same conditions.

All sorts of things effect this, on the heat creation side, fuel mixture, ignition timing, compression ratio, and engine load being main ones. On the other side the rate that heat is dispersed away from the plug through the cylinder head.

So ultimately you want a plug that stays in the self cleaning sweet spot without overheating through the load range for that engine,    Yam will have spent some time assessing that, I hope

Oh, PS, look out some plug manufacturers run their numbers the other way ie higher = hotter

[JZS 600]

Iridium plug after 32,000 miles

[noggythenog]

Middle one looks sweet & well worth the money but the other 2 look burnt out wastes of space :b

[midden]

Was searching for rough life span of iridium plugs I've done close to 40k miles on mine.

That aside has the one in the middle still got spark 

[Carter]

While i'm on the subject,what is the difference between Red & Black plug caps please???


Cheers Ray
[/quote]

Red caps definitely make you go faster

[darrsi]

While i'm on the subject,what is the difference between Red & Black plug caps please???


Cheers Ray

Red caps definitely make you go faster
[/quote]

I've got red caps on a black bike, goes like a rocket  :lol

[Grayo]

[quote author=Carter link=topic=2610.msg240359#msg240359 date=1472331582]
While i'm on the subject,what is the difference between Red & Black plug caps please???


Cheers Ray

Red caps definitely make you go faster
[/quote]


I've got red caps on a black bike, goes like a rocket  :lol

Imagine if you had BLUE caps on it. It would be uncontrollable. :rolleyes