Just a PSA.
Got a half dozen NGK B8HS plugs from Autozone. Couldn't beat the price ($2.00 per). Dropped the main jet down to a 200 (what it was at when I killed it on the freeway) and ran it to the gas station. The bike ran like absolute crap. Felt like the spark was cutting in and out. Not only that, but I left the gas cap key at home. DOH! Instantly thought it was fuel-related... but, it would run seemingly ok for a few seconds then sputter and repeat.
Anywho, took it home spitting and sputtering. Pulled the left side plug and it looked...ok. But, the plug said THAILAND on the side instead of NGK. Looked on the box... Sure enough it says Designed in Japan, Assembled in Thailand. Well, shoot. Checked the rest and they are all made in Japan as normal. Threw a made in Japan NGK in it and the bike runs normally again. Never seen an outsourced NGK before. Maybe they got desperate?
Every auto parts store I have gone too have told me that the B8hs plug is no longer available. I have used autolite 4092
yup.
br8hs is available, just swap to non resistor caps. Or, 4092, which is equivalent to a b9hs.
I have also confirmed that B8HS has been discontinued however they still make the B8HS-10 for the marine industry. What I have read is it is the same exact plug as the B8HS but gapped differently. I bought a set and compared, everything looks identical but the gap was consistently larger. I adjusted the gap and have been running them and everything seems good.
Not sure if anyone else have tried these but they are readily available and decent prices.
i have a bunch of them as well. pre-gapped at 1mm. :gentleman:
Yea the -10 is 1mm gaps pre-set easy fix for sure. In fact, one of the plugs that sputtered was a -10. Might be a reason why? I did not regap it, figuring the Vape would be just fine sparking away.
I seem to remember seeing that there was a rash of counterfeit NGKs showing up about everywhere and, of course, they were very unreliable. First time I've heard of the HS not being produced, there are substitutes as mentioned above and even others I would assume.
I generally only change em if they are causing a problem after seeing how alot of very, very old plugs run fine if everything else is in good condition. I've found that its rare that the spark plug is the only issue, its more likely to be old coils, bad wires or a bad cap. I will agree that they are an easy change to see if it helps and do generally carry them on rides.
In general, the resistor plugs have not been counterfeit (yet). You can just buy the resistor version of the plug needed and replace the plug cap with non-resistor version (or for some NGK caps, replace the resistor with a piece of #10 soild copper).