J_C
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- July 30, 2009
- Messages
- 6,029
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- City, State
- Florence, KY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 XLT 4WD 4.0L SOHC
I don't know specifically if AA1car is a reputable source, but it sounds reasonable enough to me, and reasonable enough to spend the few dollars to get double platinum plugs.
Well they tried, but they got it wrong... sort of.
Quote AA1car link: Copper core standard plugs and copper core single platinum spark plugs are not designed to withstand this reverse polarity firing and will suffer premature gap growth due to center electrode erosion.
On standard single platinum plugs, the exposed center core electrode is (the single) platinum, not copper. Using standard single platinum plugs you will have no additional center electrode erosion compared to double platinum plugs. You may get a little extra lifespan out of double platinum but the increase from copper to single is much more than from single to double.
Platinum on the ground electrode is what usually makes it double platinum... the ground electrode wears out nowhere near as fast as the center electrode, so they leveraged the long wear of platinum or iridium to make the center electrode platinum first, especially if a fine-wire design. A fine wire copper center electrode would wear out so fast that I'm not aware of any consumer applications for it.