Quick Spark Plug Survey

[HMeeder]

Chance for everyone to sound off. What plugs do you use and why do you favor them over the others? Some guys swear by Bosch, but I suspect that may be more out of loyalty and a desire to be as original as possible.

I Auto-X my stock '72 1.7 and I need to use every advantage available to me to squeeze every last erg of energy out of my fuel.

NGKs? Split-Fire? Platinum? Why?

Many TIA

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Herb
'72 1.7 Tangerine 'Teen
'74 2.0 Red Rustmobile

[John Rogers]

Hi Herb, hows the car doing? We use Bosch Platinums in our Turbo and NGKs in both 914s. The NGKs seem to burn a little cleaner if the mixture is off a little.

[3D914]

Herb,

I would have to go with the NGK's also. I'm not usually that picky about such things, but when I was working with a local Independent Porsche garage, he replaced my fresh, but weak, Bosch plugs with NGK's and I was quite surprised by the difference. As someone who has been doing Porsche's/VW for over 30 years, he found the Bosches to often faulting. And I get the impression that he was real reluctant to stay with the NJK's (may have something to do with where they're made), but they seem to do the job.

My $.02


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Gerard
74-914 2.0L
3D914
rodrigos6@juno.com

[Joe Ricard]

Car came with Bosche platinum. As I have not driven yet they plug the holes fine. Actually just put the Uni-syn on the carbs and was really patting myself on the back for getting thewm so close by ear. Now the engine runs pretty smooth. As soon as my buddy finishes my Air/Fuel ratio meters I will be able to get the jets just right. Carbed 74 2.0 getting better everyday

[Pillow]

Bosch or NGK copper core, whichever is fine by me.

I just advise against anything platinum tipped because they can easily foul if you burn oil. Also they do not work well unless you have a really strong spark, better for high RPM applications than idling around town.




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Adrian Pillow
1979 911 SC
1966 VW Microbus
PCA - Peachstate Region

[HMeeder]

Anyone else have a thought they'd like to share??

[DSPTurtle]

I use the Bosch Plat quad tip is all my cars and have not had a sparkplug related injury to date. Well once when my 944 broke the insulator off of the plug. Replaced it and everything came out okay. Although, I am of the opinion that Rice plugs should go in Rice cars. Maybe I am missing the boat but I sure hope the $5.00 plugs I use are worth the extra bucks over NGK. My 1.8L seems to like Bosch. This will be an interesting post to follow. I wonder what Jake puts in his motors?

[campbellcj]

NGK's in both cars; never had any problems.

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Chris C.
73 914 2.0
70 911E Targa
campbell.chris@gte.net

[josh912]

Bosch Super. Never had a problem with them.

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Joshua Harrison
Porsche owner at heart

[roadtrp204]

Most of the people I have talked to that use NGK do so for their comprehensive selection of heat ranges. Having had access to books from all the major manufactures I found Bosch to do the same, only problem is most parts stores tend to have a better selection of NGK plugs. Bosch platinums actuall help to stable the idle because less voltage is required for the spark to jump the gap at the needle size electrode. The platinum electrode is also self cleaning at a lower temperature, it one of the properties of platinum. All of the above mentioned plugs have worked well for me in my dual 40IDF 2.0 914. On the other hand I got a set of Bosch platinums for my 97 2.0L VW Golf when I broke a stock Bosch silver and they lasted about 6K miles and the engine developed a bad hesitation, the center platinum electrode was lightly erroded on 3 of them and the forth one was comepletely gone. The only difference is that the Golf uses a high energy ignition system and factory 10:1 compression. I found a shop that had the stock silver plugs and haven't had any problems with them in the last 70K miles, by the way they are about $7 a piece. The only power you might gain out of a set of plugs is the fact that you are replacing worn out ones. Bosch Platinum -4s make me laugh each time I'm at the parts store, do about as much good as a 5 inch exhaust tip! As I recall the original platinums were also $5-$6 when they came out, add three more ground electrodes and bam its worth $6 again.

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Chris
75 914 2.0L

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

There are two different types of Bosch Platinum plugs that I know about. The older style have a lot more platinum in the electrode, and are more expensive. The newer style are the ones that all auto parts stores carry and push on people all the time.

QC on the latter ones has been iffy. There have been a number of cases where the speck of platinum has slid out of the rest of the electrode. In some cases it has closed the point gap completely, while in others it has simply disappeared into the engine. Oops. Also, according to my mechanic they seem to foul more easily on older cars with non-closed-loop fuel systems. (This includes 914s.)

The "+4" plugs are the second (cheap) style with three extra electrodes. I assume, but have not verified for myself, that they have the same kinds of problems as the other cheapie platinums.

I use Bosch Copper plugs. NGKs should be a very acceptible substitute; they are a good quality plug.

--DD

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Pelican Parts 914 Tech Support

A few pics of my car: http://www.pelicanparts.com/gallery/Dave_Darling