NGK CR7E or equivalent

[Holdup]

From reading previous post on this forum i understand that the sv's front spark plug is prone to getting some water in it, once before i had troubles where the idle would drop below 1,000 rpm and the occasional stall but when the bike got hotter it soon sorted it self out but same has happened today only no stalling just dropping below 1,000 rpm for about 2 seconds then picking back up to normal, so upon reading my owners manual it says "NGK CR7E, if the standard plug is apt to get wet replace with this plug"

has any one tried this? does it work? would you reccommend it? or should i just live with it and wait for the bike to get hot?

Thanks

[Ceri JC]

Waiting for it to just heat up is dangerous if it kicks in as you're cornering and the power suddendly doubles. You want to stop it cutting out in the first place.

A fender extender is the most commmon solution. Others have just used a lot of heat-resistant grease around the front plug (and in the drainage holes), which is cheaper, if you don't want to spend £20 or really dislike the aesthetics of the fender extender. I like belt and braces, particulary when the 'braces' are 10p worth of grease, so I do both. In 47K of miles on it, the only time my bike has suffered from this problem is when a garage stupidly used a jet wash to clean my bike. This is all the more impressive when you consider I regularly ride for long periods (up to 6 hours non-stop) in torrential rain and have done river crossings and riden in floods on the SV.

By the by, I run the Iridium version of the normal spark plugs (forget the number off the top of my head, but IIRC it carries the suffix, 'X'). This is for primarily for longevity and performance secondly. I only put them in 7K back so they cannot be credited for "solving" the cutout problem.

HTH.

[yorkie_chris]

Hotter plug won't cure it.

Stop the water getting down the hole. Use a fender extender, silicon grease or both.

[Holdup]

CR8EIX's prob, that was another thought but more for better response, i doubt ill notice a diff with them untill i lose my 33bhp, i suppose thinking about it i rode home in wet on sunday bout 30 min journey and it was fine, but then i gave the bike a good clean yesterday so maybe it was that, normally when i wash it its fine, i only started it up in garden when it got to around 73 c it sorted its self so hopefully that was it, if it does it again ill maybe go with the grease

Thanks

[embee]

Don't wait to see if it will happen again, just get some dielectric grease (Maplins do it, or Dow Corning DC4 is excellent stuff, needs to be compatible with the HT lead rubber so don't use just any old grease).

Plug heat grade relates to the temperature that the hot end runs at (inside the cylinder), it won't affect anything outside the cylinder. Heat grade is determined by the specific combustion chamber, the ignition advance characteristics and the cooling of the metal of the cylinder head. It's determined by the manufacturer from measurements under all running conditions, basically using the hottest grade you can safely get away with to minimise the likelihood of fouling and to promote self-cleaning.

Unless you've significantly fiddled with something relating to the combustion, stick to the recommended grade. Iridium plugs are generally a good thing.

[Sid Squid]

It doesn't mean that sort of wet.

[northwind]

Wet as in wet with fuel then?

Do what embee said. The Maplins stuff in the tube is perfect. Splatch, fixed.