info on why turbo cars dont like platinum plugs

[1stGenRocks]

hey everybody heres some info i just saw on a dsmtuners thread about nitrous. i thought some of you might want to read it since it explains a bit about how platinums work and why they dont work good with turbos.

"Nitrous and Platinum Spark Plugs

Platinum plugs actually have a piece of platinum in them, hence the name, that heats up very quickly. What this does is help ensure a more complete burn in the combustion chamber, thus reducing wasted gas and in turn, lowering overall emissions. Platinum plugs are great for a stock daily driver, and can last a long time because the platinum gets so hot that it burns up any deposits on the plug; in essence it is self-cleaning. However, on a turbocharged or nitrous application, where you are increasing cylinder pressure and thus, heat, the platinum in the plug can become the hottest point in the combustion chamber and can actually ignite the mixture before the plug even fires. This is called pre-ignition, and actually tries to force the piston back down the cylinder while it's on it's upwards travel. This is not good. This breaks rods."

EDIT>> so basicly platinums are good for economy cars but cause knock in any car with higher compression from turbos/superchargers or just a high compression motor.

[JoeWagon]

Good info, I never knew WHY they were shit, but this makes perfect sense. We try hard to prevent knock due to heat from so many different things, to use a platinum plug would be extremely stupid on anyone tuned for performance.

[metalhedskater]

Yea good info man, thanks! Does anyone know why Iridiums are good?

[RiceRocket18]

i tried switching to NGK 7ES before and only after 300 miles i started having misfiring problem. they're suppose to be the best for our turbo cars. don't know why, but since then, i told meyself that i'd stick to the factory plugs.

[bighauns]

I put it NGK Iridiums and they work amazing, I don't why yours didnt.

[ashah000]

Great info.

[guitarXgeek]

From my experience with Iridiums, they suck balls with turbo-dsms. I ran Iridiums for a week or so, and my car missed so bad at WOT that I could barely accelerate at all. Ever since then I have run NGK BPR7ES gapped to .028 and will never look back.

1stGenRocks, that's some good info there. Nice find!

[kjewer1]

The knocking thing is more of an issue for high powered cars (none of which you will find platinum plugs on though ). The common stumbling/stuttering issue is simply because they are piss poor conductors, and result in a weak spark. On a typical NT car, you dont need a ton of spark and the gains in life expectancy outweigh it anyway. On a turbo car, the mixture is much denser, and therfore harder to get a spark to jump through. The better conducting copper plugs privide this power, at the expense of a shorter life. Change your copper plugs every 10k miles at the most.