Spark plug brand?

Not happy with the performance of the champion plug on my Briggs engine on my generator.are E-3 plugs any good or should I go with NGK or something else?5750 watts continuous

NGK

Don't waste your time or money wit the E-3. It will let you down when you need it the most, it is less dependable that the Champions you get anymore. The N G K is a good band and so are the Bosch.

I have not used anything but NGK plugs in small engines for over 25 years. Champions have been pretty junky for that long.

Stay away from Champion. They are junk. I had six fail in one week.I have had good luck with NGK. My brother bought a weed eater. Couldn't get it started. Removed the Champion installed an NGK started right up.

What is it doing?

Short plug life could be a symptom of another problem.

E3 plugs are overpriced snake oil, not going to solve anything.

Be sure you are getting the correct plug, whatever brand you buy.

This thread is interesting.

I have an M Farmall that won't run right on any plug other than Champion.

BTW, did you know AC spark plugs and Champion spark plugs are named after the same man?

Shortly after the turn of the LAST century when the automobile business was in its infancy, a man by the name of Albert Champion started a company manufacturing spark plugs and named them "AC" after his initials. He eventually sold the company to Buick, which is why to this day General Motors uses AC spark plugs.

Mr. Champion then started another company, also manufacturing spark plugs, and named them "Champion" after his last name.

i run nothing but Champion in every engine i have. tried others but come back to champion

X2, NGK

No champions

X3 NGK

Thanks guys ngk it is

Anything BUT Champion. Besides not holding up well, I have broke off only two plugs in my lifetime, both Champions.

I know the Stranahan family owned Champion plugs in Toledo, Ohio. My late father-in-law knew him personally.

X4 NGK

How does a spark plug know what brand tractor or implement it has been installed in?

Have a small Briggs push mower. Electronic ignition, hard to start. Went to dealer for new ignition and he says all you need is a new Auto lite # 458 spark plug. Easy starter now,

Try a different Champion plug .

NGK or ND

I don't know why different plugs work in different vehicles - but they do. The Dodge engines in the late 1990s and 2000s needed "old school" copper plugs - using platinum or other "high end" plugs resulted in misfires. Ford engines in the 1990s and early 2000s needed Autolites or possibly NGK - other brands resulted in misfires. When engines are designed to the "nth degree" anything that falls outside their design specs screws up the entire operation.


I saw a picture of a 1940's truck with barb wire used for one of the plug wires - and it ran fine - try that with a new engine and see how long it takes to get a misfire code.

(quoted from post at 21:31:11 08/18/19) X2, NGK

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In Jap NGK stands for No
Good
Kind-I'm a Champion man myself except when I'm working on something Oriental, then i use NGK.

E3s look just like the one Western Auto was trying to sell in 1970. The local OReillys told me 17 years ago, that everyone they had sold, they had to take back.

What is your complaint with the Champions? If they're fouling out, the same heat range in a different brand will probably foul out as well.

Are you sure you don't have a carburetion issue? Fouling could be an over-rich mixture. I know Honda sells high-altitude jets for its generators; don't know if Briggs does.

I've only experienced one actual plug failure in my life; that was a Bosch platinum plug back in the early nineties. The center electrode migrated out of the insulator and shorted to the outer electrode.

I usually put NGK plugs in my Japanese small engines and Champions in the Briggs and Tecumseh motors. My only complaint with NGK is that some of their small engine plugs require an 18 mm socket.

(quoted from post at 19:55:44 08/19/19) What is your complaint with the Champions? If they're fouling out, the same heat range in a different brand will probably foul out as well.

Are you sure you don't have a carburetion issue? Fouling could be an over-rich mixture. I know Honda sells high-altitude jets for its generators; don't know if Briggs does.

I've only experienced one actual plug failure in my life; that was a Bosch platinum plug back in the early nineties. The center electrode migrated out of the insulator and shorted to the outer electrode.

I usually put NGK plugs in my Japanese small engines and Champions in the Briggs and Tecumseh motors. My only complaint with NGK is that some of their small engine plugs require an 18 mm socket.

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Mark,

Not picking on champion in general, but I have a plug tester... actually I have 4 plug testers, all the same general type. AND...

Testing plugs out of the box, you slowly add air pressure as you watch the plug fire, while looking through the window. Bad plugs will fire at no pressure or low pressure. Only good plugs will fire at high pressure. Some plugs are rated to fire at extra high pressure, all based on the books and specs from the 60s and 70's. High voltage ignition fix this problem on new cars but did NOT fix this on older or standard engines.

NOW.. back to motorcycles with high compression... the so called american brands all test poorly over 120 lbs of compression while nd and ngk all test perfect. The got into jet skis, wet bikes, etc,, same story,, no american plugs would work. built hot rods with slightly higher compression. testing ""american"" plugs... most all of the AC brand plugs passed say 90%..... Autolite, around 75% passed at 125 lbs.. Champions, only 50% passed or fired at 125 or above.. on an engine that was running 125 to 135 lbs of compression.

NOW.. this was on the shop plug tester. I dont know if it had solid wires but I suspected it did. I dont know how the coil was set, but it was pre- high voltage ignition. And the same tester tested all the plugs.

Now I have 4 of the old Ac or champion plug testers That I have collected and cleaned up over the years in my shop, along with the 14 honda motorcycles, jet skis and 13 to 25 tractors depending on time of year and how mad my wife is at all the junk in the barn. I still test plugs and these same factors still apply. Any thing with either higher compression,, or anything with a weaker spark.... will really be sensitive to the plug condition. And now that most plugs are made in china, they are not any better, but actually test with more failures. The other days on a new package of 4 plugs, one failed badly and would not fire at 100 lbs., the other 3 fired well up to 120 lbs +- a few lbs. So yes, what most folks are saying her is correct about some brands being better. Again,, based on how much spark(voltage) and how much compression, you can see a huge difference.

Question to you.. how often is the compression over 115 lbs????

Have no idea where you got that one.

> So yes, what most folks are saying her is correct about some brands being better. Again,, based on how much spark(voltage) and how much compression, you can see a huge difference.

That's a lot of interesting information. I'll note that you're the ONLY poster to actually give hard evidence for your plug preference. All the other posts seem to be of the "Ford vs Chevy" (or maybe "Chevy vs Toyota") ilk.

> Question to you.. how often is the compression over 115 lbs????

When first starting a small engine, I'd think not that often. Otherwise you'd have a hard time just pulling the cord. I am curious, though, what the failure mode is when the plug doesn't fire under pressure. Note that the electrode voltage will rise to whatever is required to jump the gap, UNLESS another current path is found. If there is no fouling and the plug wire is good, the only path left is the spark plug insulator.

Over the years I had 2 of those tester and you could definatly tell bad from good. And I know when Dad and I went out to work ground, put in new Champions for start of spring work tune up. Both tractors in half a day was missing so bad woulf hardly pull them selves. Cleaned plugs and same thing by sypper time. Same thing by bedtime. Repeat for 3 days. Got fed up with them and got a set of tractor supply plugs for both tractors and changed nothing else and never tuched those plugs again for over 2 years. End of Champions for us. Started out with number called for in owners manual, always fouled out went to next hotter, same thing, finally got hottest Champion made and those are what was fouling out in a half day and plowing was not a lite load. Same thing with the AC fire ring plugs would foul out in a half a day.

(quoted from post at 22:03:29 08/18/19) Not happy with the performance of the champion plug on my Briggs engine on my generator.are E-3 plugs any good or should I go with NGK or something else?5750 watts continuous

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Unless you are listening to AM broadcast radio, using a Short wave Ham Radio or transmitting info to the tower at the local airport . Your Briggs does not need , nor want resistor plugs.