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What Are The Best Spark Plugs For Horsepower?
If you are looking for the best spark plugs for horsepower for your car you would likely be looking at getting higher-end spark plugs. High performing spark plugs will ensure that you fully burn all of the air and fuel mixture in your cylinder and allow your engine to run efficiently and to its full potential.
But what are the best spark plugs for horsepower? Iridium tipped spark plugs are the newest spark plug technology and will give you the best performance and horsepower gains. Iridium tipped spark plugs last longer than platinum spark plugs and offer better performance.
Spark plugs can affect the overall performance of your car’s engine. If they are not performing optimally the fuel and air mixture that is sucked into the pistons of your engine won’t burn all the way. Besides impacting performance this can also have an adverse effect on your fuel mileage. But why do iridium spark plugs offer the best performance?
Iridium Vs Platinum Spark Plugs
If you are looking to get the most horsepower out of your engine and spark plugs you are going to want to go with iridium spark plugs instead of platinum spark plugs. Platinum spark plugs used to be the best kind on the market when they originally replaced copper spark plugs but eventually spark plug manufacturers started coming out with iridium spark plugs.
Iridium spark plugs are similar in their overall design to platinum spark plugs but the main difference is the tip of the spark plug. If the tip of the spark plug is made from iridium the spark plugs can last up to 4 times longer than platinum spark plugs. This is because iridium is up to six times harder than platinum so it’s more durable and can hold up longer over time.
I’ve written up a more in-depth article about the differences between iridium and platinum spark plugs and how to install them. If you wanted to check that other article you can click the link here: What’s Better Iridium or Platinum Spark Plugs
Best Spark Plugs For Horsepower
Iridium tipped spark plugs are the latest and greatest spark plug technology on the market and will provide the best horsepower gains as well as preserving the performance of your engine. New spark plugs may bring back some horsepower lost over time by old spark plugs but spark plugs themselves won’t increase the horsepower of your engine significantly.
Installing new spark plugs mainly only brings back lost performance. To check out the current prices of the Bosch double iridium tipped spark plugs on Amazon that are pictured below click here. 
In that case, if you replaced your old spark plugs or platinum spark plugs with iridium spark plugs you could potentially increase the horsepower output of your engine but it will only be back to factory specs.
Anyone that tells you that you can sufficiently increase the horsepower output of your engine by replacing your spark plugs would probably also believe that their car really needs that huge ass wing hanging off the back of it for downforce. It’s a Honda Civic it’s not even rear-wheel-drive buddy.
When Should You Replace Your Spark Plugs?
Platinum spark plugs are designed to be replaced around the 50,000-mile mark, while iridium spark plugs are designed to be replaced every 100,000 miles.
For double the performance it and not much more cost it makes sense to replace your spark plugs with new iridium spark plugs. If you just bought your vehicle and are unsure of when your spark plugs were last replaced on your engine it would also be a good opportunity to just replace them for peace of mind.
If you start to notice that your engine is running funny or you notice a drop in the miles you are able to get out of a gas tank you may want to also look into replacing your spark plugs.
If your spark plugs are old and have carbon buildup on them they may not be able to fully burn the fuel mixture which will cause your engine to pump more fuel into the cylinder to compensate for the spark plugs. This will cause you to use more fuel over the long run than if your spark plugs were new and able to fully burn the fuel and air mixture.
How To Find The Best Spark Plugs For Your Vehicle
I would first search the year, make, and model of your vehicle to see if there are any recommended brands to be used for your vehicle. I know with my Acura TSX the main recommended spark plug brand to go with is NGK spark plugs.
I replaced the spark plugs on my Acura TSX with NGK spark plugs when I first bought my car as I was unsure of when they had last been replaced. When I pulled the old spark plugs out they were also NGK spark plugs.
You can also go to Amazon and put in your year, make, and model of your car and search for compatible spark plugs that way. Not all spark plugs are made the same so make sure that the spark plugs you buy are going to be compatible with your car.
Personally, I think that Bosch makes some of the nicer spark plugs on the market. I’m contemplating replacing my NGK spark plugs with Bosch spark plugs this next time around just because of the technology that Bosch has been putting into their spark plugs.
Bosch has this new double iridium technology where they are using iridium on the tip of the spark plug and on the inlay of the ground electrode. This means that the spark is going from an iridium tip and ground electrode instead of a typical copper ground electrode.
Bosch says that this allows for four times longer service life when compared to standard copper spark plugs. Bosch also has a 7-year performance satisfaction guarantee on these double iridium spark plugs. If you wanted to check out the current prices of the Bosch spark plugs I’m talking about I’ve included a link to them on Amazon here.
Related Questions
Do Better Spark Plugs Increase Horsepower? Can replacing your spark plugs with new spark plugs increase your horsepower? Replacing your spark plugs can only increase your horsepower ratings if your current spark plugs are causing a drop in horsepower because they are old and have carbon build-up on them.
Then yes replacing your spark plugs will result in a horsepower increase but only back to base levels. If you really want to increase your horsepower ratings then you would need to replace your spark plugs and then retune the engine to run with the new spark plugs then you may see a modest 5-10 horsepower gain.
Even then the horsepower increase is really only happening because of the change in the engine tune allowing the engine to run efficiently again. Spark plugs themselves will only increase your horsepower if your current spark plugs are old and have carbon buildup on them.
Which Spark Plugs are Best for Performance? The leading spark plug technology on the market now is iridium tipped spark plugs. Therefore Iridium spark plugs will provide better performance when compared to platinum or copper tipped spark plugs.
You should always go with the leading technology to get the most performance out of your car parts, which happens to be iridium spark plugs at the time being.
If you are looking for the bleeding edge spark plug technology Bosch has recently developed double iridium-tipped spark plugs. This means that they put iridium on both the firing pin of the spark plug and on the ground electrode to offer better performance.
Most iridium-tipped spark plugs will only have iridium on the firing pin and not on the ground electrode. Until a new spark plug technology is developed iridium-tipped spark plugs should offer the best performance.
Are Denso Spark Plugs Better than NGK? Denso and NGK spark plugs are common on a lot of Japanese vehicles. Choosing between the two spark plug manufacturers can be a daunting task. As long as the spark plugs are the same type of spark plug then the performance of Denso and NGK spark plugs should be comparable.
I always heard that you should go with the same spark plug manufacturer that your vehicle originally came with. That means if your car came with NGK spark plugs then you should buy NGK spark plugs to replace your old ones.
Vehicle manufacturers will do extensive testing when developing the vehicle to determine the best spark plugs to use for the vehicle. With this in mind, you should probably go with whatever the vehicle manufacturer recommends.
One caveat to this theory is if the spark plugs they recommend use copper or platinum-tipped spark plugs. If your vehicle manufacturer recommends using platinum spark plugs then you may see some performance benefits by replacing your platinum-tipped spark plugs with iridium spark plugs.
Can Spark Plugs Affect Performance? Yes, spark plugs can definitely affect the performance of your engine. If your spark plugs are fouled or have a bunch of carbon build up on them then they will not be able to burn off all of the fuel that is injected into your engine cylinders.
When this happens your engine is not able to produce as much power to push the piston down as the combustion process was incomplete. Your engine will typically try to compensate for this by injecting more fuel into the engine cylinders to allow them to produce more power which will lead to your engine using more fuel than normal.
If your spark plugs are old and need to be replaced then this can definitely affect the performance of your engine. Replacing your spark plugs with new spark plugs should bring your engine back to base level performance if your current spark plugs are old.
Best Spark Plugs for Gas Mileage? To get the best gas mileage in your car you want to make sure that everything is running as efficiently as possible. If you are looking to get the best gas mileage then you would want to buy spark plugs that are able to fully burn the air and fuel mixture and efficiently run the engine.
Currently, the best spark plug technology on the market is iridium spark plugs. If you are looking to get the best gas mileage and performance out of your engine then you would want to make sure you have iridium spark plugs installed in your car.
If you are unsure of what type of spark plugs you have installed in your engine then you can replace your old spark plugs with new iridium spark plugs so that you know that you are getting the most out of your engine. Other than that gas mileage comes down to a whole lot of other factors outside of what kind of spark plug you are using.
Things like how hard you press the throttle, how often you use cruise control, and how hard you brake will all increase or decrease your gas mileage more than any spark plug will.
Best Spark Plugs for High Mileage Cars? The type of spark plug that you use on high mileage cars should not matter that much. If you have a high mileage car and don’t want to drop any extra money into it that you don’t have to then you may want to go with platinum spark plugs as they will be cheaper than iridium spark plugs.
If you still want to maintain your high mileage car to the best of your ability then you would want to go with iridium spark plugs. Iridium spark plugs also last longer than platinum spark plugs which means that you won’t have to replace your spark plugs as often if you go with iridium spark plugs.
Best Spark Plugs for Racing? If you plan to take your car racing on the drag strip or around a track then you likely want to get the best performance out of your engine. Currently, the spark plugs offering the best performance are iridium spark plugs. Iridium tipped spark plugs last longer and provide a better spark than the older platinum spark plugs.
Bosch recently developed double iridium-tipped spark plugs if you want to get the latest and greatest spark plug technology for your engine. These spark plugs use iridium on the tip of the spark plug and on the spark plug electrode to provide the best performance.
Unless noted iridium spark plugs will typically use iridium on the tip of the spark plug and steel as the electrode conductor.
In Conclusion
The is no real best spark plugs for horsepower it’s really more about what is the best spark plug technology that is available currently.
If you are looking to get the most out of your engine’s performance you want to go with the best spark plugs that are currently available for your engine as they are going to be the ones that are going to have your engine run efficiently as possible.
Hopefully, you now know more about the differences between iridium and platinum spark plugs and are able to decide which spark plugs are going to be best for your vehicle.