Iridium Spark Plugs
The main function of a spark plug is to ignite the Air-fuel mixture inside a combustion chamber. The current is supplied to the plug by using an electrical ignition system. Spark plugs must provide a path for the flow of electrical energy from the ignition coil to create a spark used to ignite the air-fuel mixture. The ignition coil will supply the high current needed to the spark plug. When the current reaches the tip of the central electrode, it arcs and joins the base (ground) electrode to form a spark which ignites the mixture. Spark plugs are under constant chemical, thermal, physical, and electrical attack by corrosive gases at 2,000 degrees Celsius, crushing pressures of 2,000 pounds per square inch (PSI) due to the working of the piston, and electrical discharges of up to 20,000 volts. The spark occurs dozens of times per second and over a million times in a day’s worth of riding.All the conventional plugs fail to supply proper voltage when its tip gets carbonized or when the resistance of the plug becomes too high. The resistance power basically depends on many factors. Many people install IR without any high performance plug cables, this can create resistance in the wires when it comes to long term use.
There is no need of Introducing Iridium Spark plug to you guys as many of you would have at least heard of that term and not an alien word in the world of motoring. It became very popular with the foray of performance bikes into the Indian Market. By the turn of the decade, we are going to witness more and more of these Adrenalin spark Injectors.The main metal used in ordinary spark plug is nickel-iron or chromium based substance.Iridium is one of the hardest, strongest, and precious and one of the rarest metals found on earth’s crust.Iridium is the best, but too hard to handle. Iridium is 6 times harder, 8 times stronger and can withstand temperatures exceeding 2454° C.
IR is basically connected to an ignition coil through a cable. For IR the best cable is high performance cable and so too is the required coil. The ignition voltage in the combustion chamber is nearly about 18000V. These days’ high performance coils can be found on various bikes, For example a Royal Enfield has coil which gives about 24000V, MSD ignition gives about 44000V. That’s a lot of voltage to be dealing with and in order for it to reach the plug without much loss, the need for high performance cables arises.
Advantages
- Improved Firing Performance:To improve firing performance, the contact area between the electrode and the flame nucleus needs to be reduced in size. This is why the electrode was made as fine as possible to a diameter of 0.4mm. Compared to normal Spark Plugs, with a spark gap of 0.8mm, the ignitability limits are better by 2.5. Less metal on the tip allows the spark to expand in a greater area, maximizing firing performance and minimizing voltage requirements.
The required voltage in the Iridium plugs is between 3000 volts & 5000 volts that is less than a normal plug. This is due to the ultra-fine 0.4mm diameter ground electrode. Because the required voltage is kept low, Iridium plugs can be used in high performance engines and for high response driving. - Smoother Idling: When an engine is idling, firing can become particularly bad. Because Iridium Power plugs have a low required voltage and high ignitability, sparking continues to work properly during idling. Whereas normal plugs have highly variable rpm counts, Iridium Power plugs maintain very smooth idling. Also, because combustion is good, the explosive energy raises the rpm count.
- Decreased Fuel Consumption: When Iridium Power spark plugs are used, accidental fire and misfiring rarely occurs under various driving conditions. Therefore, combustion is extremely good. In turn, a healthy engine can be maintained and fuel consumption improved.
A common misconception is that changing spark plugs will result in a large power increase. In most cases, removing even seriously worn out spark plugs will only result in tiny power gains, typically about 1-2% of total engine output. This could be even less for computer-controlled vehicles, primarily because most newer vehicles have more powerful ignition systems and the vehicle’s computer can make adjustments so that vehicle operation is not affected by the resistance generated by the spark plug.
Many people think that simply supplying more spark to the firing tip can and will combust more fuel. What they don’t understand is that most new fuel injected vehicles are designed in a way that they can use even the last drop of fuel. So fitting a better spark plug wont be able to make any sort of changes here as the computer already controls the fuel pump and injector along with the sparkplugs.
When a stock or near-stock engine is given a fresh set of spark plugs, peak efficiency is restored. The power gains that come from this restored state of tune are usually minimal. Any company that tells you that their spark plug will provide significant gains in power in a stock or near-stock engine is making blank statements that may not be supportable.
