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Quest For The Ultimate Flathead 6 Spark Plug?


Powerhouse

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I have run champions in most of my domestic cars for a long time. I did not have the issues some have had with poor insulator seals and other quality items. Been runing NKG in my Japenese cars and Bosche and European based stuff.

But when I rebuilt my 230 I decided to go to the AC's non resister 45's.

Seat of pants, starts easier runs better. I tried splitfires in my kawasaki mc, wasn't impressed.

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  • 10 years later...

I have used Autolite in the big Desoto for 15 years.  Mostly 303 though I have tried some 85/86 on occasion.  What I find is that for whatever reason the car seems to respond better with a new set of plugs every 12 months.  I guess it is due to the heavy duty service I put the big Desoto through here in the middle of San Francisco.  A lot of time at WOT with the 5000 pound car and lots of stop lights.

 

Attached is a copy of the autolite heat range chart if anyone needs it.

 

By the way Hello Fran, I have not talked to you in a long while.  I hope all is well.  James.

Autolite_heat_chart.pdf

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  • 4 weeks later...

I worked for honeywell for 13 years.  At that time honeywell owned autolite spark plugs.  We made around a million spark plugs per week.  We wete always led to believe thete is little difference between brands, and that all that's needed is one good spark.  It's all about whose advertising you believe.  Also, the gimmick plugs are just that, a gimmick, ie splitfire, which is made by autolite.  Also 50% 0f our production went to ford assembly line as motorcraft.

Edited by jgreg53
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2 minutes ago, jgreg53 said:

We wete always led to believe thete is little difference between brands, and that all that's needed is one good spark.  It's all about whose advertising you believe. 

The good ol days, got to love that time period. Back then Boys were Boys and Girls were Girls.

Today you just never know what you're going to get  ?

 

With the different quality of plugs today, getting up to 100k miles on them, we do have choices. And I have in the past always went with a autolite because of failed champions, I also liked NGK .... but never ran them in a flathead, I do not think the engine matters as much as the quality of the plug.

I went to my local parts house, champions were all they had so I bought them.

Couple weeks later while in a neighboring town, I got a set of the AC-Delco iridium?  or is it platinum?  Not sure, but good for 100k miles, and just not that expensive for a 6 cylinder.

Of course my truck has never left the driveway yet, these plugs may last a life time.  :P

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OK, here goes. For 10 -12 years I have silently read about everyone bashing Champion Spark Plugs on here. I have used them on my 1948 Chrysler Royals since 1974 without any starting or running issues. Never had one fail. Never had bad starts, slow starts, unless I neeeded to tweak my Points or Timing (which is probably the real culprit) or charge my battery if my Chrysler sat a month in the dead of Winter and I couldn't take it out every week because of snow or ice. So that being said Champions in my humble opinion are as good as any spark plug out there. I have had AC, Bosch, NGK in my Pontiacs, Chevy's, and Toyotas, and I really can't see any difference at all. As a matter of fact I found the Bosch Plugs ran too hot and didn't seem to do their job if any plug bashing must commence I personally would not buy a Bosch Plug again, however, Champions will always go in my Mopars RJ12C or 592 (Same Plug) at 35 Thousands of an Inch Gap. Running 6 Degrees Advanced on my Timing and always running Ethanol Free Gasoline - never the Cornalhol/Ethanol Gasoline.

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By the way I believe I have read something over the years in Car Magazines that:

Albert Champion had to change the name of his Spark Plug Company from Champion to AC (for some kind of legal issue) so Champions and AC plugs are really the same plug.

AC standing for Albert Champion.

True or not True I cannot say for sure.

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A Google search revealed that Albert Champion and partners formed the Albert Champion Spark Plug Co. in Boston. Albert later sold his interest , moved to the Detroit area and formed the Champion Ignition Co. A lawsuit ensued over naming, the result being the Boston company became Champion Sparkplug and Alberts Detroit company  became AC.

 

Different companies, but formed by the same man.

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I think it's pointless and waste of money to purchase the platinum/iridium tipped spark plugs if you're still using breaker points and a distributor cap/rotor ignition system.  You won't get to 100,000 miles on those plugs with that type of ignition system anyways.  Once the breaker points become pitted and the cap/rotor wear and carbon up, the plugs really start to misfire anyways.  It's really one nasty chain reaction once something starts to wear.

 

With stock breaker point ignition, I would just use the regular copper core or standard plugs.  If your engine is in good mechanical shape, with good compression/oil usage, carburetor and valve tappets adjusted correctly, then with the regular copper plugs, you should be able to make it to 10,000 to 15,000 miles before needing changing again.

 

If you upgrade to electronic distributor-less ignition system, then get the platinum/iridium tip plugs for your 75,000 to 100,000 miles.             

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I have 30 to 40k on the plugs in my engine, they have been out twice over that time and look nice and clean and except for very minor gap adjustments have given me excellent service  with stock components.  Same wires, same dist cap, second set of points and rotor. I would consider that excellent service.

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In my younger days when cash was tight, I ran 2 or 3 different brands of plus in my Plymouth 218. All were the correct heat range and style. Never seemed to make any difference to starting or any other performance characteristic. But AC's did seem to be much cheaper and plentiful than other brands, probably because the Chevy guys used tons of them for their oil burners.

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