Planet Minis

redhandmoto

Before the hamburgering of the left-hand duckweb (to use a real, medical-type term) yesterday, I'd been fooling with the air/idle a little bit, thinking I heard a tad roughness, maybe the odd miss while running on the centerstand, and thought about the ignition train. Now that there were a few miles on it, it might have a tale to tell, so I pulled the plug.

It looked good: cafe' au lait.

I like NGK plugs, so after whipping over to Safeway for groceries, I hit the parts counter at the bike shop and got an NGK. Gapped it to .7mm, and did the morning warm-up.

I probably had/have the unconcious expectation that the NGK would be discernably better, but i could swear that the little engine was running smoother, that it idled more evenly and blipped up-and-down without a lotta burble.

Is it your experience that this is true? What measures smoothness and eveness of firing? It is my impression that the plug supplied by Lifan fired listlessly, if that makes sense, and that the NGK woke things up.

Are NGK plugs superior, stronger-sparked? If so, how has that been objectively qualified? It seemed like a whole different engine...

or maybe that's the Advil talking...

88ccmotoX

I fully believe that NGK makes a superior plug period. I use to sell autoparts in a town where Autolite had a factory. The Autolite engineers would be in weekly to buy NGK plugs that they would test and reverse engineer.
I'm sure the materials and QC on the NGK are light years away from the lifan plug that came in your bike and your results by switching are not uncommon!

redhandmoto

Autolite guys reverse engineering NGK plugs - kinda speaks for itself

chasetheface123

i always run ngk plugs. I ran champions in my 85 a few times, but just kept foweling them, switched to ngk, and havent fouled one since

redhandmoto

A stronger, more consistent spark, then?