Spark Plug Question.

[DJ Trance AZ]

So what are the differences between the spark plugs available on the market (say name brand vs. no-name ones) and does using a really expensive spark plug help to improve performance?

Thanks.

.Eric

[Pete_Coach]

The primary differences are research, development, quality assurance and, testing of the product.
No name brands are often just knock offs of the technology without the understanding of the materials, composition and again, the quality of manufacture.
Now, if you are asking about the difference between a recommended brand and the "dual spark", "quad spark" or any of the other gimmicks out there, well, you get what you pay for and well, there ain't nothing for free when it comes to internal combustion. No extra power for just a spark plug, it takes much more.

[bonerhaus]

Expensive spark plugs like platnum or iridium are meant to last longer than the traditional spark plug. They wont give you a performance gain, unless the plugs you have now are fouled.

[tebore]

Unless you have boost (and it's pretty extreme) or you're running nitrous (I assume for track use) basically if you don't have a racing engine or a ultra high performance engine good old copper plugs will do.

The thing with copper plugs is you'll need to change them pretty frequently (yearly is a good rule of thumb). Copper plugs burn up and wear as you drive which means you should regap them every once in a while(when your change your oil). I've seen some cases where the plug has worn out so bad the electrode is inverted side the ceramic(caused some intermittent misfire).

Platinum tips are the same thing as the above but they hold up better. A lot of companies say you don't need to change them for like 100,000km. It's true you don't need to CHANGE them but you should(need) to regap them yearly because like copper they wear down.

There's platinum covered tips which is just copper dipped in platinum which I think aren't worth it. It's gonna last longer than copper but not as long as pure platinum.

Iridium plugs I think should be used with the extreme cases where the plugs are gonna get abused otherwise you're wasting your money.

I haven't actually seen those V powers, +4, +2 show any real improvement on paper but some do show better feel.

Personally I'd say change the plugs often if they're are easy to do and go just go with decent platinum. For my car I went with Iridiums because the rear plugs on my V6 are a HUGE PITA to get to so I figure I'm doing it once and I'm not doing it again till I sell my car.