I'm looking to do some research into the spark plugs that people use in their TT Zeds.

 

If you could post up, along with your spec, the make & type of plugs you have used in the past and are using now, plus any other useful info, that would be great :thumbup:

 

Everyone who posts will get a single (1) Haribo at JAE :laugh:

 

CheerZ.

Apart from internals everything upgraded to 555 have had 23psi on the profec.

 

Using Iridium Heat Range 8 Spark Plugs - very happy with them.

 

Not so keen on haribo, can I have one of those pastel coloured candy necklaces instead :cool3:.

I use the standard NGK Prf6-11B (think that's what it's called) Setup is stage 1 at 14psi (Apexi cone, japspeed exhaust and decats, chipped ecu, Blitz iD-III EBC).

 

Coke Fangtastic please :)

Edited January 15, 201312 yr by Steams

HKS,

 

Are the best, I have them,,, awsooooome

irridium ngk ix 2667

The standard NGK platinums - whatever their part number is.....

 

.....on a stock UK spec TT engine with just an Apexi air filter and Mongoose exhaust....

 

Richard:cool3:

iridium ngk ix No8's

Will be putting in the NGK PFR6B 11c very soon. (not shure what is in it at the moment)It has Zedworld chip, good old boost jets, HKS Induction single filter and Apexi Exhausts

Irridium ngk, custom decat straight through exhaust,cone filter, profec b standard boost so far, seems real good to me...

my TT had the HKS super fires ones, but i avoid them if i were you, over priced, and when i started to strip my engine 2 had cracked, they were only 8 months old.

You use copper plugs don't you Noz? I know you'd hear det if it happened and do your setups with a det sensor but will coppers stand up to it as copper is soft in it's nature so you'd think it would deform easily.

 

How do you know what gap to set plugs to, the higher the boost level the smaller the gap right? Would different material plugs require different gaps for the same engine?

You use copper plugs don't you Noz? I know you'd hear det if it happened and do your setups with a det sensor but will coppers stand up to it as copper is soft in it's nature so you'd think it would deform easily.

 

How do you know what gap to set plugs to, the higher the boost level the smaller the gap right? Would different material plugs require different gaps for the same engine?

 

Yeah mate, I run BCR8ES in the Zed, Pulsar & MR2. I ran them in my S13 (approx 233bhp/litre) and my Cosworth (~360 bhp). If I'm not looking to really push something, then it will be a set of BKR7E that goes in. It's not because they are cheap, they work out more expensve than long-life plugs in the long run. I could go on & on (no surprise there lol) about plugs, but it's a contentious subject (like oil & safe boost levels...) so I'll just link to a thread HERE. Suffice to say, I will never run a thin-wire platinum or iridium plug in any of my cars.

 

Det is engine death in my eyes, even though engines can run for tens of thousands of miles with mild detonation. Many years ago I ran a well-known map on a turbocharged car which resulted in melting two NGK BCPR7ES plugs. The map was too advanced, but thankfully because the plugs caused a massive misfire before any further damage could occur, the pistons were saved. There was no warning, no noises, just a misfire after a short run at WOT, but if something is going to give, I want it to be soft copper which leads to a misfire before a melted piston or shot big ends. It was this that started me investigating a colder plug which resulted in the BCR8ES, and I'm yet to find a reason not to fit them to every Jap car that runs over 1.1-1.2 bar. For me, they are a wonder plug! They are not the correct length for the VG head (only the -11b are IIRC), but it's a small price to pay for the huge amount of heat-range 'headroom' and peace of mind that gives when mapping.

 

Spark plugs have a very simple job, and whilst there are certain methods you can use to 'improve' them (side-gapping & indexing), a spark is a spark.

 

You have to be careful gapping platinum & iridium plugs. Generally, yes you reduce the gap when increasing the boost. In practice, there is no specific gap once you begin modifications and increasing the boost, it is ideal to run the widest gap possible before the spark is blown out, as a lot depends on the condition of the ignition system components. On my S13, I had to go down to 0.6mm, my Pulsar plugs are gapped at 0.85mm with 1.9 bar of boost.

 

I thought I'd ask about the plugs people use because I wonder if a lot of people are running higher boost on a platinum grade 6 plug because of information such as this:

 

Z1 recommends this set of 6 spark plugs for all street driven Twin Turbo Z32's. One step colder than stock, Heat Range "6". Spark Plugs do not come pre-gapped.

Plug Gap Settings:

 

• 0.044" - Stock
  
• 0.035" - 15psi
  
• 0.031" - 18psi
  
  

 

According to that, the stock heat grade for a TT is a 5, and it suggests a .78mm gap for running 18psi on the specially-designed grade 6 platinum plug that sits a long way into the combustion chamber. I'm at a loss as to how it can be recommended to run 18psi on a grade 6 plug of any material, let alone a platinum one :blink:

 

I also worry that people might read some of my posts and think it's safe to run 1.4 bar or 400+bhp on grade 6 plugs when I'm probably the only one running BCR8ES, it's not something I always mention, but it's a very important aspect :blush:

This is taken from Ash Powers' write-up in the 6 P's (Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance):

To mitigate the posibility of 'spark knock', you should use a spark plug that has a higher ability to dissipate heat. This simply means you need a plug with a higher 'thermal dissipation' number. Here's the breakdown:

 

NA stock: PFR6B-11 ; upgrade to the PFR7B-11

TT stock: PFR5B-11B ; upgrade to the PFR6B-11B

 

Christ, it's everywhere... A Hynudai Getz runs grade 5 plugs!!

 

But anyway, thanks to all that has responded. Haribo (and pastel coloured candy necklaces) will be dispensed in due course come September. :D

I am using NGK 6 in my road car. That's running 510 rwhp at .8 boost. This is gonna spend 99% of its time pottering around so any colder plugs will probably just result in lots of carbon deposits. My race car will be running NHK 8 and hopefully won't spend much time pottering around :-) I melted an NGK 7 at TOTB 10 on a top speed run couple years ago won't be doing that again sure I will find another way to mess my weekend up this year :-)

The US are/were unique in running 5's and their plug was/is the 5-11B, however UK and Japan as standard are 6's and it's the 6-11c NOT 11B as in the US.

Because the B is slightly longer than the C, the B was seen as an upgrade for UK/Japan cars, NGK who were commissioned by Nissan to design the plug for all countries for the Zed, confirmed themselves some years ago that running the US plug in UK/Japan cars (modified) would be of benefit.

There were reasons why the US used warmer plugs than the rest of UK/Japan.

 

So in short, we all should already as a minimum be running 6's even standard Zeds.

HTH

Smithy

I run 8's and they're perfectly fine potterting arond town too. Only time they meessed arond me is when I had too rich a tune so they fouled quite quickly, soon fixed that though.

 

The Copper plug sounds interesting so I'll read up on that

I am using NGK 6 in my road car. That's running 510 rwhp at .8 boost. This is gonna spend 99% of its time pottering around so any colder plugs will probably just result in lots of carbon deposits. My race car will be running NHK 8 and hopefully won't spend much time pottering around :-) I melted an NGK 7 at TOTB 10 on a top speed run couple years ago won't be doing that again sure I will find another way to mess my weekend up this year :-)

 

I reckon your car is going to blitz TOTB this year. No pressure :laugh:

 

 

The US are/were unique in running 5's and their plug was/is the 5-11B, however UK and Japan as standard are 6's and it's the 6-11c NOT 11B as in the US.

Because the B is slightly longer than the C, the B was seen as an upgrade for UK/Japan cars, NGK who were commissioned by Nissan to design the plug for all countries for the Zed, confirmed themselves some years ago that running the US plug in UK/Japan cars (modified) would be of benefit.

There were reasons why the US used warmer plugs than the rest of UK/Japan.

 

So in short, we all should already as a minimum be running 6's even standard Zeds.

HTH

Smithy

 

Interesting. The USDM timing map is identical to the JDM timing map apart from pulling some timing at high revs and at 3600-4400RPM on WOT, no doubt due to det with the grade 5 plugs. Still more advanced than the EDM maps on boost.

 

The only thing I could find after a quick bit of Googling was an old post by yourself about 5-11c & 5-11b on the Aus site :laugh:

 

Running the US plug in UK & JDM cars would not be an upgrade if they had 5-11b as standard though, or do you mean 6-11b?

 

Still worries me running anything hotter than a 7.

 

I run 8's and they're perfectly fine potterting arond town too. Only time they meessed arond me is when I had too rich a tune so they fouled quite quickly, soon fixed that though.

 

The Copper plug sounds interesting so I'll read up on that

 

Yeah, I've never had issues with 8s apart from with the 200sx when cruising at motorway speeds for extended periods, they used to coke up slightly so you'd need to give it a bit of a brief kicking :D

To clarify, the end design differs between the B and C plug which you referred to earlier.

The US upped from a 5b to a 611b as an upgrade when modding, we in the UK when we became aware of the slight design difference between the US plug and the UK plug and after speaking with NGK UK found that the spark was stronger when using the US 11b plug.

Hope that makes sense lol.

Searching on here from when i used to sell these plugs should hopefully provide you links to a members meeting with NGK and the results of that, in case relevant to your research.

Oh the only thing i know that resulted in slight changes to US engines (not internally) was their stricter emissions and varying and mixed additives in octane fuel

smithy

Opie oils list 2 types of BCR8ES, 1 is listed as NGK 5430 and the other is BCR8ES-VP4 (NGK 5138). They're both the same price, which one should I go for and what's the difference?

 

Also, looking on eBay, there is a seller offering 10 for less than £20 at trade price. I assume there aren't cheap imitation copies of these products?

Edited August 10, 201312 yr by Joely P

To clarify, the end design differs between the B and C plug which you referred to earlier.

The US upped from a 5b to a 611b as an upgrade when modding, we in the UK when we became aware of the slight design difference between the US plug and the UK plug and after speaking with NGK UK found that the spark was stronger when using the US 11b plug.

Hope that makes sense lol.

Searching on here from when i used to sell these plugs should hopefully provide you links to a members meeting with NGK and the results of that, in case relevant to your research.

Oh the only thing i know that resulted in slight changes to US engines (not internally) was their stricter emissions and varying and mixed additives in octane fuel

smithy

 

Pretty sure I bought those upgrade plugs from you mate. They're still in there and the car is running like a dream with increased boost.

Opie oils list 2 types of BCR8ES, 1 is listed as NGK 5430 and the other is BCR8ES-VP4 (NGK 5138). They're both the same price, which one should I go for and what's the difference?

 

Also, looking on eBay, there is a seller offering 10 for less than £20 at trade price. I assume there aren't cheap imitation copies of these products?

 

Get them from eBay, pay less than £2 a plug.

 

I use the regular BCR8ES 5430, never once had the spark blown out and have been running 1.5 bar (max of 1.6 bar) in the Zed, 1.9 bar in the Pulsar & 2.3 bar in the MR2. No idea about the VP4 designation and how the plugs differ. That's a fairly new thing, not come across them before and neither has the parts guy I just rang :wack:

BKR7E gap to .28 :)