[ewetho]

Well in a stock ignition system I have found that platinums are just fine if you follow manufacturers specs. Not the plug manufacurer but the Car. I owned several other cars before my neon and when you open the gap up too far they go white ashy and run like crap. I could not figure this out until I looked at the car specs and found theat every one of the books from aftermarket spark plug manufactuers sugested 0.044" gap but the owners manual said 0.039"-0.043" which is not what BOSCH, NGK, DENSO, CHAMPION, SPLIFIRE, AC DELCO, AUTOLITE, Etc. said. But when I gapped the same plugs down to 0.039" and fires up the cars they ran great, and plugs burned tan like they should. Hmmm.

As for the +4 same problem as an overgapped plug. Not surprising considering the source said I should gap at .044 not .039 and thus there pregapped assembly was too wide.

If you are getting white plugs and they are the correct plug, try gapping to the small end of the manufacturers range and see if any improvements are had.

As far as the plug wires being 1500-3500Ω, this absolutely normal as the wire should be about 5-6000Ω per foot. Which is actually funny because champion plugs lately average around 12-120,000Ω per plug not the 5-6000Ω's like they should be. So to go out of your way to eliminate a couple of thousand ohms just to put back way more in a sub-standard plug is rediculous. Most sets of NGK or DENSO plugs are in the realm of 5-6000 Ωs.

The true reason for platinum plugs is that you need a lower arc over voltage to fire the plug and they also wear A LOT slower allowing for longer change intervals. If set up properly platinums in a stock ignition will probably give less HP (1-3HP) and also fewer misfires. If gapped to say BOSCH's recommendations if out of the stock realm will not yield acceptable results.

Happy motoring!