============================================================================================================= NGK DR8EIX Hyper Iridium Spark Plugs for the Maxim-X ============================================================================================================= Trust me when I say this - if you own a Maxim-X, GO THE EXTRA MILE and install Iridium spark plugs. You can buy them on-line from www.Sparkplugs.com or from a number of other places. In Canada they're available at Canadian Tire, NAPA, PartSource and possibly other suppliers. They make a dramatic difference in the Maxim-X. Even skeptics who have tried them now swear by them. Here are some of the benefits of Iridium plugs: 1) They're the last plugs you'll ever buy. Iridium is so crazy hard that the electrodes wear less than half as much as platinum plug electrodes in the same time frame. They easily go 200,000 miles without significant wear. When your bike is long since dead and gone, you'll still be able to use the Iridium plugs somewhere else. I've had mine overgapped by more than 50% for 4+ years now and the electrodes still look like new. So if you think the dollar value isn't worth it because they're so much more expensive than standard spark plugs, you're definitely wrong. They're worth every penny. I will never again install a standard plug in anything. My bikes both have Iridium plugs. My cars all have Iridium plugs and now even my lawnmower has one. Once you've gone Iridium you never go back. 2) They aren't as prone to fouling as other plugs. Where a standard plug might foul under certain conditions, an Iridium plug probably wouldn't. Sure, you can create a situation where even an Iridium plug will foul but because of the construction, they just aren't as prone to fouling as other plugs. 3) Iridium plugs are so crazy hard that you can improve your ignition dramatically by opening up the gap for a much larger spark (if you have the coil power for it). While standard plug centre electrodes would undoubtedly burn away from an increased gap, the centre electrodes of Iridium plugs are too hard to burn away from simple combustion, even if you were to run lean under such high compression as the Maxim-X has (11.2:1). Anyway, because they're so close to indestructible, you can play with the gap and get far better combustion from your X. 4) Iridium has better conductivity than most other spark plug materials. Under identical conditions, Iridium spark plugs require less than 80% of the power that would be required to fire a standard spark plug. 5) The size of a spark is greatly dependent on the size and shape of the centre electrode. The sharper the edges, the bigger the spark and the narrower the electrode, the bigger the spark. Standard plugs wear more easily so they lose their sharp edges relatively quickly - the edges simply burn and deteriorate under combustion. So with every power stroke standard spark plugs essentially get weaker. Add to that that they have relatively large centre electrodes (2.0 to 2.5mm) and you get what can only be called an adequate spark when they're new and an inferior spark after they age. That problem is of course compounded by the fact that the stock coils on a Maxim-X, on their best day, only put out in the order of 8000 to 10000 volts - not a lot in terms of ignition voltage. In contrast to the structure of the standard spark plugs, Iridium plug centre electrodes maintain their sharp edges almost indefinitely which keeps the spark bigger even after they age. And an NGK DR8EIX Iridium spark plug centre electrode is only 0.6mm in diameter - about 1/4 the size of standard plug electrodes - which again makes the spark bigger... and a big spark means better combustion. 6) The NGK DR8EIX Iridium spark plugs also have a Tapered Cut outer electrode. On the surface it doesn't look like it would matter much to have a tapered outer electrode until you learn about "spark quenching". Spark quenching happens directly over the inner electrode. It's a phenomenon whereby the expanding spark is quenched by way of the outer electrode being in the path of the spark's expansion. Standard spark plugs have standard outer electrodes and they tend to quench their spark significantly but the tapered outer electrode of the DR8EIX Iridium plugs reduces that spark quenching so as to allow the spark to form without interference. Again, this means a better, more uniform, stronger spark. In every way except one, Iridium plugs excel over standard plugs. Since Iridium is so very hard, it's also very brittle and if you don't keep that in mind when gapping the plugs, you'll probably find yourself having to buy a replacement after prying against the inner Iridium electrode. So you really shouldn't do that - don't pry against an Iridium electrode because it will almost certainly break. Aside from that one single weakness, Iridium plugs are superior in every other way to standard plugs. Years ago on the XJ List, someone once said (paraphrased) "spark is spark - as long as there's a spark there will be good combustion". Well, that comment "sparked" ;-) a lot of discussion and those words have been proven to be horribly wrong. The listed benefits apply for all XJs but the benefits of Iridium plugs are further magnified in the Maxim-X because of its much higher compression. Sparks are quenched by compression so the higher the compression the worse the spark. With standard spark plugs, that means that the Maxim-X fares worse than other XJs and that's also why it benefits most from Iridium spark plugs. For those who still need convincing, "the proof is in the pudding" as they say... Let me tell you a story about my Kawi 454 LTD that relates. My Kawi always started like crap. The battery was good but not great so when I pressed the starter button with a full battery on a warm day, it would just crank endlessly until I **let go** of the starter button. Yes, while cranking, the starter robbed so much battery power that there wasn't enough left for the coils to fire the plugs and start the bike. But as I let go of the starter button, the coils suddenly had the power they needed and the engine momentum kept it turning just long enough to start the bike. It was annoying but it was a ritual I could live with... until the fall rolled around. In the colder fall weather, the bike didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of starting. The colder battery produced slightly less power and the slightly thicker cold oil made the starter work harder and draw more power than it already did under normal summer conditions. The combination of the two made starting absolutely impossible. It finally annoyed me so much that I bought a portable battery booster (essentially another smaller battery) and kept it in the saddlebags. Then I rewired the bike and installed a couple of battery posts in the rear utility box. That way I'd come out on a cold day, open the utility box with the key, run the cables from the saddlebags to clip them onto the battery posts and then I'd start the bike. That did the trick... but only for a while and only when I again **let go** of the starter button. But like every problem left unresolved, they tend to grow as time progresses. So either the battery got worse or the starter drew more or the battery pack got weaker - whatever the reason, after a while it got to a point where I just kept cranking and cranking and cranking and despite the booster being hooked up, the bike wouldn't start. In fact, this one eventful day, I ran the batteries (bike & booster) right down to that familiar point where you just get a CLICK. Yup, that was the end - the engine wouldn't turn over and all I got was a spiteful click from the solenoid. That's the day that I finally did something about it. I immediately jumped in the car and drove to the local NAPA where I bought two NGK DR8EIX Iridium plugs. I gapped them to specifications (because I only had stock coils) and installed the new plugs. Keep in mind that I didn't hook the bike to a charger while I was gone - I just ran down the battery then, maybe 20 minutes later, I installed new Iridium spark plugs - that's all - just new Iridium plugs and the same nearly lifeless battery. The magic moment came when I pressed the starter button again. The battery had only had 20 minutes to bounce back and didn't get charged in the interim so the engine barely turned over. It turned excruciatingly slowly but it only had to turn a fragment of a revolution before the bike kicked into action. And if you think it was the fault of the original plugs, it wasn't - they were essentially brand new. And when I pulled the original plugs out they weren't fouled either - they were nice and clean. The bottom line is that the Iridium plugs were all it took to go from not starting to jumping into action effortlessly. Ever since then the bike starts easily and I haven't even replaced the aging battery. So, I can't state this more vehemently - spend the extra bucks and buy Iridium spark plugs for your Maxim-X. It's worth doing and certainly worth the extra expense. You should also read some of the information at the links listed at the bottom of the "SparkPlugs" page on the Maximum Maxim-X web site: ( http://www.maxim-x.com/sparkplugs.html#diagnose ) It's very informative stuff about Iridium plugs, centre electrodes, quenching, etc... =============================================================================================================