Best spark plugs for stock 1.8T?

[wer138]

Stupid Newb Alert!!!!

Sorry folks but I have to ask this. What are the best plugs to get for a stock 1.8T?
Thanx.

[FNK]

Search button!

But Platinum is great as copper plug worn out very fast, turbo or not.
I currently run Iridium IX for a year now with no problem at all.

Plats are half if not a third of the price, I'll go Platnium next time as 10$ a plug is expensive!

[Seerlah]

I have found that the NGK plugs grant a nice spark. I currently run with Bosch F6DTC plugs (flashed ECU) mainly because they last 25k before changing. I liked the way my car ran better with the NGK units, but did not like having to gap them and having to change them every 10k.

[FNK]

I have found that the NGK plugs grant a nice spark. I currently run with Bosch F6DTC plugs (flashed ECU) mainly because they last 25k before changing. I liked the way my car ran better with the NGK units, but did not like having to gap them and having to change them every 10k.

Is that for copper plug?

[SN95Audi87]

I'm going with the stock oem NGK's. I am in the same boat and I'm going to do a tune up real soon.

[BlazinB5]

so what would be the best plug for a stock 1.8t that'll eventually be chipped in a couple of months? i just found an 01 A4 1.8T for the lady friend and I plan on chipping it as a present

maybe NGK BKR6E or Bosch F6DTC?



edit: i figured it was better to bump up an old thread rather than starting a new one

[$teady$upreme]

ngk bkr6e copper plugs.

[mykeg6]

For stock:

NGK BKR6E
NGK PFR6Q

For BT:

NGK BKR7E
Bosch F6DTC

[BlazinB5]

i see.. is it still safe to use Bosch F6DTC with a non-chipped 1.8T though? my girlfriends car has somewhat new coilpacks (recall is 2012), but i'm sure the plugs are done since it hesitates in boost.

i mostly just wanna get her a plug that'll last 40,000+ miles, instead of the ones that need to be changed every 10,000

[A4Rob]

For e85 run the Autolites. They are very very cheap (less than $1 each) and they love e85.

[cosmicvision]

Wait a minute. I'm under the impression you're not supposed to run anything less than 92 octane in these engines. And I thought e85 was only for those cars you see with the little 'Flexfuel' badges and such. Don't mean to threadjack, but this is all news to me. Am I understanding correctly that with different plugs I can safely run different fuel without burning up 02 sensors, etc?

[melomandn]

For e85 run the Autolites. They are very very cheap (less than $1 each) and they love e85.

Why is this?

[Avant Nate]

Wait a minute. I'm under the impression you're not supposed to run anything less than 92 octane in these engines. And I thought e85 was only for those cars you see with the little 'Flexfuel' badges and such. Don't mean to threadjack, but this is all news to me. Am I understanding correctly that with different plugs I can safely run different fuel without burning up 02 sensors, etc?

There is a lot more that goes into running E-85. He's just pointing it out for the few out there that do.

[cosmicvision]

Oh okay, I thought that sounded too easy to be true. Party on Garth

[A4Rob]

Wait a minute. I'm under the impression you're not supposed to run anything less than 92 octane in these engines. And I thought e85 was only for those cars you see with the little 'Flexfuel' badges and such. Don't mean to threadjack, but this is all news to me. Am I understanding correctly that with different plugs I can safely run different fuel without burning up 02 sensors, etc?

92 oct has nothing to do with e85. I am on standalone. I run e85 because it is cheap government race fuel= to about 105 oct. I make good power on it. Autolite plugs are great for 1.8t e85 users. I make 450WHP on e85.

[redline380]

Wait a minute. I'm under the impression you're not supposed to run anything less than 92 octane in these engines. And I thought e85 was only for those cars you see with the little 'Flexfuel' badges and such. Don't mean to threadjack, but this is all news to me. Am I understanding correctly that with different plugs I can safely run different fuel without burning up 02 sensors, etc?

let me go into detail here.

e85, which is 85% ethyl alcohol, is a popular fuel used from distilling corn. alcohol is a great fuel, however it has its drawbacks. first and foremost, is takes more alcohol to equal the power output of of gasoline. this is why e85 users see reduced fuel milage. they are literally using more fuel to produce the same amount of horsepower. look at it this way. one cup of gasoline has more potential mechanical than one cup of alcohol. this holds true for top fuel dragsters as well. they use nitromethane, which is an alcohol. funny, isnt it? the gasoline we put in a geo metro holds more potential energy than the alcohol they put in 5000 horsepower dragsters.

however, and this is a big however, well i'll let wikipedia explain.

While nitromethane has a much lower energy density (11.2 MJ/kg) than either gasoline (44 MJ/kg) or methanol (22.7 MJ/kg), an engine burning nitromethane can produce up to 2.3 times more power than an engine burning gasoline. This is made possible by the fact that, in addition to fuel, an engine must admit air in order to generate force: 14.7 kg of air is required to burn one kilogram of gasoline, compared to only 1.7 kg of air for one kilogram of nitromethane. This means that an engine can burn 8.7 times more nitromethane than gasoline.

these facts may seem contradicting, but look what i wrote earlier

first and foremost, is takes more alcohol to equal the power output of of gasoline. this is why e85 users see reduced fuel milage. they are literally using more fuel to produce the same amount of horsepower.

this is because alcohol has such a low energy density, as stated by wikipedia. i'll try to sum this up best i can. although gasoline has more energy, you can physcically burn more alcohol with less air while using alcohol.

keep in mind here, we all love our turbochargers. they bring a lot of air to the combustion process. using e85, while bringing less energy to the mix, requires less air. so since we are ramming so much extra air with a turbo, we can make a huge difference in the power department using alochol as a fuel. simply put, using e85 in a naturally aspirated engine will, theoretically, net less mpg or less power. however, using an artificially aspirated engine, you will see far worse mileage, but a huge increase in power.

oh yeah, the above completely neglects the fact that e85 is rated well over 100 octane, with some estimates over 110, so yeah, it is some pretty cool stuff despite the fact it takes more to equal the same amount of power as gasoline. once that threshold is broken, alcohol way overshines gasoline despite is high consumption rates

[melomandn]

let me go into detail here.

e85, which is 85% ethyl alcohol, is a popular fuel used from distilling corn. alcohol is a great fuel, however it has its drawbacks. first and foremost, is takes more alcohol to equal the power output of of gasoline. this is why e85 users see reduced fuel milage. they are literally using more fuel to produce the same amount of horsepower. look at it this way. one cup of gasoline has more potential mechanical than one cup of alcohol. this holds true for top fuel dragsters as well. they use nitromethane, which is an alcohol. funny, isnt it? the gasoline we put in a geo metro holds more potential energy than the alcohol they put in 5000 horsepower dragsters.

however, and this is a big however, well i'll let wikipedia explain.



these facts may seem contradicting, but look what i wrote earlier

this is because alcohol has such a low energy density, as stated by wikipedia. i'll try to sum this up best i can. although gasoline has more energy, you can physcically burn more alcohol with less air while using alcohol.

keep in mind here, we all love our turbochargers. they bring a lot of air to the combustion process. using e85, while bringing less energy to the mix, requires less air. so since we are ramming so much extra air with a turbo, we can make a huge difference in the power department using alochol as a fuel. simply put, using e85 in a naturally aspirated engine will, theoretically, net less mpg or less power. however, using an artificially aspirated engine, you will see far worse mileage, but a huge increase in power.

oh yeah, the above completely neglects the fact that e85 is rated well over 100 octane, with some estimates over 110, so yeah, it is some pretty cool stuff despite the fact it takes more to equal the same amount of power as gasoline. once that threshold is broken, alcohol way overshines gasoline despite is high consumption rates

good info, thanks for posting this

[Mad Cow]

let me go into detail here.

e85, which is 85% ethyl alcohol, is a popular fuel used from distilling corn. alcohol is a great fuel, however it has its drawbacks. first and foremost, is takes more alcohol to equal the power output of of gasoline. this is why e85 users see reduced fuel milage. they are literally using more fuel to produce the same amount of horsepower. look at it this way. one cup of gasoline has more potential mechanical than one cup of alcohol. this holds true for top fuel dragsters as well. they use nitromethane, which is an alcohol. funny, isnt it? the gasoline we put in a geo metro holds more potential energy than the alcohol they put in 5000 horsepower dragsters.

however, and this is a big however, well i'll let wikipedia explain.



these facts may seem contradicting, but look what i wrote earlier

this is because alcohol has such a low energy density, as stated by wikipedia. i'll try to sum this up best i can. although gasoline has more energy, you can physcically burn more alcohol with less air while using alcohol.

keep in mind here, we all love our turbochargers. they bring a lot of air to the combustion process. using e85, while bringing less energy to the mix, requires less air. so since we are ramming so much extra air with a turbo, we can make a huge difference in the power department using alochol as a fuel. simply put, using e85 in a naturally aspirated engine will, theoretically, net less mpg or less power. however, using an artificially aspirated engine, you will see far worse mileage, but a huge increase in power.

oh yeah, the above completely neglects the fact that e85 is rated well over 100 octane, with some estimates over 110, so yeah, it is some pretty cool stuff despite the fact it takes more to equal the same amount of power as gasoline. once that threshold is broken, alcohol way overshines gasoline despite is high consumption rates

All good info but the nitromethane part, it's not an alcohol by any definition of the word. The reason it requires less air is because there's 2 oxygen atoms per molecule (CH3NO2 is the formula) Also that stuff is scary, it burns basically invisibly and holds so much potential for disaster.

[redline380]

All good info but the nitromethane part, it's not an alcohol by any definition of the word. The reason it requires less air is because there's 2 oxygen atoms per molecule (CH3NO2 is the formula) Also that stuff is scary, it burns basically invisibly and holds so much potential for disaster.

duh. obviously nitromethANE is a petroleum distillate. i wasnt in the right state of mind when i wrote that apparently, but it does still hold true.

i also never touched on the ability of alcohol to dissipate heat in the cylinder better than gasoline. and of course nitromethane dissipates heat far better than alcohol. top fuel dragsters, after all, don't even run coolant. the fuel is sufficient enough to cool the cylinder for the 30 seconds they are running at a time.

basically what you get in alcohol is-

less air needed per unit to combust, but less power out of that unit as compared to gasoline
more knock resistance
better ability to dissipate heat in the cylinder. this is the reason meth injection is so popular, but instead of just injecting alcohol to cool the cylinder, you are running the engine solely on alochol.

it really is an excellent fuel. better than gasoline in most ways.

[Avant Nate]

Why do people have trouble in the cold with E-85? Also would it be better to run it on normal compression pistons as oppsoed to lowering ones?

[redline380]

Why do people have trouble in the cold with E-85? Also would it be better to run it on normal compression pistons as oppsoed to lowering ones?

good question. I don't know the answer. But I do know that here in Minnesota true e85 is only available in the summer months. During winter they blend it down to only 70% alcohol to cope with the cold.

As for pistons, I'd imagine 9.25 to 9.5 would be the sweet spot for e85 considering its resistance to knock. Perhaps even 10 or higher if on lower boost. But I do not have first hand experience with it so that's only a guess.

[S4NIK8]

Why do people have trouble in the cold with E-85?

E-85 has a lower vapor pressure, it's less volatile than gasoline which makes it harder to ignite.

[seanentrust]

whats the option on denso copper vs autolite double platinum? they are what i can find locally and are about the same price

[rockersteady]

For e85 run the Autolites. They are very very cheap (less than $1 each) and they love e85.

Thanks Rob, what heat range, gap and coils do they like?

[euro89]

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...ord=spark+plug

This is what I used today, came out to like $46. Took about 20-25 mins with making sure gaps were close to 0.032.

[redline380]

You're kidding me, right? a 2 year old necro bump for no reason whatsoever?

The b6 section is over there <----------

[Puddin Tane]

Whichever plug you decide on, be aware that counterfeiters, especially of NGK products, are going TOTALLY NUTS flooding the market with their garbage all over the internet, especially eBay, but Amazon too. Some are saying the big parts chains are still reliable. A place like ECS seems safe, but some of the other specialty houses are low-ballers, which makes them iffy. Any more, I'm just gonna buy plugs direct from ngk.com

My 2005 A4 is stock, and for plugs I like a loooooooong uneventful service life, so my answer to the OP is NGK PFR6Q. According to NGK tech support, posting in another forum...

answer from technical suppport at ngk.com re: PFR6Q or BKR6EIX. Of these two spark plugs which is better and why?

Hello,
The PFR6Q is a longer lasting spark plug due to the fact is a double platinum design [meaning both the center and ground electrodes are "platinum" -PT]. The Iridium IX will provide improved ignitability, however the service life will be less due to the fact its a single iridium design [only the center electrode is iridium; the ground electrode is nickel and erodes rapidly, requiring frequent regapping to prevent misfiring. No thanks. -PT].
Jon MacQuarrie
Technical Support Specialist

NGK.com's specs for the two plugs clarify that PFR6Q is designed for maximum service life while BKR6EIX is a "performance" plug suited to modded engines.

[Mattr567]

holy necro bump

[IamtheStig]

Whichever plug you decide on, be aware that counterfeiters, especially of NGK products, are going TOTALLY NUTS flooding the market with their garbage all over the internet, especially eBay, but Amazon too. Some are saying the big parts chains are still reliable. A place like ECS seems safe, but some of the other specialty houses are low-ballers, which makes them iffy. Any more, I'm just gonna buy plugs direct from ngk.com

My 2005 A4 is stock, and for plugs I like a loooooooong uneventful service life, so my answer to the OP is NGK PFR6Q. According to NGK tech support, posting in another forum...


NGK.com's specs for the two plugs clarify that PFR6Q is designed for maximum service life while BKR6EIX is a "performance" plug suited to modded engines.

The issue of fake NGK spark plugs offered on eBay and Amazon 3rd party sellers have been ongoing for more than 10yrs! Try to purchase your plugs from authorized retailers to avoid the fakes.