Cheap plugs or no?

[the question]

A friend of mine has a 4.7L ram and is going to be changing his plugs out soon.  He's planning on buying more expensive plugs that should last longer but I think I've read here or somewhere else that getting the expensive plugs for your truck is a waste and makes it run worse.  Is that true?

[no spoiler]

The 4.7L likes the good plugs.  From what I understand the hemi is the only engine in the world that doesn't like good spark plugs.  I have no idea why it would run worse on good plugs but it does.  The 4.7 has no issue with them.

[dodgerider]

I thought that all chrysler engines now were optimized for the cheap plugs.  Sure you might have to change them a bit more often but they're cheaper.  Why not run the cheap ones?

[hemiram]

If it were me, I'd stay away from the iridium plugs in any V8 the chrysler produces.  There are mixed reports on the 4.7L, so that's still up in the air as to whether or not you get better results with them.  But they only give you an extra 15k miles for a price increase of 500%.  That's not good math imo.  It's not hard to change out plugs and they only cost a couple dollars a piece so just get the cheapos and be happy with the lower costs.

[dodgerider]

I though the expensive plugs made the engine run a lot smoother, if the extra mileage out of them was the only benefit then no one would buy them since it doesn't make any fiscal sense.

[06Hemiman]

I though the expensive plugs made the engine run a lot smoother, if the extra mileage out of them was the only benefit then no one would buy them since it doesn't make any fiscal sense.

They do, but you also have to remember that changing out plugs (if you do it yourself) on the new hemi's takes a while since there's 2 plugs per cylinder.  The second set are tough to get at too, for some people spending the extra money is worth it to not have to deal with that headache as often.