The Iridium spark plug

One member here mentioned it, and well, I never heard of them so I got information on it.

Iridium Plugs bring these benefits!
· Improved acceleration
When you switch to Iridium Plugs acceleration is improved. There is a fast response to throttle operation and you can feel the difference compared to plugs in original plug.
· More engine power!
Iridium Plugs improve the engine performance in terms of power. The extra power becomes apparent in situations like climbing hills, giving you a comfortable driving and touring experience.
· Improved ignition and starting characteristics
The ultra-fine center electrode of an Iridium Plug ensures fast ignition and improves the engine's starting characteristics. Since there is little dispersion in the position of the spark, idling is stable too.
· Better fuel economy!
Since Iridium Plugs ensure excellent ignition, the gasoline is burned efficiently. These plugs provide both economic and environmental benefits.

So thanks to this site, I am actually starting to grow with great information from you guys. Actually just getting a head start before I have the Silver Wing, but its nice to get as much education about it and about riding it.

Iridium Plugs are a worthy investment, but don't believe the hype. "Improved acceleration" and "more engine power" just by changing to iridium plugs? Even our resident fire breathing dragon, Lloyd, would be hard pressed to measure those improvements.

However if your ignition coil has deteriorated with age then iridium plugs will help with "improved...starting" and probably "better fuel economy" as well. Then again if your ignition coil has deteriorated it should be replaced anyway.

Tim

Waste of money. Present SilverWing,2013----changed OEM plugs at 40,000 and probably not really necessary.

Ngk4888
For those who is interested

I changed to iridium at last change expecting no difference. And I wasn't disappointed, no change whatsoever. Let's see if the last any longer.
Actually I hope not as I had to buy a suitable plug spanner which is all nice and shiny so I want to use it again :-)

Retired wrote:

Ngk4888
For those who is interested

I'm more confused than interested, the correct NGK Iridium replacement for the standard copper core spark plug is the NGK CR8 EHIX-9.

I have been running Autolite iridium XS4303 plugs in my '06 for 18 months and 10k miles. For no reason other than to not have to change them out again for 50k to 60k miles. Ran an Autolite iridium in my Burgman 400 for five years and over 55k miles...

I tried the NGK CR8 EHIX-9.
Frame Advaned Auto
Wong size  diameter of threds
he went to NGK website and that was the number he came up with
I had to order them we will see

To find NGK Iridium spark plug number for any given vehicle that uses a threaded terminal, find the OEM NGK fitment number & add IX prior to the heat number, for FJS/FSC OEM is CR8EH - 9  thus Iridium is CR8EHIX -9

Retired wrote:

I tried the NGK CR8 EHIX-9.
Frame Advaned Auto
Wong size  diameter of threds
he went to NGK website and that was the number he came up with
I had to order them we will see

Ermmmmmmmmmm, something is not right here, 4888 is the NGK stock number for ..

IMR9B-9H
spec's ....
Manufacturer NGK
Electrode Projection non projected
Gap Size 0.9mm
Hex Size 16mm
Resistor Yes
Seat Type flat
Standard Type Half thread
Terminal Type Solid
Thread Diameter 10mm
Thread Reach 19.0(12.7)mm
Part Type Performance Spark Plug

CR8EHIX - 9 (NGK stock # 3797)
Spec's ....
Manufacturer NGK
Electrode Projection non projected
Gap Size 0.9mm
Hex Size 16mm
Resistor Yes
Seat Type flat
Standard Type Half thread
Terminal Type Threaded Terminal
Thread Diameter 10mm
Thread Reach 19.0(12.7)mm
Part Type Iridium IX Spark Plug

From the above you will note that the thread diameter & reach are identical on both plugs, in fact the principle physical difference between them is the terminal & unless you have changed your suppressor caps the IMR9B-9H will not fit due to the solid terminal.
My advice would be to take an old plug for comparison prior to parting company with your money, particularly because that plug is (in the UK) virtually twice the price.

Info taken from ..

http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/ngk-spark-plug-imr9b-9h

&

http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/ngk-iridium-spark-plug-cr8ehix-9

cr8ehix-9 is the correct plug. Top is different threaded part--- not a smooth tip.
Good for a long time. 40-60k

Installed these plugs today. Easy job, old plugs at 9700 miles looked good a little wear on electrode edges. Gap was still in spec. 34 thous.
New plugs at 32 thous. Didn't even try to adjust gap. I never adjust Iridium plugs you can damage electrode its very fine and always found them in spec. Unless plug was dropped or damaged should be good out of box.

You might not feel the sharper response on a scooter, but the iridium plugs sure did make a noticeable difference on my FJR1300. As a bonus they last much longer and are only a bit more expensive than normal plugs. Same goes for K&N air filters, although they are a lot more expensive than paper ones they last forever.

The Bern wrote:

To find NGK Iridium spark plug number for any given vehicle that uses a threaded terminal, find the OEM NGK fitment number & add IX prior to the heat number, for FJS/FSC OEM is CR8EH - 9  thus Iridium is CR8EHIX -9

Installing those Iridium Plugs next plug change will save you money Gas and time. Using the closer tolerance setting on your plugs will guarantee instant starting.

Plug life will be extended to more than 50 thousand miles and plug changes reduced by four fifths, Why buy 4 or 5 plug changes when 1 Iridium change will do the job and lessen the wear on your starter and battery, Not to mention the improvement in fuel Mileage.

Happy motoring Lloyd 193.

I say why bother---OEM plugs in new SilverWing last at least 40,000 miles and I think 50,000 miles ok. On second SilverWing I changed at 40,000 miles, out of guilt....with OEM plugs.

Most people here are not riding big miles anyway

john grinsel wrote:

I say why bother---OEM plugs in new SilverWing last at least 40,000 miles and I think 50,000 miles ok. On second SilverWing I changed at 40,000 miles, out of guilt....with OEM plugs.

Most people here are not riding big miles  anyway

Hi John, By allowing those plugs to stay in your bike for 40,000 Miles, You could have bought several sets of Iridium plugs with the extra gas you wasted.

Happy motoring Lloyd 193.

Bull. Long trips I get about 55mpg---some tanks at 60mpg. Keeping speed down is the secret. A week of town riding mileage drops to 50 mpg or can..not always, though.

Plugged/dirty air cleaners can bother gas mileage. Present SilverWing I changed @ 40,000 miles after dust storms/dust in West, including dirt storm in Texas. Probably could have gone more on original air cleaner.

Gas expense is really not a bother with SilverWing----but other big expenses are there if you ride a lot---try belts as starter! Insurance or depreciation on new scooter? After 2 new SilverWings and over 90,000 miles=they ain't that cheap to keep/use----buy a new one and there is the expense of replacing stock windshield or Givi luggage rack and box so the bike is usable and somewhat comfortable going down the road. Fancy spark plugs are not going to save me much!

An issue with newer ignition systems, both in bikes and automobiles, is that they are capable of supplying two to three times more voltage than is required to ionise the gap (15 to 18 kV) and fire (6 to 8 kV) a properly gapped plug. Because of this most plugs--even conventional nickel-chrome "fat-wire", so-called "copper" plugs--will continue to fire well past their recommended change interval.

This retards the ignition timing because as the gaps grows it takes longer to ionise the gap; this is a more significant issue with engines operated at higher rpms (like our 'scoots) where the delay can be as much as 2° to 3°. The late spark has a negative impact on engine fuel efficiency.

The higher voltage required to ionise the gap of badly eroded plugs (35 to 50 kV) obviously requires the coil(s)  supply that voltage, dumping far more more energy than normal to ionise the gap--this causes the coils to overheat and per a Ford TSB is the #1 cause of COP (Coil-On-Plug) failures.

In fact, using a coil testing device of my own making (see below), built using the same circuit used in most contemporary electronic ignition systems, I can cause the smoke to come out of a COP with 25 to 30 rapid (with "rapid being as fast as my finger can press the button) sequential firings across a 15 mm air gap.

35 to 40 such firings will burn out even the most robust COP/coil--causing me to nickname the device COP-Testo the Destructor.

Being tested is an Accel Ford 4.6 L "high perfromance" COP:


As we are all aware a COP or coil firing across a normal gap will last 100k or more miles, in a car having fired 120 million times or more over those miles¹.


-----------------------------------------
¹ - 100k miles @ 50 mph = 2000 hours = 120k minutes; 120k minutes @ 2000 rpm = 120,000,000 plug firings.

Then why haven't I had any trouble? I believe in riding bikes, not monkeying with them or second guessing the designers. Want more modern....I buy another new bike and ride, not monkey with it.

Leave bike alone until it acts up. Of course I am fussy about oil & filter changes (WalMart 10-40 has worked for me for the last 500,000 miles) tires--I fix/adjust little things as they happen, kept joints oiled, etc----bike is garaged at nite.

And I add no electric junk/lites. Stranded in rural Maine, stupid use of tire compressor on my part=equaled dead battery. Of course I have bulb taken out of storage area---easy to trouble shoot and get on way with jump start.....and new battery OEM when I got home.

john grinsel wrote:

Then why haven't I had any trouble?  I believe in riding bikes, not monkeying with them or second guessing the designers.  Want more modern....I buy another new bike and ride, not monkey with it.

Leave bike alone until it acts up. Of course I am fussy about oil & filter changes (WalMart 10-40 has worked for me for the last 500,000 miles) tires--I fix/adjust little things as they happen, kept joints oiled, etc----bike is garaged at nite.

And I add no electric junk/lites.  Stranded in rural Maine, stupid use of tire compressor on my part=equaled dead battery. Of course I have bulb taken out of storage area---easy to trouble shoot and get on way with jump start.....and new battery OEM when I got home.

Because as I said modern ignition systems will fire plugs well beyond their recommended life--and apparently Honda makes good coils. 'Twould be interesting to hook one up to Cop-Testo and see how it survives a "stress test"...

LeRoi50 wrote:

You might not feel the sharper response on a scooter, but the iridium plugs sure did make a noticeable difference on my FJR1300. As a bonus they last much longer and are only a bit more expensive than normal plugs. Same goes for K&N air filters, although they are a lot more expensive than paper ones they last forever.

I haven't taken SW for a ride yet after plug replacement. Did seem to start faster with new plugs.

I also have a FJR1300 2005 ABS. Nice ride today parked it 44,444 miles exactly. I've been using Iridium plugs for so long now in this bike never had a problem.

SW is fun. FJR FAST and smooth.

cliffyk wrote:

<> 'Twould be interesting to hook one up to Cop-Testo and see how it survives a "stress test"...

An honest assessment then would require testing a factory-new coil against an OEM-plug'd high mileage coil. Now who's got the budget to smoke test a new coil?  

But, meanwhile while we're waiting for a volunteer, I'll take Cliff's word for it.

Aircraft often have platinum sparkplug center electrodes. For the same reason autos and bikes can use iridium. Iridium isn't as good as platinum because it's center electrode won't stand quite as much heat. The whole point of fine wire plugs is that the smaller center electrode concentrates the electrical field applied by the ignition system. Because of that it requires less applied voltage to generate a similar arc as a thick electrode does. It's the same reason lightning rods have points. It concentrates the electric field near it which tends to guide an increasing electrical field caused by voltage building in the atmosphere to hit the rod instead of nearer less conductive and less sharper targets.
Basically a well tuned engine won't run all that much better but the plugs will last longer because there's less erosion of the center electrode. Also because it's thinner shape makes it easier for the ignition system to fire the arc.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

cliffyk wrote:

<> 'Twould be interesting to hook one up to Cop-Testo and see how it survives a "stress test"...

An honest assessment then would require testing a factory-new coil against an OEM-plug'd high mileage coil. Now who's got the budget to smoke test a new coil?  

But, meanwhile while we're waiting for a volunteer, I'll take Cliff's word for it.

Not 100% relevant, however In late 2011 while doing some design work for an aftermarket
high performance" vendor, I did "smoke test" several new Weapon X "Ford 4.6 L 2V" COPs vs. a couple with 30k miles, and a couple of new Accel coils, and a couple OEM coils with over 100k miles.

Somewhat counter-intuitively I found that both "new" and "old" performed identically, and that a new one could be burned out by abuse just as quickly (35 to 40 "full dumps") as a used one. Here's the trash heap that remained:



I.e. they are quite robust and if not abused (or defective) they will easily last and perform as new for 200k+ miles--it is allowing them to be overload for extended periods, from eroded gaps and/or "leakage" cause by hardened or dirty boots, that kills them.

Ford stated in a TSB in 2010 that 50% of COPs returned under warranty had nothing wrong with them...

OEM or iridium plugs has been argued on this forum for years... LOL Some like iridium and some don't. It is a subjective thing and both plugs work OK. I switched to iridium at 8K and now have 20K on my Swing. No problems and it "seems" to start a bit better. I have noticed no increase in MPG or power relating to plugs. I just prefer not to change them as often.

Use what YOU want and all should be OK. I ordered my NGK iridium plugs from Advance Auto for about the same price as OEM NGK's at my dealer (which is 50+ miles away).

Glenn,

It is a proven fact that Iriduim plugs and synthetic oil adds 22 hp to the SWing. lol. Just kidding . Just trying to start an argument about plugs and oil.

JeffR wrote:

Glenn,

It is a proven fact that Iriduim plugs and synthetic oil adds 22 hp to the SWing.  lol.  Just kidding .  Just trying to start an argument about plugs and oil.

But only if you put the manufacturer/vendor stickers on...

So, by only adding synthetic oil I'm only getting 11 more hp? That sucks!!!

JeffR wrote:

Glenn,

It is a proven fact that Iriduim plugs and synthetic oil adds 22 hp to the SWing.  lol.  Just kidding .  Just trying to start an argument about plugs and oil.

The only way I would see a 22 HP increase (equivalent) would be for me to lose 50 pounds... So much for THAT idea!!! :lol!:

These NGK CR8EH-9 must be gold paid $17.99 each In Canada but come on man

Have you noticed that this year EVERYTHING seems to cost more. I paid less than 8 bucks for the iridium ones for the SWing in 2017 or so, just installed one on my Forza and the cheapest I could find was over $16 USD. But then the OEM plug was nearly 10 bucks...

I've tried iridium plugs twice - in a car and in a bike.
Both times, I never noticed any difference whatsoever.
They were in good condition though, so can't say if they would have improved any niggles.

I changed to NGK Iridium spark plugs in my Silver Wing for the last few years I had it. I bought the spark plugs in Germany when I was over there and they were cheaper than I could have bought them back home in the UK. I fitted them more for their longevity than any other reason.

Try rockauto  $6 bucks but you have to buy 4.   Advanced Auto Parts $10 bucks.   I've been using them for last 23k and work fine same ones. OEM says 8k but they will last at least 20K before tip starts to burn away and gap opens.
CR8EHIX-9

Price of fuel goes up so does everything else. Come on man.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

Try rockauto  $6 bucks but you have to buy 4.   Advanced Auto Parts $10 bucks.   I've been using them for last 23k and work fine same ones. OEM says 8k but they will last at least 20K before tip starts to burn away and gap opens.
CR8EHIX-9

Price of fuel goes up so does everything else. Come on man.

Can you tell me the nearest of these stores to me?

I installed Iridium plugs in my 2012 Goldwing at 48K with no difference in performance or gas mileage.
I have no regrets, but I thought I would notice a difference?
Warning to the wise.
Counterfeit NGK plugs can be bought by the unsuspecting customers.
Buy from dealer or trusted auto parts chain.
They can cause poor performance over time at least .
And at worst - break and go into engine causing catastrophic engine failure.
Love yours. D

Who knew you are right counterfeits are out there. Chinese knock offs. Thanks.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

Who knew you are right counterfeits are out there. Chinese knock offs. Thanks.  

 I got OEM plugs for $6.97 ea. on large OEM parts order from Ron Ayers to get their free shipping, best prices in US, IMO.
 They are not Iridium, but they are not counterfeit either !!

https://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/a/hon/506c7929f870023420a3c0a6/cylinder-head