When people say that iridium "lasts longer," exactly what do they mean? I'm tuning my car up about once a year except for the plug wires, so I'm not sure if iridium "lasting longer" is going to make a difference. Also, kind of debating whether or not to go with a K&N air filter, but people say that the cleaning solution will like, break my car or something.

Also, any advice on heat ratings and V-power vs. G-power would be really neat.

 

Look at replacement intervals on cars that have iridium and platinum plugs...i have seen up to 100k miles. I still run copper/nickel and replace annually though.

 

i changed my iridiums at 80k still looked brand new. these things last forever.

 

The center electrode of a spark plug is made out of iridium rather than copper or platinum. Iridium lasts up to 3 times longer(30k intervals v. 100k intervals)than copper.

It has a much higher melting point than platinum (4000 F v. 3000F) and will out last platinum as well. (how long would depend on driving habits)

 

I had to regap my iridiums with 20,000 miles on them because they significantly wore down. I'd hate to see how often I'd be doing plug changes with coppers. That being said, the Denso iridium have a much thicker wire and lasts way longer than the NGK. One of the Toyota motors actually uses NGK in one bank, and Denso in the other. At 100,000 miles the NGK are beat and the Denso still look good.

 

Boosted or nah? Ive changed several hundred iridium plugs ove the years and have yet to see any with significant wear.

Which motor?

 

Don't bother. K&N's filter only about half as well as the pack average to start with, and they get dirty quick, and their flow and filtration degrade just as quickly. Go with a non-oiled air filter like what AEM make. The oil can be damaging to most mass air flow sensors, but alot of Hondas don't use one, so that's not a major concern.

 

heat range is fully dependant on how much heat the engine makes. If you run stock compression and bolt ons, just use the stock heat range. if you run higher compression or low boost, run 1 step colder. if you're making double the power of the stock motor or more, run 2 steps colder.

v-power is copper tip, g-power is platinum. I suggest running either v-power or irridium. in my experience with my boosted prelude, the v-power plugs actually make a hair more power than the irridiums, but the v-power only lasts about 6k miles in my engine, regapping them once at 3k. whereas irridiums have never seen any wear at all in any of my motors. I run v-power at all times now simply for the extra ponies, and replace them every 5k-6k, and check/adjust gap at every oil change (2k-2500)