Joined: Fri Apr 21 2006, 07:28AM
Location: England
Posts: 739
Im on the NGKs, never had any problems with them. I once had some Bosch plugs where the isolation broke down without warning and that put me off them. I also had some AC delco plugs that you couldnt screw in by hand. Bit off a pain when you've got headers on.
I bought a set of Autolite 85's ( I think) that are supposed to be a substitute for the Champions. The Reach was really short and I was afraid to use them....they didn't go as far into the combustion camber as the Champions. I did try some Bosch plug and they worked fairly well.
Joined: Sat Nov 15 2008, 08:27PM
Location: NE Pennsylvania
Posts: 428
70NEWYORKER wrote ...
... The plugs recommended in the service manuals were from a time when regular fuel was about octane 92. Today's premium is barely better than that.
On a related note: In the US and Canada around the mid '70s the octane rating of gasoline started being listed on the pumps as an average of Research and Motor octane. Before that (and still in nearly every other part of the world today) octane was listed only as Research octane which was 4 - 5 numbers higher. What this did was make it look like the octane of fuels in the late '70s had dropped a lot more than it really had since the good old days of the 1960s. Regular leaded gas in 1970 was about 94 Research octane which is about 89 - 90 "R+M/2" octane on today's US and Canadian pumps. Premium was generally 98 - 102 Research octane which is about 93 - 97 using the R+M/2 scale. When unleaded regular came out, it was 91 Research octane or 87 R+M/2. This change coupled with the fact that the rest of the world still uses the straight Research octane number has caused lots of confusion over the years.
The bottom line is that mid grade "89 octane" fuel in the US and Canada today is fairly close to the octane of what the old regular leaded fuel had and "93 octane" unleaded premium is also close to what the lowest octane leaded premium tested as back in the early '70s.
Joined: Sat Mar 29 2008, 03:36PM
Location: North eastern Wis.
Posts: 1638
Just curious, what makes the NGKs better? I have been running Champions since I got my first car in the late 70's. I still use Firestone tires as well. Guess some old dogs just don't wanna learn new tricks.