spark plug - whats the difference?

**jape** · 01-07-2011, 05:55 AM

I decided to get a platinum NGK for my Kinlon today, thinking everything helps and that a few blokes here have mentioned they use them and get better performance. I have to go to the local bike shop and they flatly and coldly refuse to discuss, look at or do any work on China bikes - but today the bloke at the counter was a newbie who hadn't experienced my cursing at him yet.
"What's it for?" he asked when I requested the plug. "Um, Honda 200cc" I lied. (trying to remember what Humanbeing told me about the Klingon engine), "CJ163 something or other dirtbike," I rambled, "an old one, but only done a few thousand though, " I continued, making it up as I went along. "Been in the shed and just used odd weekends."
He nodded, one eyebrow raised ...
"Look mate. Save yourself twenty bucks and get an ordinary NGK. Those Pplatinum and Irridium ones make absolutely no difference in a bike under 1000cc. Ok in a big cruiser or a car but useless in a 'bike, spend the difference in petrol and enjoy the old Honda, bewt bikes, they go on for ever!"

"Yeah, especially when they are cloned and renamed Klingons", I thought.
So I bought the ordinary NGK and will try it against the existing 'Torch' brand that Kinlons supply - which to be honest I have had no problems with. Actually that is not surprising, when I went out to change it, I found it was a NGK DR8EA already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was he right about plugs? He is a middle-aged experienced bike mechanic that had never met me before after all! Do we get anything from spending cash on 'high-tech' extras for what is basically a standard bike even after we add exhausts and make carby changes? It's never gonna be a racer is it?

Talking of which he showed me a Honda 750 cruiser for only $55 a week - "seeing as how you like Hondas mate." Lies always get you further toward Hell. I very, very nearly signed up, they make it so easy for you, it was just the sight of reality - my twenty-three year old rusting car with the exhaust dropping off outside the showroom window that stopped me.

**Pfaelzer** · 01-07-2011, 06:12 AM

I played around with plugs but as mentioned, the JH600 runs a bit smoother on low rpm but no performance increase or anything else. If your engine runs nice with the current plug then keep it this way. If you really want it to be perfect, then check the color after a long run to see, if you should swap to a colder or hotter plug.

Cheers,
AW.

**euphonius** · 01-07-2011, 07:44 AM

My JH600 thanked me immediately with smoother idle and better performance when I swapped out the stock plug for an NGK Iridium, which cost about 70 rmb or US$11 as I recall. The stock plug was really crap -- discolored by gases that it clearly was allowing to pass from inside the cylinder. I probably could have gotten along fine with a standard NGK plug, but the Iridium works well and gives me peace of mind. I'm still thinking of getting a matching Iridium cable.

Without quality spark, nothing else on the bike matters!

NB: My brother's company sells cables for high-end audio equipment. US$8500 for a set of speaker cables! For a bit of fun, read through a few of the comments about this particularly product on Amazon....

**choldy** · 01-07-2011, 07:58 AM

I have recently got my RMR. The previous owner had messed with it, aftermarket exhaust and race CDI, but kept all the standard parts. In order to start from a baseline I could understand I put the bike completely back to stock and ran it a few days. My bike also had an NGK DR8EA standard plug fitted. When I checked it it was running slightly rich, a light dry black sooty coating. I had read that the advantage of the iridium plugs is a more efficient burn. So as my plug was reading only 'slightly' rich I just swapped it for an iridium rather than mess with the carb. For me I feel I got better cold starting, less tendancy to carb ice, and when I checked the plug to my eye I was getting a perfect burn, so for me it was a simple bolt on carb adjustment! it didn't give me an extra 10mph top speed though which was dissapointing:O)

**hugemoth** · 01-07-2011, 12:15 PM

I've never found any difference in performance with any spark plug so I always buy the regular NGK. The one in my Lifan 200 has been in there for over 20,000 km so far and still works just fine.