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Egad, I got this post mixed up with one on heat range.
Yes, spark plug types, advantage? Well, platinum is proven.
And did you notice some of the platinum plugs that came with the car have platinum only on one electrode and half of them have it on the other? Has to due with electron flow and erosion in the dual plug coils and the manufacturer being able to buy single tipped plugs cheaper than dual tipped platinums. Look at the number on the OEM plug, it has an odd suffix and the catalogs don't even mention it, we cannot buy them, manufacturer only.
So platinum is proven as an erosion resistant material, and the iridium is supposed to be even better, but perhaps the electrode would then outlast the insulator and the threads electrolytically corroding into the heads. Maybe we should stick with platinum and change then every few years just those 2 items sake?
What about the copper and silver cores? Gotta be better than carbon cores? I mean like carbon is a resistor, right? Well, it all has to do with high voltages, very little current flow, radio suppression and a whack of other things, but basically, no, copper and silver cores do not help. A carbon core actually helps to build up higher spark voltages and hotter spark as well as dampen radio interference. No magic bullet in core or electrode types other than what the manufacturer specified unless you have highly modified the engine some strange way.
Cheap plugs are made of cheap materials and have bad things happen. Electrodes fall off, insulators carbon up easily, electrodes wear. No bargains in off brand plugs and made in China look-alikes.
Steve
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