Plugs and Plug Wires

RobHook

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This has been posted a million times but here it is again....

The general consensus is that you do NOT need fancy plugs in a Viper. You're better off with plain old Champions. Fancy plugs make no difference in performance and usually cause problems. Mercedes even warned their dealers to never install Bosch Platinums, even if the customer requests them.

As for wires, JonB has a really good deal on the blue high-temp Mopar wires. Again, there's not going to be any performance difference but they might last a little longer before you need to replace them again.

--Rob
 

Russ M

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I just pulled the plugs in my car 8,000 miles, and they looked fairly good but ready to be changed. The factory plugs are designed for emission purposes in mind, hence the long electrode to protrude deep inside the chamber for a cleaner burn.
Since the last thing on my mind was emission control a set of Denso Iridiums were installed. No dyno pulls have been made yet but so far the car feels great and is smoother at idle than ever.
The car will be visiting a dyno jet to see if the rumors are true about vipers loosing 10hp to after market plugs. My bet is that the car pulls just as strong if not better due to the greatly increased spark energy in the Iridium tips.
 

Frank Parise

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We noticed no discernible difference in performance between stock plugs and wires versus stock plugs and hi-performance wires. We also noticed a performance loss going to different plugs from stock.
 

JonB

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Russ M:
I just pulled the plugs in my car 8,000 miles, and they looked fairly good but ready to be changed..... a set of Denso Iridiums were installed.... the car feels great and is smoother at idle than ever. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good for you for dumping used plugs at 8000. Dan Cragin and I have been preaching 7500 miles for years. The result is impressive in Gen-1, and noticable in G-2.


I believe your smoother idle and S.O.T.P. bonus would be equal with $2 champions. And the long-reach plug is NEEDED in the Viper for reasons other than emissions. A faster complete burn is good not only for emissions, but HP as well. And some have suggested to a bit of skepticism that timning itself is slightly altered by having too-short a plug.......

Go w/ OE Champions........
 

Russ M

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JonB,

I totally agree with you on the plugs needing to be changed at much shorter intervals than factory recommends. On my race cars the plugs get changed every 4 passes, but that is another story.

I have heard the loss of power issues in the past with after market plugs, and will definitely be visiting a dyno jet very shortly. Denso asked me to put in a set of these plugs to see how they run, since they know I am a plug freak on all my other cars. Cant hurt to try them right?

As for the faster complete burn part the denso's will definitely out perform any champion or other plug on the market. This was proven to me in a see through pressurized capsule for testing spark energy.
 

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