All I ever see mentioned here is NGK. I know that they are the OE plug supplier, but I am curious if anyone has tried other brands with any luck. I am just wondering if people have actually tried other plugs and had problems.

Ted

 

Yes we have, that's why we recommend NGK.

 

I believe the general concensus is that Japanese cars require Japanese plugs. Don't screw around with anything else. It's your time and money. Good luck.

 

buy OEM. just pay the $15 each, it was picked by Nissan as the best fit for your engine. Just buy OEM Nissan originals.

 

you can go with ngk coppers for 1.69 a piece. shorter life than plats, somewhere around 25k miles compared to 50k but they also burn hotter than plats and are much cheaper.

 

I Agree...buy OEM, Nissan selected them for a reason

 

Thanks for the input. I am contemplating putting in the single platinum BKR5EGP ~$3 each. The double platinum OE plugs may last longer, but I don't like leaving plugs in aluminum heads that long anyway.

Ted

 

So then just get the coppers.

 

I got the DENSO Iridium, No problem at all. $12 each plug

 

I think I'll go with the Plats incase the rear bank is as much of a PITA as I've heard. If it's not that bad, I'd rather use coppers.

 

Go to the dealer and get the right ngks and tell them the dealer down the street quoted you $11.00 list but he would give them to you for $8.80 totalling $52.80 plus tax. That's what I just paid for mine. Make sure you get the right ones.... correct me if I'm wrong .... PFR5G-11 ... My dealer said that they only carry pfr6g-11, so he's got to order the 5s for me.

 

it is really not that bad. may sound dumb but it helped stretching out before i did it the second time. the lower back tends to get strained.

 

It's even worse on lowered Maximas.

The DEK is pretty easy to get to on the rear bank.

I'd say for the 5.5 g, it gets abit more complex. But even at that the IM removal isn't as bad as it is on a 3.0L.

 

how about the NGK Iridium plugs?

 

I would reccommend those, 1 step cooler. I got my DENSO IRIDIUMS

 

why one step cooler?

 

I bought Bosch platinum 4+ from recomendations from a fellow i30 $6.50 a pop and they SUUUUCK BIG TIME, no power gain and gas mileage decreases im looking to change them soon again.

 

Should have got on this site years ago, we could have told you that.

 

What are the differences between Iridiums and platinums?

 

iridiums plugs may be used for NItrous, thats what i mean by 1 step cooler

 

laser Iridums vs double platinums: fine electrode means more powerful sparks, less voltage requirement. much higer melting point than platinum means last longer. Why don't try laser iridums for the same money.

 

Disagree with that. As I believe, copper plugs are way better than iridium and platinum in turbo and nitrious applications.

 

I agree. It's a better conductor of electricity.

 

IS Denso's owned by NGK parent?

 

Iridium lasts longer then Plats, since it's harder, IIRC.

However, the Iridiums I've seen are "fine wire", which allows less voltage to create a spark. That's good for underpowered ignitions, however Nissan uses a good coil-on-plug system, so I don't think that's an advantage.

For N20 or boost, you want a big fat spark single ground strap copper plug, which is also best for NA guys that don't mind changing their plugs more often.

 

I believe in spark plug apps. they use the same overall weight in the Ir as the copper(Cu), but since Ir is a more dense material, it needs less volume to create the same weight, but the larger surface area is what gives copper an advantage in this debate.

Ir is very hard, but also is a precious metal, hence the price, copper is a relatiely soft material and much easier to obtain as it is used for wires, think good conductor, best conductor of electricity is Gold (Au), but we wont go there.

 

i've seen the NGK iridiums listed for sale cheaper than the stock NGK platinums in a link that i can't find right now.
if they really are cheaper i imagine it would be better to go with the iridium plugs since they could arguably be the same or better in performance to the stock platinum plugs.

 

Pt and Ir are both precious metals.

 

The Ir has no performance over the Pt's as I stated earlier, Cu is the best conductor of all, ---Ir, Pt, Cu---, and is also the cheapest of all.

The only drawback is that the Cu's do not lsat as long. It's been discussed time and time again. . . .

 

Well, I put in new plugs last night. I went for the single platinum BKR5EGP for $3 each. The max runs good. The old plugs were in good shape for 83k miles. The worst one had a gap of 0.048 so there was very little wear.
It wasn't too bad of a job, took me an hour and a half to change the oil, gap and install the new plugs.

Ted

 

I have been seeing a lot of people mess up with NGK plugs. The NGK double/laser platinum plug which was oem in max is equivalent to NGK laser Iridium, except laser IR provide better performance. The cheap IR plug that easy get confused is NGK Iridim IX, which only provide est. half of the DB platidum and laser IR service life.

 

Good Job, but one question. Don't the plugs come pre-gapped to the correct specs?

 

The plugs with the -11 on the end of the P/N are pre-gapped. The ones I bought were more generic.

Ted