Do Spark Plugs Matter? CHEAP vs EXPENSIVE | Engine Masters | MotorTrend

[Chevyforever]

Brief video ...

 

[Gary S]

It pretty much confirms what I've always thought. It doesn't matter what brand of plugs you use. Just make sure they are in good shape and they will do the job.
Spending more money for something fancy doesn't get you anything more.

 

[FS87LT]

All that really matters is that a spark happens. BUT, how much the spark might be shrouded by the center electrode and the resultant "boom" can be affected. But to unshroud the spark, you can take a pair of pliers and twist the center electrode to expose 1/2 of the main electrode to get better spark exposure. Then file the center electrode back a little bit and you've got a "fancy" plug without the fancy price.

Some of the power items might not show up with a dyno run or their improvement might be within the "margine of error", but if the engine runs/feels better coming off-idle and such. then the better things are working.

From my experiences,
FS87LT

 

[COPO]

And don’t waste your time indexing. BTW I use Autolite plugs. In the past I’ve used AC and NGK.

 

[FS87LT]

Before I jumped off into NGK V-Power and later NGK Iridiums, I used Motorcraft plugs in our Chevies. They lasted much longer (as to gap erosion) than any AC plugs ever did for me. My experiences with Motorcraft plugs were not unique as other Chevy friends had similar results.

FS87LT

 

[Twisted_Metal]

Get the radioactive ones...

Polonium has a half-life of 6 months so 60 year old spark plugs won't have nearly the amount of built-in ZAP as new ones.

I put Platinum plugs in a Saturn once... The car idled like crap so I had to put the stock type back in.

 

[xten]

Probably around 45 years ago, I was having coffee with a parts store co-owner. We had a discussion about, of all things, spark plugs. He was the purchasing agent for their group of family owned stores. There was a new parts store that had just opened right up the street. I asked him why the new store could sell the same plug for $.99 and theirs were $1.99. Don't know if this was true, BS or damage control, but his response was there were 3 grades for most plugs and other components. Lets call them A,B, and C. He said A was the standard, B didn't meet all the test criteria, and C was just junk. He said 'We sell A, new stores sells C".
I had the same discussion with my cousin, who was the head chemist for 31 years with the paint company I use. I told him there was a lesser brand of clears and primers that acted just like what he had developed and were much cheaper. Even smelled the same. He told me they were the same, almost. He said the product had the same ingredients but had to pass 5 tests, one being cross-linking. If they didn't pass all 5, they would get sold off to this other company, and the reason was pure economics. Either pay to have it hauled as hazardous waste or sell it off. So quality control is nothing new. Made me think about spark plugs, throw them away or sell them?
I use NGK in everything anymore. I have had multiple failures with AC in DD's, from BBC's to V6's. Autolite didn't perform well in race applications.
JME

 

[Bandit723]

Probably around 45 years ago, I was having coffee with a parts store co-owner. We had a discussion about, of all things, spark plugs. He was the purchasing agent for their group of family owned stores. There was a new parts store that had just opened right up the street. I asked him why the new store could sell the same plug for $.99 and theirs were $1.99. Don't know if this was true, BS or damage control, but his response was there were 3 grades for most plugs and other components. Lets call them A,B, and C. He said A was the standard, B didn't meet all the test criteria, and C was just junk. He said 'We sell A, new stores sells C".
I had the same discussion with my cousin, who was the head chemist for 31 years with the paint company I use. I told him there was a lesser brand of clears and primers that acted just like what he had developed and were much cheaper. Even smelled the same. He told me they were the same, almost. He said the product had the same ingredients but had to pass 5 tests, one being cross-linking. If they didn't pass all 5, they would get sold off to this other company, and the reason was pure economics. Either pay to have it hauled as hazardous waste or sell it off. So quality control is nothing new. Made me think about spark plugs, throw them away or sell them?
I use NGK in everything anymore. I have had multiple failures with AC in DD's, from BBC's to V6's. Autolite didn't perform well in race applications.
JME

this makes me wonder if ProSystems just buys up the junk holley parts and that's why their carbs suck

 

[FS87LT]

Probably around 45 years ago, I was having coffee with a parts store co-owner. We had a discussion about, of all things, spark plugs. He was the purchasing agent for their group of family owned stores. There was a new parts store that had just opened right up the street. I asked him why the new store could sell the same plug for $.99 and theirs were $1.99. Don't know if this was true, BS or damage control, but his response was there were 3 grades for most plugs and other components. Lets call them A,B, and C. He said A was the standard, B didn't meet all the test criteria, and C was just junk. He said 'We sell A, new stores sells C".
I had the same discussion with my cousin, who was the head chemist for 31 years with the paint company I use. I told him there was a lesser brand of clears and primers that acted just like what he had developed and were much cheaper. Even smelled the same. He told me they were the same, almost. He said the product had the same ingredients but had to pass 5 tests, one being cross-linking. If they didn't pass all 5, they would get sold off to this other company, and the reason was pure economics. Either pay to have it hauled as hazardous waste or sell it off. So quality control is nothing new. Made me think about spark plugs, throw them away or sell them?
I use NGK in everything anymore. I have had multiple failures with AC in DD's, from BBC's to V6's. Autolite didn't perform well in race applications.
JME

Back in the 1977 and earlier time frame, when I started in the Chevy dealership parts dept, I'd known that auto supplies and such sold AC plugs at good prices, much less than the dealership MSRP for them. One day, I inquired about that. Seems that AC Spark Plug had several layers of customers. Of course, the captive supplier for GM, for which they charged one (apparentlhy higher) price, then to the auto supply jobbers, which got a lower price (probably varying tiers here, due to sales volume). Which explained why our friend with a decent-size indepentent auto supply could sell the plugs for more than 1/2 price of the Chevy MSRP and still make money. In the middle of all of this were the OEM Jobber vendors, which a GM parts manager could buy from at GM cost -10% or so. So AC Spark Plug had various levels of customers, all of whom got different pricing. In the current times, the jobbers are now geared more toward private shops as GM has removed the majority of the advantages of dealers doing business with them for their normal "stock" parts.

In the spark plug realm of things, NGK now builds the majority of OEM Iridium spark plugs for GM and others. It's been that way since the 1980s, as I recall.

There have always been "Good", "Better", and "Best" orientations among brands (stand-alone and siblings). ACDelco has tried to get back to that with their "Silver", "Gold", and "OE" parts levels. For their pricing of "OE", looks like they are charging for the warranty, up front, compared to competing brands.

FS87LT

 

[Patstuff28]

Like Freiburger stated in the video, they were only testing for maximum power. I also look for durability when I buy a product. I have had good success with NGK platinum plugs for most of my vehicles.

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