Smoother yet

[CDONA]

NGK iridium plugs run 1 tank of gas so far. Noticeably smoother off throttle and thru the rev range. DP air lid, K&N filter, Fatduc, G2 tube, stock pipes. DCPR9EIX $10.00, gapped @ 30 thousandths. One heat range colder than stock, no 10's in the catalog. NGK goes colder on higher #'s, opposite of all others ex. Champion, Autolite. Article in May '09 Thunderpress "Motorhead Memo" on iridium plugs.

[lelenb]

I just bought two online. Thanks for the motivation, as I have been pondering these for a while.

[johnchypermotard]

Originally Posted by lelenb

I just bought two online. Thanks for the motivation, as I have been pondering these for a while.

i hope you bought 4 ... 2 will only do one cylinder

[Activator]

Over at the Multistrada forum, a lot of us switched to iridium plugs... it made a HUGE difference in the smoothness of my 620. Instead of chattering down below 4,000 rpm, I could putt-putt in town down closer to 3,000 with the iridium plugs. Better gas mileage, too.

An iridium plug even made a difference in my wife's 50cc 2-stroke scooter! Way smoother and a little peppier.

It's on my list of upgrades for the Hyper once it's had the 600 mile service.

And, yes - you'll need FOUR plugs for the Hyper!!

[Shazaam]

Regarding the use of platinum and iridium spark plugs in a Ducati:

Both NGK and Denso pre-gap their Ducati application specialty plugs to 0.035 in. This should be considered a MINIMUM gap for this kind of plug.

When it comes to spark plug gaps, bigger IS better. The larger the spark kernel that is generated by a spark jumping the electrode gap, the more likely and complete the fuel burn will be, and the smoother the engine will run. That is, the larger the spark gap that’s exposed to the air/fuel mixture, the easier it is to initiate combustion. This translates directly into improved throttle response.

The transition between throttle positions involves a wide range of fuel/air mixtures and the ability to fire these less-than-ideal mixtures with a minumum of misfires is what throttle response is all about.

Platinum or iridium plugs will give you worse performance than a conventional plug unless you use a larger gap than is recommended for the steel electrode plug equivalent. One by-product (and benefit) to having platinum or iridium as an electrode material is that the harder material erodes more slowly and consequently allows you to reduce the size of the center electrode and still have a long-lifetime plug. Re-gapping is infrequent or eliminated. In fact, the initial reason this type of plug was developed was an attempt to meet the 100,000-mile durability/maintenance requirement mandated by the US EPA for exhaust emissions, not because they offered any improved performance over conventional electrodes.

A smaller electrode, however, will arc at a lower voltage. This is good because the lower arc-over voltage is not as demanding on your less-than-new ignition coils and wires so the firing is more reliable. But this is also bad because a lower arc-over voltage presents a weaker spark kernel (lower arc current and duration) that is less likely to light off the air/fuel mixture.

[lelenb]

Originally Posted by johnchypermotard

i hope you bought 4 ... 2 will only do one cylinder

Doah!!! I just had a wisdom tooth extracted so I am a bit woozy minded and less wise.

Thanks John, two more on the way.

[lelenb]

It is good to see you back Shazaam!!!!

Originally Posted by Shazaam

Regarding the use of platinum and iridium spark plugs in a Ducati:

Both NGK and Denso pre-gap their Ducati application specialty plugs to 0.035 in. This should be considered a MINIMUM gap for this kind of plug.

When it comes to spark plug gaps, bigger IS better. The larger the spark kernel that is generated by a spark jumping the electrode gap, the more likely and complete the fuel burn will be, and the smoother the engine will run. That is, the larger the spark gap that’s exposed to the air/fuel mixture, the easier it is to initiate combustion. This translates directly into improved throttle response.

The transition between throttle positions involves a wide range of fuel/air mixtures and the ability to fire these less-than-ideal mixtures with a minumum of misfires is what throttle response is all about.

Platinum or iridium plugs will give you worse performance than a conventional plug unless you use a larger gap than is recommended for the steel electrode plug equivalent. One by-product (and benefit) to having platinum or iridium as an electrode material is that the harder material erodes more slowly and consequently allows you to reduce the size of the center electrode and still have a long-lifetime plug. Re-gapping is infrequent or eliminated. In fact, the initial reason this type of plug was developed was an attempt to meet the 100,000-mile durability/maintenance requirement mandated by the US EPA for exhaust emissions, not because they offered any improved performance over conventional electrodes.

A smaller electrode, however, will arc at a lower voltage. This is good because the lower arc-over voltage is not as demanding on your less-than-new ignition coils and wires so the firing is more reliable. But this is also bad because a lower arc-over voltage presents a weaker spark kernel (lower arc current and duration) that is less likely to light off the air/fuel mixture.

[AXE]

I have run these in all my bikes in the last several years. I have been meaning to drop a couple in the Hyper, but haven't gotten it done. I always gap to the upper end of the recommendation, but not over.

I can't say I have seen a noticeable performance gain, but they have been reliable. Plus it is fun to say iridium.

Out!

[08hyper]

Originally Posted by CDONA

NGK iridium plugs run 1 tank of gas so far. Noticeably smoother off throttle and thru the rev range. DP air lid, K&N filter, Fatduc, G2 tube, stock pipes. DCPR9EIX $10.00, gapped @ 30 thousandths. One heat range colder than stock, no 10's in the catalog. NGK goes colder on higher #'s, opposite of all others ex. Champion, Autolite. Article in May '09 Thunderpress "Motorhead Memo" on iridium plugs.

Michael, I hate to tell you this but, go back to the #8 heat range (hotter), I just finished my motor mods, I went big bore, HC pistons, cams, bigger valves, porting, ceramic coated pistons tops & combustion chambers, with the Febur oil cooler, and I also put in the NGK DCPR9EIX gapped to 27 thou, to make sure that my bike would not run too hot, the bike ran great, but it ran cool, cooler than the other Hypers that I compared my bike to.

After I had a conversation with the guy who did my engine coatings, he said that for best performance that I should be running 1 to 2 range hotter than stock! & that the coatings would protect my engine, so when I was doing my dyno runs I ran the #9 (cooler) plugs and than switched to the hotter DCPR8EIX (stock heat range) also gapped to 27 thou, and guess what? I picked up 1HP on the dyno with just the plugs. My bike is now making a little over 102HP, but I still need to do some more testing/tweaking. The bike runs great! I gapped the plugs to the Ducati manual specs, 0.6 to 0.7mm (27 thou) What I just read from Shazzam's post, I did not know about, or I would have tried the bigger gap also, to see what it does.
But what I DID find out is that the bike does like the #8 heat range better than the #9 heat range, now you know Alex

[hyperdookie]

CDONA, Shazaam and "The Animal" thanks for the informative posts.Cassos told me he was running these plugs on the advise of Dukepilot, and suddenly I understood why I couldn't keep up with him! I will be ordering soon! But seriously, amazing how much difference a plug can make.