I would never have though plugs could be so... well crap!

Had a set in the car and was starting to get a bit lumpy on first start until warmed up. As it had been approx 6,000 mile since fitted and carb checked, so thought I would put the exhaust analyser on, I could not get the Hydrocarbons to be less then 1,100 to 1,200 and CO was erratic. Took plugs out, electrodes looked OK gaps still OK.

Anyway put in a new set of Champion plugs in, same as before and bought at same time. The engine was now a complete pain, stuttering on load, missing beats etc., so fitted old plugs back in.

Bought some NGK's and after I fitted them found tick over now higher revs, adjusted back down. Stuck the gas analyser back on and CO now good 1.0 to 1.1 and Hydrocarbons at 120 to 140. Engine a lot smoother.

The NGK's were 1.95 each off ebay and a bit of postage, will not go back to Champion plugs.

Adrian

Haven't used Champion plugs for over 30 years, they were rubbish then . Another problem with them is when used in a VW aircooled engine they sieze in the head and break on removal leaving just the threads stuck in the head, have never had that problem with any other make of plug.

Could have been "Old Stock'?
Rumors suggest Champion has made serious quality improvements recently.
Dunno though as I haven't fitted Champions in decades.
Thread sticking is eliminated (mostly) by nickel plated threads.
Did discover that Bosch are also a truly CRAP plug though :-)

[Edited on 22/5/11 by Bare]

Afraid i only fit NGK's now

Anything else thats already fitted, is replaced by NGK's

I had that on a customers car in 1990 came in for a engine tune and said that he had just fitted new spark plugs
so i set it all up then last of checking and adjusting the co it was running at 2.5% co and 1200HCppm

so i said to him i will take out them crap champion spark and fit a set of ngk's without touching any more settings on the car and if there was no improvement he could keep the plugs and get the tune up for free

once the ngk's were fitted co was 1% and 100 HCppm


I only fit NGK spark plugs since 1989

Was having hot start problems recently (Would have to wait for up to an hour if I stopped the engine once warmed up) and tried everything I could think of to sort it without success. So called a mate of mine who know a thing or two about engines and he suggest checking the spark plugs and he said if Champions were in there to replace them with NGK's, so did so and have not had the problem since.

It turns out I had the engine services about six months ago and they changes the plugs to Champion then and it worked OK for about a month before the problem began.

A workmate put a new set of 4 in his MK1 Rs2000 in oct last year just after he took it off the road. Jump forward 5 months and it will not start. As usual he's convinced it's something else as the plugs are new. After much searching and replacing of parts he pulled a plug that was actually sparking. He continued to replace parts to no avail and later found out that 3 of the 4 new plgs were not firing at all.