Restore used to be advertised much more than in more recent times. Not sure if it might work, never have used it. Their ads used to have testimonials of higher compression readings and such. ONLY thing is that a higher compression reading will not typically translate into MORE power or fuel economy.
When I first discovered NGK V-Power spark plugs, it was from a parts counter pamphlet I got at a Toyota dealership parts dept. Made perfect sense that they were OEM on some Toyota engines, back then. With the V-shaped ground electrode surface, but not the "V-Power" nomenclature. I got into the back of an NGK catalog and crossed one of the Toyota plugs into Champion, then found one which would work in my '80 Newport 360 2bbl. I had my friend get me a set of them.
The '80 Newport had had some Autolites in it when I got it and they were burning clean. I was skeptical the NGK V-Powers would be any better . . . but after checking the gap and putting them in, as soon as the engine started, I could HEAR the difference. Sharper throttle response. It just sounded better. Very minor improvement in fuel economy, but the engine sounded happier, so I expanded my use of them to be in everything else I had.
Observation was that in an open chamber head combustion chamber, with "lazier air", more improvement than in a wedge combustion chamber. Still, they all sounded and acted better.
Now, some might cover their eyes, the car I was driving most back then was my '77 Camaro 305 w/Holley 4160 (later 4175) on a Holley Z-Line intake manifold. That car seemed to not care the V-Powers were in there, but it made a minor difference in all areas. Especially when the engine was cold, I could tap the throttle pedal, hit the starter, it started almost immediately, put it in "R", as I had the choke set to come off quickly, it might act like it was going to falter, but one tap of the throttle pedal and it was running again (still in gear), continue to back out, and drive off. Now, when I say "tap", that's what it was. Just enough for a drop of accel pump output, no more was needed.
Before I got the NGKs, I had tried some other new, high-tech spark plugs with more efficient gap designs. The highly-hyped, later discredited, multi-electrode plugs of the time too! Those plugs' electrodes were soft and wear-eroded quickly, plus I almost choked when paying over $50.00 for 8 of them. Those went in the trash, put the prior plugs back in the '80 Newport, and it ran better.
The ACDelco RapidFire plugs had all of the "bells and whistles" as to gap design which were available back then (or later). The "fine wire" electrodes were just being talked about. They looked neat and had solid engineering regarding gap design and the resulting flame kernel which resulted, getting more of the kernel exposed to the air/fuel mixture in the process. Plus, a variation of the old Champion "J-Gap" ground electrode "racing plug" from the middle 1960s, except with the corners cut back a bit, for a point on the end of the ground electrode. I put them in the Camaro and I did log about 2% better fuel economy over many miles. They, like the later NGKs, had a different heat range nomenclature.
Still, the favorite was the NGK V-Power plugs. They were available locally at a decent price. I could get them to last about 30K miles in the Camaro. Their claims to fame included that they forced the spark to the edge of the ground electrode, putting the flame kernel origination THERE, rather than being shrouded by the ground electrode itself. I liked that approach better than NipponDenso's similar U-Groove plug. Knowing full well that the spark would jump ONCE to the nearest electrode area.
Through all of this, I was intrigued by the fine wire electrode plugs. As even Champion had something like it in their "Easy Start" lawn mower spark plugs. Those particular Champion spark plugs DID start easier in my lawn mower.
When the fine wire electrode NGKs became available, I got a set for the Camaro (which now had a set of L98 '86 Corvette aluminum heads on the 355 it now had). Better throttle response, which I liked. A bit improved cold start performance, too.
There are a couple of YouTube videos on them, usually in a lawn mower engine. One has a special cyl head where the combustion "fire" can be seen and othes where the engine is run out of gas and timed, for several plugs. The "light" from the NGK Iridiums is brightest of them all and the run-time until empty is longest with the NGK Iridiums, too. PLUS I like the seemingly "forever" life of the Iridium plugs, too.
NOW, conventional wisdom claims that as long as you get one, solid spark (Fire in the Hole), that's all it takes to ignite the fuel/air mixture, which is certainly true. But as things have evolved, the additional quality of the spark and the exposure of the resultant flame kernel will contribute to the burning of the fuel/air mixture efficiently for more power and economy. THAT is where the NGK V-Power and Iridium plugs are better.
BUT, knowing the hows and whys of them, in my lawn mowers and such, I gap the plugs, then take a wider pair of normal pliers, grasp the ground electrode firmly on each side, then rotate the end of the ground electrode to expose about 1/2 of the center electrode in the process. Then stop and recheck/adjust the spark plug gap. There might be some additional reasons of which direction to twist the electrode, but I haven't worried about that yet. End result, better exposure of the flame kernal on a normal spark plug.
Back in about 1968, when I first read of the Champion J-Gap racing plugs, I liked that orientation. So I bought a point file and proceeded to spend a Sunday afternoon filing the ground electrodes down so that they only covered 1/2 of the center electrode. Then regapped the Champion plugs in the '66 Newport. I could tell a difference in off-idle response, plus the added time of rh rr tire sounds on quick acceleration. Maybe another second, but I was not counting. That it lasted longer was more important to me, at that time.
In later times, I used a pair of diagonal cutters to snip things shorter and then dressed the electrodes with the point file. This can be done to ANY brand of normal spark plugs you might be satisfied with. Just not double-platinum plugs, as it would destroy the platinum area on the ground electrode by removing it.
NGKs are allegedly "easier to fire", but with the same 5K ohm resistance for a resistor plug, I don't see how that might be. From an engineering point of view. I don't see how the gap design might make the spark have an easier time of jumping the gap, either, as that is related to cylinder pressure and such.
I will say that, if the NGK Iridiums were not better-performing spark plugs, they would not be being re-packaged by ACDelco and Motorcraft for their current OEM engines. Which means they'll pass the 100K mile CA emissions warranty requirements and also possibly help the OEMs meet the emissions and fuel economy standards they have to meet. BTAIM Sure, these OEM-branded plugs still come with their respective markings on them, but look below the hex and you'll see the stampings of NGK on them. GM started using them in the supercharged Buick 3.8L V-6s back in the 1990s. Now all of the GM OEM Plugs are re-packaged NGK Iridiums (in a ACDelco box). Similar, as I understand it, with Ford spark plugs in a Motorcraft box.
If you want to try some NGK V-Power plugs, go ahead and do that on your next spark plug maintenance interval. Cost is not that much more than normal resistor spark plugs, as I recall. Look at the gap design and you'll see what is going on there. You might gap them closer to .040" than .035", if you might desire, too. Just do NOT expect massive improvements! There will not be any, but you might notice a bit sharper off-idle throttle response and such in normal driving, which can be noticed. IF you re-adjust your driving to use that added response with less throttle input, you might notice a bit of fuel economy improvement too. Again, more like "tenths" rather than larger, by observation. Which some might claim "Is not worth it", which is accurate, but to me, the "happier" we can make a stock engine sound, the nicer it is to drive it. "Happier" through little tweaks rather than big monetary outlays.
Sorry for the length, several decades of experiences and observations.
CBODY67
