I consider myself a mid level mechanic, not high but I know how to do research. I cut my teeth with a pair of Polaris Colt 250 cc snowmobiles, then older Arctic Cat, walked home a few times. My uncle was big on the basics, spark, air & fuel. I try to start there, and the various ancillary contributors. I have an older Cub Cadet mower, bought new in 2007 or so, maintained fairly well. It’s a 2518, a little more mower that the average big box store sells. I’ve had a few ‘deep dives’ over recent years, always able to correct the issue. This Spring it had a rough start, hard to start, not running smoothly under a load. I have some other mower prospects but wanted to give this mower a chance. New plugs, fuel filter & the fuel cap vent were check & fixed. The main gist of this post is the spark plug I was grudgingly steered into a year or so ago. I went to the parts store, tried to get the NGK I wanted, not available. When I asked he said ‘we haven’t had any returns’, implying it was a fine plug. Well, reviews are fairly terrible. 5 days ago my mower wouldn’t start without a shot of starting fluid. After that it ran ok, but far from great. This time I ordered from Rock Auto, good price, here in 3 days. Today was my test. The mower immediately started up, normally. It also ran like new under load. There’s talk today about infant failure, where even new, or newer parts can be defective. I see this E3 plug is made in China. Full disclosure, the NGK is assembled in Thailand, noted with some Japanese parts & oversight. Here’s a picture, negative review on the E3, I prefer NGK iridium plugs.
I grew up riding dirt bikes so NGK was/is always my go-to plug brand. In recent years I've ordered them online if I couldn't find what I wanted in stores. I've heard more than a couple times now about people getting burned from other in-store brands. I think I've been burned twice myself buying aftermarket parts from Rock Auto too, FWIW. Hopefully your new plug gives you plenty of trouble free use (if you didn't have an issue right off the bat, chances are good you won't at all)
No matter how many or what shape the ground electrode is, it'll only have one spark despite what their marketing images portray.
I’ve always had good luck with NGK plugs. From what I’ve read, best bet is to get them from a local retailer vs online. Some say Amazon has a lot of knockoffs that look convincingly legit. Same goes for oil filters. I’ll hit the dealer for OEM ones. Yeah, a bit of time and a few more bucks, but not willing to gamble with oil filters.
Yup, genuine NGK plugs are top of the line, as long as it's the real thing...been hearing about a TON of knockoff name brand parts lately. Was just reading about some fake "genuine Ford" parts ordered off Amazon that were packaged and labeled to a level very difficult to detect. I got burnt on some fake "Honda" parts off eBay a couple years ago...I mean they worked, but not Honda quality though...good thing they were cheap enough to just kinda write off as a lesson learned. The price should have been the giveaway.
Sometime plug performance comes down to the particular application. I had zero success with NGK plugs in the Honda 200 ATVs. They ran a little rich mid range and NGKs would foul shortly where Champions would last well enough I couldn’t complain. Very likely the Champion was a hotter plug. Along the same lines we had a wheel loader with a Case 377 I-6 gasoline engine. Autolite 386 plugs would occasionally foul; stepped up to the hotter Autolite 388 plugs and never had problems.
Nippon Gaishi Kaisha (Japan Insulator Company), founded in 1936. I looked up what NGK stood for, never knew.
Exact opposite experience here! I have fixed dozens and dozens of bikes (maybe hundreds!) by chitcanning the Champions and putting in a DPR8EA-9 (or 7, in the case of an older runs rich ATC 200) But the better solution was to lower the tapered fuel needle .5 to 1 full notch to compensate for wear, usually the worst at half throttle. They would very occasionally puke a resistor in the plug cap too...that could cause anything from no start to driveability issues.
I got burned by fake ngk plugs from ebay. I called ngk and gave them the numbers off the plugs...fake. Unfortunately they have to have a web page explaining this because there is such a big problem with counterfeit chicom garbage. Some people have had catastrophic engine failures from the counterfeit plugs as the electrode breaks off or the center of the plug falls out. I was lucky and happened to read an article on th problem before the plugs were put in the wifes car.
I use mostly NGK. Back around 2012 I went into the spark plug rabbit hole. Best results saw a slight increase in mpg (~1) with no change in power. They were a Bosch varitey of iridium that were slightly 'colder' than oem. I run oem spec now. Have used a ton of Champion plugs in small power equipment without issue.
