NGK V-groove plugs have a V-shaped notch in the center electrode.
Nippon Denso U-groove plugs have a U-shaped channel in the outer electrode.
Are there any reasons why one design should be better than the other, other than because of the manufacturer?
They are both the same and just designed to sucker a couple extra bucks out of you for the 'cool' factor, like the usual snake oil product.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile... Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06larry moe 'n curly wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:
The best kind of spark plug is the spark plug specified by the company that made your car.
Unfortunately that kind of plug hasn't been made for more than a decade....
--scott
Both are an attempt to get the spark to fire just a little easier. Sharp points ionize the surrounding air more quickly and it will conduct sooner and more reliably, with a more concentrated spark that is supposedly hotter. It's why platinum plug electrodes are so thin. And it's why lightning rods are pointed. The V-groove leaves more sharp edges to do the job than a square-cut elecrode.
Dan
snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:f72mcl$835$ snipped-for-privacy@panix2.panix.com:
What kind of car? What kind of plug?
With modern ignition systems it is very unusual to have ignition-based misfires if the ignition system is working. In the past, this was not always true. Also, heat range was critical- too far one way and plugs would foul, to far the other and the plug would burn.
Now, plug life is astounding, ignition systems are very good compared to old Kettering system, and it is VERY hard to discriminate one plug from another. So it is very hard to sell a specialty plug other than by making rediculous claims for it. :-)
My observation along with that of one of our Toyota area tech specialists is that standard NGK plugs wear their electrode faster that standard ND plugs (these "standard" plugs employ the groove designs that you refer to). Many Toyota vehicles produced in Japan come with both brands of plugs installed, one brand in each bank. On the old systems with distributor/plug wires *and* on the newer systems with COP for each cylinder this observation holds true (from visual inspection at plug replacement time).
It would be unfair to compare them on waste spark systems, hence the above caveat.
Toyota MDT in MO
NOW he tells me, after I spent TWO WEEKS pulling the intake and replacing the plugs in my MKIII Supra with...NGKs...
Put NDs back in her when she blows a headgasket (10,000 miles or so).
Toyota MDT in MO
Not a chance. All that work was done by the previous owner.
Hmmm...when they had ecerything apart, why didn't they change the plugs??!!
One of them looked original!
And if *YOU* jinxed me, I'm hauling the damn thing out there and *YOU'RE* going to put it back together for the price of parts!!! ;)
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