It used to be that we didn’t pay a lot of attention to what sort of spark plug was installed in our engines. We put in what our mechanic recommended, complained when they fouled, paid to get them cleaned and gapped at the annual and threw them away when they wore out.
With the electronic engine monitor unlocking many of the combustion mysteries under the hood, increasing attention is being focused on spark plugs, the quality of the spark they produce, how long they last and how their design might save us cash. If you’re running a normally aspirated, large-displacement engine at least 100 hours a year, we think that fine wire plugs will be less expensive than the massive electrode style when you total up the full cost of the plugs, maintenance and possibly fuel efficiency. And, yes, we recognize that the purchase price of fine wire plugs is two to three times higher than massives.
It also appears that electronic engine monitors are teaching us that engine problems we used to blame on other things may be more accurately traced to a spark plug malfunction. Thus, we have become concerned about and watching two ongoing issues with reliability of Champion plugs, which we set out in the sidebars to this article.