Jump to content
SAU Community

Iridium plugs

scuzzy

By scuzzy,
in General Maintenance

 Share

Recommended Posts

TTT Grand Master

TTT

Posted
Posted

damn...

did you know or were you informed that copper plugs are better performing plugs than any other out there, and that $4.50 NGK copper plugs would do a better job than those iridium ones?

The only advantage the iridium has over the copper is that the iridium lasts longer.

oh well.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-976770
Share on other sites
GunMetalR33 Mentor

GunMetalR33

Posted
Posted

I have my irridiums gapped tp .5 and they work fan F8cking tastic. They are NGK Irriway 7 though... I have gapped every iridium plug I have ever owned without any probs including bkr6eix-08's.

I dont see any issue with gapping them down, but I would only do it if you are experiencing flat spots etc etc...

NOTE: Be very carfull when gapping them down...

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-976912
Share on other sites
toby19 Collaborator

toby19

Posted
Posted

I had NGK iridiums with 1.1 for a while then changed them to BCP6RES with .8 gap they were ok for a while...until i fouled the damn plugs. What I did was to re-gap (really carefully) the iridiums to 0.7 mm. I've never looked back since. The car is driving superb.

...I want more power though.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-978399
Share on other sites
Bobjones Mentor

Bobjones

Posted
Posted
I found iridiums to be much better, got rid of a flatspot for me.  

Like the others said, don't gap them, you can buy iridiums pregapped at 0.8mm (have an 8 on the end of the part code)

I have iridiums and the fact is they are great...no flat spot as was evident from the worn out Blitz iridiums and the NGK coppers.

Also the gap depends on the boost level and timing you are running.

Standard boost and timing the 1.1 gap is fine. And don't regap them cause you will stuff them...

The reason I went iridiums is that I got them cheap, $9 each...can't complain...

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-979261
Share on other sites
JimX Grand Master

JimX

Posted
Posted
damn...

did you know or were you informed that copper plugs are better performing plugs than any other out there, and that $4.50 NGK copper plugs would do a better job than those iridium ones?

The only advantage the iridium has over the copper is that the iridium lasts longer.

oh well.

Copper plugs are more likely to melt (lower melting temp, at least one guy in here has melted his copper plugs), and you have to change them every 5000km for optimal performance. Aside from it being a total pain in the arse to do this every 5000km, after 4 changes (20000km) the coppers become less cost effective. If you count labour time as money (even if you're doing it yourself) they're probably less cost effective after the first change. I've had my iridiums for over 30000km now and it still fires as good as the day I put them in.

The reason people usually have problems with iridiums is because of the gap, not the material it's made from.

Edit: Anyone buying iridiums I would advise to get the 0.8mm gap version. I got these by pure coincidence (I got them before I knew what gap they should be or even that there were 2 differently gapped versions) and on a normal tune/boost (150rwkw) it still ran fine. Probably suffered a little bit of economy and power, but nothing noticable over the previous platinums I had and it still ran just as smoothly. Now at 215rwkw it still runs just as smooth and without any detonation and I haven't touched the plugs. Getting 0.8's gives you the scope to up the boost and power at a later date without worrying about detonation. Taking them out to re-gap them is a pain in the arse and you are likely to damage them.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-979719
Share on other sites
drifto Collaborator

drifto

Posted
Posted

Plugs have caused me major headaches.

After having Platinum fitted without my consent and gapped at the standard 1.1 I had massive ignition breakdown when boosting above 15psi. These plugs also caused a lot of heat build up and therfore detonation even after I regapped them to .8.

I then used an NGK in a colder heat range of 8. These ran a bit rough on the street until decent temperature was there. On the track there were great. They reduce the combustion temp and therefore keep exhausts temps lower and that all translates to less heat in the engine which keep air inlet temps down and water temps under control.

These plugs were shot after the track day, so after recommendation I've gone for the Iridium in the 6 heat range and 1.1 gapped back to .8. There already running a bit rough at idle and were breaknig down on boost but only after cruising on the highway for a while.

I can't see the value in them.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-979780
Share on other sites
croat Mentor

croat

Posted
Posted

I have had irridiums 2 times in a row now. Bought them as a 1.1 gap and fixed them down to 0.8. I have always had boosting issues when over 8psi especially on a cold night, top end 4500rpm and over they just missfire like crazy! I hear that irridium plugs dont go well with RB engines and that coppers and platinums are the best option, any other oppinions?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-980264
Share on other sites
JimX Grand Master

JimX

Posted
Posted
I have had irridiums 2 times in a row now. Bought them as a 1.1 gap and fixed them down to 0.8. I have always had boosting issues when over 8psi especially on a cold night, top end 4500rpm and over they just missfire like crazy! I hear that irridium plugs dont go well with RB engines and that coppers and platinums are the best option, any other oppinions?

I already offered a pretty big opinion further up.

It seems that most people that have problems with iridiums are either because of the 1.1 gap, or when they have tried to manuall re-gap them. The electrodes are very fragile, it's entirely possible that re-gapping them, especially by 0.3mm will cause some unseen damage and make it not work properly.

I reiterate - I am running 0.8mm factory gapped NGK iridiums (I forget the precise model number or heat range) and I have never ever had a single spark related issue other than cold cranking sometimes (but this is a common unrelated fault, which I rectified with the PowerFC cold cranking settings). I absolutely swear by them, using them in both car and bike. The bike's copper plugs would need to be changed ever 3000km or it would start to burp and fart and lose economy. So far done 20000km on iridiums and the only running issues I get now are to dodgy fuel (i use 95 premium on the bike, which has quality problems in many servos, until I get it tuned for 98RON). Power/economy/starting ease has not dropped one iota in all this time.

I would have gotten platinums for the similar longevity but the iridium spark is stronger. Maybe the coppers do give you a few more kw when new (I've not seen dyno comparisons yet though, so the difference is likely to be very small if any). But let's run them both in 2 different cars for 50000km and see which car is still running just as well as it was 50000km ago. I don't think the coppers would still be in one piece by that stage.

I have a front facing plenum which allows me to get to the plugs without undoing a lot of intake plumbing, and yet I *still* find it a pain in the arse to change the plugs. I set aside around half an hour. At weekend rates that would cost me around $70. (considering I could do overtime and get double time Sunday). Yeah it'd be far less than half an hour if I rushed it, but I then usually end up forgetting something fundamental and having to backtrack and fix it.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-980388
Share on other sites
Alex Au Contributor

Alex Au

Posted
Posted

THE ows & IRIWAY CAME @0.8 & i think its the best gapping. any narrow that this could lead bad fuel econ......

see the sparke diff w/ iriway & OWS..I hv tried to switch the top plug to prove the tester is the same on both side

OWSplug2.jpg

OWSplug3.jpg

OWSplug1.jpg

BTW...is it something the Forum admin has done for me? I can't post image in yesterday but its seems work for now..Thansk!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/48608-iridium-plugs/#findComment-980524
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Turbodoc
      Noobie Stagea owner..

      By Turbodoc · Posted

      Hey Dave, welcome aboard! Good to see another soon-to-be Stagea owner here. The wagons are awesome — plenty of space, still got that Skyline DNA, and loads of potential if you’re into mods. Definitely post up pics when you get it, everyone here loves seeing new builds. What model/year are you looking at?
    • GTSBoy
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      See if you can thermal epoxy a heatsink or two onto it?
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      So, what else.... Power. I don't know what it is making because I haven't done a post tune dyno run yet; I will when I get a chance. It was 240rwkw dead stock. Conclusion from the day....it does not need a single kw more until I sort some other stuff. It comes on so hard that I could hear the twin N1 turbos on the R32 crying, and I just can't use what it has around a tight track with the current setup. Brakes. They are perfect. Hit them hard all day and they never felt like having an issue; you can see in the video we were making ground on much lighter cars on better tyres under brakes. They are standard (red sport) calipers, standard size discs in DBA5000 2 piece, Winmax pads and Motul RBF600 fluid, all from Matty at Racebrakes Sydney. Keeping in mind the car is more powerful than my R32 and weighs 1780, he clearly knows his shit. Suspension. This is one of the first areas I need to change. It has electronically controlled dampers from factory, but everything is just way too soft for track work even on the hardest setting (it is nice when hustling on country roads though). In particular it rolls into oversteer mid corner and pitches too much under hard braking so it becomes unstable eg in the turn 1 kink I need to brake early, turn through the kink then brake again so I don't pirouette like an AE86. I need to get some decent shocks with matched springs and sway bars ASAP, even if it is just a v1 setup until I work out a proper race/rally setup later. Tyres. I am running Yoko A052 in 235/45/18 all round, because that was what I could get in approximately the right height on wheels I had in the shed (Rays/Nismo 18x8 off the old Leaf actually!). As track tyres they are pretty poor; I note GTSBoy recently posted a porker comparo video including them where they were about the same as AD09.....that is nothing like a top line track tyre. I'll start getting that sorted but realistically I should get proper sized wheels first (likely 9.5 +38 front and 11 +55 at the rear, so a custom order, and I can't rotate them like the R32), then work out what the best tyre option is. BTW on that, Targa Tas had gone to road tyres instead of semi slicks now so that is a whole other world of choices to sort. Diff. This is the other thing that urgently needs to be addressed. It left massive 1s out of the fish hook all day, even when I was trying not too (you can also hear it reving on the video, and see the RPM rising too fast compared to speed in the data). It has an open diff that Infiniti optimistically called a B-LSD for "Brake Limited Slip Diff". It does good straight line standing start 11s but it is woeful on the track. Nismo seem to make a 2 way for it.
×
×
  • Create New...