always used autolites and lately the autolites 3923's which supposidly runs a bit cooler. but have had great idle and no hesitation at all ever.

 

Copper makes better power, and everything else I've read says it's because they conduct better. You're right though, platinum plugs do last longer because of its superior resistance to erosion and corrosion.

 

I bought my truck recently (03 QC 4.7 2WD) with 24k miles on it. it came with champion plugs with around8000 miles on them. it had idling problems and hesitation to the point of occasional stalling when I got it. I pulled a plug to see if the problems could be eliminated easily and found that the champions had eroded away to the point that the gap was around .070.

I read some of the horrible things being said about platinum plugs in dakotas, but could not find any real difinitive information thatpointed to a specific engine or gave a specific problem with them. most boiled down to "I installed the platinums and my milage dropped to_____ and my idle went to crap, I threw the derned things away and...so platinum plugs are junk!".
while it ishealthy to express your opinion, this doesn't help someone who needs to know if the parts are going to hurt their engine.

long story short, I installed autolite platinums for duarbility andmy idling and hesitation problems stopped. I do not like the idea of constantly changing plugs and the condition of the 8000 mile champions I removed from my engine indicate that they were well past the point they should have been changed.

Thanks for posting, it will help others cut through the missinformation.

 

i just pulled a cel from my truck yesterday, "cylinder 5 misfire detected" i pulled the plug from cylinder 5 and it was slightly carboned up so i cleaned it and realised that the plugs that are in the truck(which the guy who owned it before me put in) were the dreaded Bosch Platinums, any suggestions on what i sould replace them with, i was thinking of the stock champions and was wondering if there would be much improvement on my MPG when i did that im already getting 15.5 or so with the platinums in

 

I would put either NGK v-power, or champions in it. their the only plugs that I hear good things about.

 

i second the ngk v-power

 

I've got a 2002 Dakota Quad Cab 4x4 with the 5.9L engine.

I've always been a big fan of the standard Champion plugs. They seem to begood all round plugs that work well in all applications. For the average daily driver I'd suggest nothing else.

A few weeks ago I put a set of Bosch +4 platinum plugs in. I now average about an extra 10-12kms (about 6 -8miles) to a tank of gas (city driving). Not much of a difference, but it's something. I alsonotice that the platinums seem to smooth out my acceleration a little bit.
I've heard few people claim they can feel a difference in horsepower with these plugs. What's more likely is that they notice that smoother accleration and equate that to more horsepower.
I've read forum postings from other 5.9L owners who claim they had a slight drop in fuel mileage with these plugs, so who knows. It may just depend on where you live (altitude) and how you drive. Most people I've heard from all agree that their idle is much smoother with these plugs. Mine was fairly smooth with the Champions, so I can't really comment.

The nice thing about Bosch platinums is that if you buy them and don't feel a difference in performance or fuel mileage they'll give you your money back.

As for NGK's - I've always found they work great in import cars, but I've been unimpressed with them for domestic use. Especially in trucks.

Autolites are good plugs for Dodge trucks but given the choice between the two, I'd just go withthe Champion plugs.

On another note, Iput a Helix throttle body spacer on last weekend. Not sure what that will do to my fuel mileage but I'll know by the end of the week. The power increase wasnoticeable.

Next project....Under-Pulleys!

 

just to let you know, TB spacers are useless on these engines. I would take it back off do a search on here or TB spacers and you'll see why

 

Thanks for theinfo johnny!

I'm still not convinced these are a waste of money.
I searched through these forums, and there are lots of people who don't believe they work, but I wonder how many of those people have actually tried one out. More likely these are people who heard from a guy, who knows a guy, who....well....you get the idea.
There also seems to be a bit of confusion with a few people on here between a properthrottle body spacer and those crappy tornado things you can buy for your air intake that you can pick up for about $20.
I would agree 100% that those tornadoattachments don't diddly.
A few people on the forums who haveTB spacersdo report a noticeable increase in horsepower and low end torque. These also seem to be people with the 5.2L or 5.9L engines. I can't find any positive results posted for the 4.7L or 3.9L engines.
I also noticed thata fewpeople with negative results talked about a whistling sound after the TB spacer was installed. That was a problem with the old style spacers. Anything out there in the past couple of years has a completely different design that doesn't have that problem.

These most likely don't workfor every application, but the truth is my truck has a noticeable increase in low end power since I installed the spacer, and I made a point of not installing any other mods at the same time so I could honestly see if the spacer would make a difference.
I'm not a mechanic or anything (far from it!), but I've beendrag racing on and off now for about 12 years so Itend tonotice subtle changes in my vehicle's performance.

At any rate, it would be nice to see some hard numbers for one of these things. An independent Dyno test would be interesting to see.

Anyone?

 

those bosch platniums are just hell, when i did a spark plug job on my 95 chrysler cirrus with the mitsubishi v6, and they fouled up after 5 minutes also causing cylinders 3 and 5 to quit firing, and they burnt up the new wires i got for the tune up, funny u mentioned they will give your money back, cause i called bosch up the following day, and i got " well since they are fouled and no longer good, we will not refund your money, and as for the wires, you should of purchased ours" big headache.. had to go back to napa, get ngk v-power plugs and napa performance wires, car runs like a champ,

ngk's i beleive are a higher end of champion spark plugs, i got to do my homework on that one, all my friends with their old dodges, fords and chevy have no problem with ngk plugs, i guess you would say its personal preferance but a good majority of people who tried bosch plugs have kicked themselves over buying the german junk, granted the germans have very good ideas and great engineering, but their part quality.. not so much, being a mechanic, i would know.. in the end its personal preferance, buy whatever you like