Champion plugs no good?

[Rusty_OToole]

Heard from an acquaintance that she replaced the (new) Champion plugs in her 1940 Dodge with Autolite and it runs much better. It seems Champion plugs have slipped quite a few notches in quality, anyone else run into this?

[whtbaron]

Like everything else these days, it's all about quality control, or lack of. I was buying NGK's because I thought they were better, but ran into some bad ones there as well. Also has a lot to do with who dropped which shipping carton off the loading dock I think.

[Guest Henry White]

I dont know about Champion, but it seems many companies have offshored production and dont care about quality, only the next quarterly shareholder report and their own compensation. They are living off of the good reputation built over decades, and quickly losing that image today. Quality has been going downhill ever since Nixon hooked us up with china 40 years ago.

[JACK M]

In the 70s I worked at a auto shop for awhile. A customer came in with an older (50s) Studebaker with a flathead six.

My tune up included plugs, cap, rotor, and plug wires. The thing would not start. We towed it, cranked it and cussed at it.

Some body mentioned that the Champion plugs could be the problem, I don't remember what I put in it but it started right up and ran great.

Since then I was in the boat business and all Evinrude and Johnson motors recommended a Champion plug number and came with them oem. I told a service instructor my story and he said that when Champion started using a 'C' in their part numbers that problem went away. It stands for copper, I don't know what spark plugs are made of but apparently if they use copper it works better.

I never ran into any problems with Champion plugs on any outboards that I worked on.

[GLong]

In the late '70's and early '80's I worked part time at a shop. Mostly on Japanese and European cars.. Almost without exception, Champion spark plugs had odd spark patterns on the Scope, and the original Bosch, NGK, Nippondenso etc plugs worked correctly.

I earlier years, working on air cooled VW's, the Champion spark plugs were almost guaranteed to gaul the threads in the aluminum head and require an insert or Helicoil. The Bosch plugs rarely caused problems.

So, in my Vocabulary, Champs are labeled : Chumps.

I have used the 'Vintage car' Champion plugs, the 18mm threaded ones. But Usually use Autolite 3076 plugs in my driver-cars.

When I have the chance, I choose to NOT use Champions.

Champion may have 'fixed' the earlier problems, but they ruined any faith I had in their products.

GLong

[keiser31]

I cannot count the amount of Champion plugs that I have gotten new from the parts store only to have them worthless. I always use NGK "V"-groove from now on.

[GLong]

It seems that Champion spark plugs are like Fram oil filters: a well known name that is on a poor product. The price leader Fram oil filters are VERY cheap, just hold one in your hand and compare the weight of a good filter of the same size.. less weight, less filter surface, thinner metal, poorer sealing etc.. I've had several Fram filters come apart internally, and when cut open, were completely garbage inside. I've 'sweated' over a few engines because of this. But so far, only one was damaged by filter element paper that got through the oil pump, and clogged an oil squirter for cylinder lubrication. This same engine had a lot of small pieces of paper in the oil passageways in the crankshaft..

GLong.

[Mark Shaw]

Ditto post #5

[Larry Schramm]

I always use anti seize compound on the threads when installing plugs, especially when putting them into an aluminum head.

[Larry W]

When it comes to spark plugs in an antique vehicle, I like to measure the resistance of the center electrode with an ohm meter, and use whatever brand has the the lowest resistance. This tactic seems to render the best performance.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Larry W (see edit history)