Well at my pepboys the stockers list for 28.11 each (which means the sell price is around 14 each). I bought a set of the iridiums (not the -11 ones) at 7.00 ea. I used the same gap tool in the picture above to check them, they are at .25. I gapped them to .30 carefully, not putting pressure on the tip but using the lip of the grounding electrode to pull up slightly with the gapper's edge (actually the tool is called "the gapper"). You have frightened me that I may be damaging the tip even if I touched it gently with the gapper. I dont see any damage and I was very careful. I'm really thinking of getting a feeler gauge to check the gap because of the incline. If I dont see any damage, you dont think I did anything to them do you? I looked and looked on many sites, but I couldnt find any definitive information on the process of gapping these types of plugs other than the "be careful" warning. If I keep the gap to .29-.30 I should have any issues right? I had to touch the center electrode with the gapper to make sure I was in spec, but I was gentle and slow about it. Whats the consensus on that? I could see if you used a prong to gap and wedged it against the iridium tip how it would break, but I didnt do anything of that nature. Hell, they're goin to get hit by some pretty hot explosions in the chamber anyway if anything should break something that fragile, that should... I dont want to have to go yanking plugs back out since they're not the easiest to get to.
BTW, mostly stock I am yes....
j