Double electrodes? Any difference?

[Civicrick]

Getting ready to tuneup my 93 civic dx hb and am curious: Do more grounding electrodes make a difference? Are 2 better than 1 and are 4 better than 2? I do feel there would be an advantage for having the platinum. With these 100,000mi plugs, has anyone heard if they are still effective at 50 or 75000mi? Thanks! Rick

[Jay2TheRescue]

If you go for OEM Platinums then yes, because the manufacturers now sell cars that don't require a tune up for 100,000 miles. A friend of mine just replaced his spark plugs in his 97 T Bird and after ~125,000 miles the stock plugs and ignition wires were still in there. He replaced them and now says the car has a lot more power, but it didn't run "bad" to begin with, and it still passed state emissions with the old plugs and wires. As far as multiple electrodes goes, electricity always follows the shortest path to ground. This means after a period of time it will probably only fire off of one electrode anyway.

-Jay

[Ratman667]

In my opinion the platnum+(insert number here) plugs aren't worth the price. In a car with a distributor such as yours, they probably wouldn't hurt. However, they probably won't help any either. I know in a car with a DIS ignition system with a waste spark, they have been know to cause misfires (happened to me and a few people i know).


Also, up until recently I worked at a parts store. With the platnum+ plugs being such a high profit item we were given spiffs of 50 cents per plug. So, depending on the sales person, they may try to force them on you.

[Civicrick]

I kinda guessed as much. I am gonna go with the platinums to avoid the gap increase that affects regular plugs but just with one electrode.

[bobc455]

As far as I know, a single spark is all it takes to initiate combustion. I don't know what another electrode would accomplish, besides looking cool in advertisements.

-Bob C.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Exactly. Its a gimmick, nothing more. The only way the spark will split 2, 3, or 4 different ways is if the resistance is exactly the same to all electrodes. If the resistance is slightly higher on one or more electrodes those will not spark. Years ago I tried Splitfire plugs (2 electrodes) on my Buick. Absolutely no performance or MPG gain, but @ $5/ea they did make a noticeable dent in my wallet.

-Jay

[dkjones96]

The point behind those Bosch platinum multi-electrode plugs isn't the multiple electrodes making multiple sparks.

It's the surface-gap discharge that the design gives you and the fact that it is so open to the combustion chamber.

[Ford Man]

I recommend using platinum because of the 100,000+ mile change interval. I have ran several sets of platinum plugs in excess of the 100,000 mile recommended change interval with no negative effects in FE or power. The cost of platinum's are only about $2-$3 a plug and last 100,000+ miles. Copper core plugs are $1-$2 each and have a recommended change interval of about 15,000 miles which makes the platinum more economical to use. I could be wrong about the change interval on copper core, I just know that is what was recommended years ago when I used them.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Yeah, it seemed I was putting new copper plugs in my vehicles every 12 - 18 months. When I switched to platinum I was able to extend it to several years. Now that I've switched to OEM platinums I haven't worn any of those out yet.

[mikehallbackhoe]

while two electrodes won't help in the spark department, they do increase the compression a little , which gives more power.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by bobc455

As far as I know, a single spark is all it takes to initiate combustion. I don't know what another electrode would accomplish, besides looking cool in advertisements.

-Bob C.

Multiple electrodes provide many paths of least resistance instead of just one.

Think of each electrode being North , South , East and West.
As one wears the spark changes to the next electrode with the path of least resistance.
For example. If the North electrode is wearing and the South electrode is next in line to have the optimum gap the the spark jumps from the centre to the South in place of the North.
As the South electrode wears the spark then goes to the next least worn electrode in line say East and so on.
There IS only one spark but having multiple electrodes allows the gap to stay closer to optimum for a longer period of time hence the longer intervals between replacements.

Cheers , Pete.

[Danronian]

I've tried bosch-4 plat. plugs in a Honda before that was otherwise tuned-up, and it ran terribly. Switched back to the OEM NGK v-power plugs, and it ran fine.

Any Honda I've bought has always got better MPG with the correct NGK plugs than platinums. I have gone with irridium NGKs once, which did yield the same MPG as the v-powers, and if you are going for a long period of not changing plugs, I would get those instead.

But with a civic, it's so easy to replace the plugs. Just make sure to use anti-sieze on the threads of the plugs and dialectic grease on the wires. I replace my NGK v-power plugs yearly (20k mile interval) and doing that has always gave me a smooth-running car. IN one year they are always rouned where they were pointed and the gap has always increased. But for me $8 on plugs a year and 10 minutes to replace them is always worth it.

[RoadWarrior]

Bosch plugs do multiple sparks by virtue of the fact that they are high resistance, thus dribble your spark energy out slowly. This makes them good for some turbo engines 'coz if the spark gets "blown out" there's still charge in the wires for it to re-establish itself. However, they will make weak plug wires etc flash over 'coz the spark tries to find an easier route. Many are the cars that don't seem to like them, Fords and Dodges seem to be in this category. I believe this is because they have relatively high ignition output from the factory, in the 30KV plus range which is reckoned to be HEI when upgrading. Additionally, if you read up about the benefits of plug indexing, and then look at a Bosch +4... you'll notice that whatever you do, it shrouds the spark.

As pointed out, the mileage interval possible on the +4s is partly due to the fact that they have 4x more "edge" for the spark to start from, and also because lower ignition energy density from the higher resistance means that gap erosion is less severe.

Platinum is a good catalyst for many reactions, this makes it good in a motor right? Not really, it will decompose ethanol vapor into water and CO2 while glowing red, it will also catalyze H2 into H2O and glow red... This often happens BEFORE the correct ignition point in a hot motor, thus you get preignition issues. Therefore, platinum plugs may run poorly in combo with E10 or higher, or with a HHO or other hydrogen assist system.

[VetteOwner]

lol theyve had multi electrode plugs for a very very long time (pulled a dual electrode spark plug out of my 1929 model A engine)

everyone ive heard that use the bosh ones have had issues later on or doesnt seem to make a difference...

i just stick to OEM and dont worry about em.

[T100Glut]

CivicRick,
I was told by a parts person and my toyota mechanic that multi-electrode plugs do not make any difference. I am running a 95 toyota v6. Different make and engine than yours, but, you can increase performance many other ways. If you can see a big difference between using cheap plugs versus the "best" on the market, you may find that something else is really amiss like bad wires or bad Oxy/fuel mixture before combustion. Make sure your main systems, compression, and your plug wires are all good before you make a plug change. When you change the plugs last, any good/bad differences should be attributable to the plugs and nothing else. Also, I have returned plugs before without any problems with my supplier. Ask before you buy, you may be able to test out a few theories before you stick with a solution.