Are NGK Iridium Sparks Plugs better than standard plugs?

Hi,

My suzuki sv650s k3 is due for the spark plugs to be replaced. Are iridium plugs better than standards plugs, and do they justify the extra cost?

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by Cartlidge

Hi,

My suzuki sv650s k3 is due for the spark plugs to be replaced. Are iridium plugs better than standards plugs, and do they justify the extra cost?

In my experience, no.

I was sold an Iridium plug for my motocross bike. Was a pig to start, fouled up very quickly and as you say, expensive.

Put a standard plug in, never had any grief, always started etc etc.

As far as i've seen iridium plugs are not significantly better, they work just as well as normal ones in the SV.

By the sounds of it they dont fare to well in performance engines, as said above with the motocross bike and we've tried them in my dads VTR Firestorm drag bike and it litterally bust the iridium tip of the plug. Now that may be because of the harshness of motocross and drag but i'm sure one of the circuit boys will be along soon to offer an opinion.

[Spanner Man]

Good afternoon all.

In my experience Iridium plugs give a slight improvement in running over the standard ones, & are worth the extra couple of quid.

I wouldn't recommend them for use in competition engines however. Competition engines obviously work very hard, as they're at full chat for most of the time. The majority of Moto cross nutters that I know prefer standard Nippon Denso plugs, & they claim to have fewer plug failures with them.
I suspect that ND plugs have a narrower heat range than NGK's, which would make them more suitable for the constant thrashing that competition bikes get.


Cheers.

My main reason for getting them (ironically) was economy; they are supposed to last ages, compared to normal plugs, in touring bikes. Only done 16K on mine (condition was fine when I checked a few thousand miles back). No experience of using them in performance bikes, mind.

[northwind]

Yeah, I don't think there's any performance benefit to mine- there might be but if there is it's below the level I notice, so it doesn't count even if there is- but what I did find is that they seem to deal better with rich mixtures, handy if you're jetting by experimentation, or if you're somewhere with huge elevation changes (not the UK!) They also seem better with really damp starts too- always a bugbear of mine.

They do seem to last forever... Mine have been in for about 16000 miles now, I decided to do an a/b test with a new set and I can't tell the slightest difference, but I can with 8000 mile old standard plugs.

But, it's not really something to get excited about either way.

I've had the original factory plugs in one of my thou's for over 60K miles. You would have to go some to beat that. It's just an opinion but changing plugs every 7,500 miles is a sure money spinner for someone.

I change plugs every other oil change, just to be sure.

I have always had good performance with the standard plugs, I considered iridium ones because i have heard they help with cold starting...but then i read some conflicting reports. So i'll save me money and use the "standard" ones.

Originally Posted by Rocket

I've had the original factory plugs in one of my thou's for over 60K miles. You would have to go some to beat that. It's just an opinion but changing plugs every 7,500 miles is a sure money spinner for someone.

That's about the size of it... Plugs last a long time. Replace them when worn.

Think I'll just stick with standard plugs, cheers for the advice.