What's your favorite spark plug?

The Bosch platinums dont work in shit. The copper ones work GREAT in VWs but the platinum ones Ive heard work great for awhile on new engines but if you run them rich at all they foul up pretty fast.
I stick with bosch regulars.

 

The line pressure at the shop only went to 140 psi at the plug tester. Don't remember if the machine could handle higher pressure.

 

yeah, but you said others had problems way before 140, so i wondered how the much higher compression in my engine might affect plugs.

 

Just a BTW....if those old spark plugs really have Polonium in them....I would not want to handle them.....do you guys remember the Russian ex-KBG agent that was just Poisoned?(Alexander Litvinenko)....well he was poisoned with Polonium...it can be VERY toxic

Here is it's intro on Wikipedia.........Polonium (IPA: /pə(&#650ˈləʊniəm/) is a chemical element that has the symbol Po and atomic number 84. A rare and highly radioactive metalloid, polonium is chemically similar to tellurium and bismuth, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for possible use in heating spacecraft. It is unstable; all isotopes of polonium are radioactive.

 

This was a very unscientific test.

The test pressure was constant were as in an engine the peak pressure is only there for a very short time.
The test spark was constantly arcing were as in an engine it only sparks once for a short time.
I don't know how these different factors actually relate, plug tester versus engine.

The test was just to see under a controlled situation which plugs performed better with the same conditions applied.

 

Radioactive Spark Plugs (ca. 1940s)

The idea to incorporate radioactive material into spark plugs seems to belong to Alfred Hubbard who received a patent for this concept in 1929. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was, I believe, the only company to actually market the idea. Their first commercially available spark plugs became available in 1940.

Polonium-210 was incorporated into the electrodes that formed the spark-gap of the spark plug. More specifically, the polonium was added to the molten metal (a nickel alloy) from which the wires that were used to produce the electrodes were drawn. The alpha particles emitted by the decay of the polonium would ionize the gas within the spark gap and this would presumably result in a longer and/or “fatter” spark. The November 1941 issue of the Science Digest reported that tests had indicated that “30 percent fewer revolutions were required to start the motor as compared with other spark plugs.” According to the company’s advertising, the sparkplugs resulted in a “smoother motor performance . . . faster pick-up . . . quicker starting . . . save more gasoline.”

That there was any real benefit to using these spark plugs is somewhat questionable (other than the improved performance you get whenever you install new plugs). First of all, the half-life of the polonium-210, 138 days, meant that any effectiveness would be short-lived. Second, the inevitable accumulation of deposits on the surface of the electrodes would attenuate the alpha particles and prevent them from doing their job.

WTF !! ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium_210

 

I used to use Champion J10Ys in my <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Pontiacs</st1lace></st1:City> but when they consolidated part numbers and did away with them I switched to AC. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

I like the Champions we had at work up till a few years ago (we used them all up). They had 4 ground electrodes, just like the 'new' Bosch Platinum +4's, but our Champions were war surplus (for real).

Other than that, ones that spark are the best kind.

 

They were only radioactive for less than a year... and that was like 50 or 60 years ago.

~Jason

 

Exactly!

The WTF part I took away from that Wiki article was THIS:

"Polonium is widely used in industry, and readily available with little regulation or restriction. In the US, a tracking system run by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be implemented in 2007 to register purchases of more than 16 curies of polonium 210 (enough to make up 5,000 lethal doses). The IAEA "is said to be considering tighter regulations... There is talk that it might tighten the polonium reporting requirement by a factor of 10, to 1.6 curies.""

:O

~Jason

 

Then again, it is Wikipedia, how often do they get it wrong, or should I ask how often are they full of shit?

 

H-D SH13S for my '57 Harley and in my cars I use AC Delco, I've tried Autolite and Bosch but they don't last as long as the AC Delco's.

 

I will not use autolites! see thread
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167503

 

Point made.

~Jason

 

I wouldn't let it out that you had any radioactive spark plugs...

The Feds seized the entire inventory of WWII flight instruments from a guy in Southern CA because of the Radium on the dials...
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpres...a1a799faabdec202852570d8005e171e!OpenDocument

Whatever is cheapest usually...
I've had every brand of plug foul on me before, and it was always due to engine problems/tuning not the plug...

When someone would tell me they'd never run Champions in anything... I'd take 'em flying and wait until we were airborne to tell them that's what I use in my airplane...

 

Yep, me too.

 

I just read that story, man. The pics of those guys... I have never seen such smugness...

Where are these "abandoned vintage aircraft parts warehouses"?!??!? Isn't this something people would know and care about saving? Hell, there's probably MILLIONS worth of parts in there...

"The Largest Buyer of Vintage Aircraft Gauges In The World", huh? And they just trashed 'em. Damn - I'd LOVE to have some of those...

~Jason

 

Believe it or not NGK is by far the best plug I've come across.

Never used them in an old car though. Just roadracing motosickles.

 

Never used the fancy ones; just the off-the-shelf. One bad plug in several years of wrenching. But I'd dropped that one on the floor; maybe it shouldn't count...

Pulled a number of okay-looking Autolites out of cars, and had 'em run better with NGK or ND plugs.

Of course, nothing beats the 'made in italy' distributor caps Schucks was selling for a while in the late '90's.

-bill

 

Yeah me too!!!
Radium dials are neat to look at in the dark...
It was in Southern CA... I just fixed my previous post...
Major loss for the aircraft restorers... It's criminal that they could get away with it too... They weren't "abandoned" for sure, just an excuse for the Feds, State & the Local Gov. to grandstand and spend a boat load of our tax money to "Clean up" the mess...
Last I heard the owner was suing...

Just so everyone knows, be careful if you send any of those Radium dial gauges (or anything else radioactive) in the USPS mail, UPS or FedEx... Big time trouble and fines sending radioactive stuff unmarked/not packaged correctly.

 

Use Autolite around here.
I have had the most problems with Champion

 

Like most of you guys out there, I have tried them all .NGK works the best especially if your running rich !

 

I've made the acquaintence of two P-38 guys over the last two years (of the what, 8 flying ones left). If they knew, they'd shit bricks - probably enough to build me a condo in Maui!

Sorry about hijacking my own thread there, guys. This just struck a nerve.

~Jason

 

I like NGK, Autolites, and the Autolite Racing plugs for hi performance, high compression stuff that needs colder heat ranges.

I haven't had too much luck with Champions in anything bigger than a lawnmower!

Nick

 

Great thread, one of my instructors was a sales rep for champion in the 60's and participated in marketing and such for trans am events. I sent him a link, hope he checks this out.. he can drop knowledge on plugs thats for sure. You'd be suprised who makes what these days, even back then the champion factory in Ohio had two production lines, one for champion and the other side for someone else.

 

The other line was for AC perhaps? LOL

Ever hear of the Prosper C spark plug?
http://www.rstreet.us/sparkplugs/prosper.htm

Prosper Champion was Albert Champion's brother. Albert, a former bike racing champion, formed "Champion Ignition Co" while living in France, later moving to the US and starting AC (his initials) Spark Plugs, backed by William Durant (the guy that organized GM in the first place). Prosper came with, and after his brother died he made his own.

And yes, there were a few lawsuits with Champion Spark Plugs over the name, etc.

Albert Champion was an interesting guy. I guess he married a cabaret singer who cheated on him with a prizefighter during Albert's many trips back to France. I believe it was at a New Year's Eve party Albert was back and kissed his wife on the cheek. The prizefighter was at the party too, and went all nutso-flako on him and beat him to death (even though they said that it was a heart attack that killed him)!

It gets better! Years later, while Albert's wife was on her deathbed, the prizefighter came to se her (I believe they had continued some kind of relationship through the years), and one of Albert's brothers (not Prosper) beat the prizefighter to death (well, he died a couple of days later from the beating, anyway)!

I could certainly see Prosper doing the beating, as he tried to convince the cops for years that foul play was involved in Albert's death.

Interesting story... all this from a guy who started out making spark plugs on the side for his friends!

~Jason

 

Autolites SUCK!! I have had more problems with brand new Autolites then any other plug. I don't bother with anything platinum, it's just not worth the money and they don't seem to run any better or last any longer in old cars. Champions or AC for me.