Saved a little money on new plugs for my motor. I have been buying the NGK IZFR6J Laser Iridium platinum plugs for my motor every other year since the factory says to change them every 100 hours or so. I have been buying plugs from my local mercury dealer for $16.96 per plug. Got on line and found them at rockauto.com for $8.57 per plug, no tax, and $3.99 freight. I ordered 12 plugs to keep a spare set. Of course they come with the gap at .035, and need to be gapped at .042. the round wire gapping tool cost $3.99 from rock auto or any automotive parts house. Thats about half price. Just FYI. It saved me a few dollars and thought I would pass it along.

Ok hold up...you're talking about gapping an iridium plug with a round wire gapping tool, which would break the tip off the ground electrode 9/10 times.

If you need more gap, you need to pull the ground strap away from the ground electrode with some needle nose pliers or something. You definitely don't want to wedge anything between the strap and the electrode, the tips break off very easily.

Autozone or the local parts store same price no shipping.

The round wire is just for measuring, it's more accurate than a flat feeler gauge. You are correct that you need to bend the ground electrode and not pry on anything.

If you had the proper round wire gapping tool you would know that on one end is the tool to open or close the gap on the ground without touching the electrode. Also autozone has the plugs listed for $10.99 plus tax each. Still 25% more than I paid at rock auto. Just trying to help.

Good on you toledo puma for trying to help save the TFF'ers some $$$

How much performance could be lost if not gapped correctly? Just replaced mine and now its puttering in low idle but runs fine once over 2000 rpms.

Edit: They were put on straight out of box. Used to older boat that was a 90hp and didn�t have to worry about gapping.

Could be an issue, but if it�s close it won�t make a huge difference. If you are way over gapped it will run rough due to misfiring. Most are gapped wrong out of the box and you have to make sure that you get the proper gapping because it changed on certain models. Your motor should have the gap # on it if it�s a merc, might not be legible though. If you have the iridium tipped plugs do as mentioned above and be careful with the tips.

Also need to index plugs when u put them in.

..... this is what folks like Angler Marine are for ......
they earn a living knowing what to do and how to do it
I could screw up MORE THAN THEY CAN FIX ........ so I don't do it.
Terry doesn't sell my products and I don't work on boats & motors ....... just better that way.

Thanks man

Exactly.....nothing like knowing you added .0000001% more horse power and added 32 seconds to the life of the motor. Only took 8 hours.

... what is "to index plugs" ?

I've heard the only motors that require the plugs to be indexed we Evinrudes... But I'm no mechanic!

Making sure the spark plug gap face the injector. Not the arm that comes down.