I hear of people raving about the new Bosch 4 prong spark plugs, I was wondering if anyone put them on their truck and if it made a difference at all.

 

Waste of time and money!

I put them in my 4.0L ranger that was chipped, full exhaust and cold air intake.

No power difference. It did start quicker, that was about it.

Milage, no difference.

When I removed the plugs at 5K, 2 of the 6 were firing on all 4electrodes. 2 were on 2 electrodes and the last 2 only fired on 1 electrode. You could tell by the browning of the porcelin center.

Spark plugs really dont do a lot for power for most all apps but racing. You should change your plugs every 15k for the best power and economy. Unless they are old and fouled, you should notice very little difference from changing plugs.

 

Personaly I like the Bosch +4 plat. I have them in my truck... True a lot of money for some plugs... but I did notice some improvements.... like better accleration.... even thought I put the plugs in a the same time I put my Airaid on... so maybe it was the airaid... who knows who cares. All I know is I like them and have had no problems with them so far...

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99' Ford F150 XL Sport
(Black) V-6 3.55 manual
Mods:
Airaid, Bosch +4 Plat.
Dynomax Ultraflow SI/DO
Color Keyed Carpet
AVS Headlight covers
AVS Bugdeflector II
Lund Wiper Cowl
Lund Tinted Glass
Lund Soft Bed Cover
V-tech Taillight covers

 

I thought the purpose of +4's was to have 3 spare electrodes to go to as one wears out. It would be nearly impossible to adjust them to all fire at once. This way they will last 4 times longer?? Just my thoughts.

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97 Lariet-sc-4.6-4x off road-auto-3.55 LS-
superchip-K&N-3"
pvc air box mod-Granetelli MAF

 

I dont bother with aftermarket plugs anymore. I have found my vehicles run better and I have fewer plug problems when I run OEM plugs, no matter what I am driving.

The only aftermarket plugs I ever liked were the origional bosch platinum and champion truck plugs.

--karl

 

At $4.99 a piece they are worth it. Last bought them at www.partsdoc.com. free shipping on 8 plugs. No problems with them at all.

 

I put them in a 90 model 3/4 ton chev. van w/350 the first of the year. Was getting about 15 mpg before, best 1/4 mile time was 17.89, 78mph. With the plus 4's I now get 27 mpg, last 1/4 mile was 14.55, 97mph.

Right, you beleive this I'll tell you what the Tornado did for performance. Actually I did install them with new Bosch wires. Can't tell any difference but have no complaints. BTW the plugs I removed were the originals as were the wires, 10 years old, 52K miles and they actually looked pretty good.

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98 Nascar Edition, Superchip, Airaid, Flowmaster 70 series, bedliner, in bed tool box, Profile bug deflector and window vents, Class III receiver hitch.

 

I to haven't really noticed any improvements from. I don't have any negative coments about them either.

The one thing I wish I never put them on, because when a Jacobs DIS and a supercharger I'm gonna need to get rid of them cause they can't be used in either application.

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black 97' x-cab 4x4, 5 speed 4.6, black westin nerf bars, pilot ground searchers, borla SS split rear exhaust, K&N genII, bosch +4 plugs, superchip, flexalite electric fan, v-tech oval side window covers, IAS shocks

premier 720, pioneer 6cd changer, 12 premier sub, premier componets, 2 soso amps

still to come: new spark plug wires, new rims and tires, maybe a supercharger eventually.

 

I think it's just a way to avoid more frequent plug changes.

My Jacobs ignition came with notes to aviod any of these type plugs. Seems to me that someone selling ignition parts would want the absolute best option to help their product work the best it can....

I use regular plugs. Change them and index them while I'm at it.

 

Just installed a set of eight of them in my 97 4.6 F150. Noticed much better acceleration, better idle, but not much improvement in gas mileage. I think they are well worth the money, just for the added power at startup. Would buy them again at $6.00 per plug.

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97 F-150 Lariat, Leather, Ext. Cab
White/Champagne, 4.6L, Auto.
Tinted Windows/Bedmat
Toolbox/Lund Bug Deflector
Dual Exhaust
Grille Guard
Chrome bed rails
265/70/16 Goodyear Wrangler Rt/S

 

Hey Johnny Bonds when you said the Tornado did you mean that thing you put inside your air intake tube to swirl the air??

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99' Ford F150 XL Sport
(Black) V-6 3.55 manual
Mods:
Airaid, Bosch +4 Plat.
Dynomax Ultraflow SI/DO
Color Keyed Carpet
AVS Headlight covers
AVS Bugdeflector II
Lund Wiper Cowl
Lund Tinted Glass
Lund Soft Bed Cover
V-tech Taillight covers

 

wilddancer - if the plugs your replacing are warn out and not in that great of shape, then any fresh plugs will give noticeable improvements in the engine. I installed the +4's when my original plugs where still good, I noticed a small improvement in idling and a little smoother acceleration, but no power increase.

 

H.Horseman, yea, that is what I'm talking about. Never heard any "true" stories about it doing anything good.

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98 Nascar Edition, Superchip, Airaid, Flowmaster 70 series, bedliner, in bed tool box, Profile bug deflector and window vents, Class III receiver hitch.

 

As another poster responded, unless the plugs you're replacing are worn, you generally aren't going to usually feel a really noticeable difference in the seat of the pants. You usually get a better throttle response, and perhaps a bit better mileage, but spark plugs, in general, are not traditional "power-gainers".

That being said, we use the Bosch Platinum+4 plugs in all our vehicles, and they are well worth their cost. Smoothest idle quality we've ever had.

The 4 evenly spaced electrodes around the bommon circumference of the plug doesn't mean that all 4 are going to fire at the same time or evenly, that oisn't going to happen, it's just a principle that electrons flow to the closest ground, so provide multiple ground paths to reduce potential misfires. So in other words, you have less chance of misfire, the spark is unshrouded allowing bettter flame front propagation in the combustion chamber, and more complete burn. As an added bonus, they are automatically "indexed" in the cylinder head.

You might pick up 2, 3 to maybe 5 hp from them, but no more, unless you are replacing old worn plugs.

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

H.Horseman, IMHO, no, don't waste your money on a Tornado. Do a search, last year there was a string on it and if I recall correctly it didn't really do anything. If you can't find anything, start a new topic. Good luck.

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98 Nascar Edition, Superchip, Airaid, Flowmaster 70 series, bedliner, in bed tool box, Profile bug deflector and window vents, Class III receiver hitch.