Plug wires...

thrashingcows

thrashingcows

Drowning deep in my sea of loathing...so I'm
What do you guys run?

I decided to pull the plugs on the 440 in the wagon to see what my plugs looked like after a years worth of driving, and 2000+ miles.

Well the plugs were pretty nasty...lots of gum, carbon and crap....guess that's what you get with an original short block with 100K...:( But it was the plug wires that got me...they are already dry and cracking! I just have the cheapo 7mm stock replacement Niehoff black wires. But I would have thought they might have lasted longer then 2000 miles.

I have stock cast iron HP manifolds, no spark plug heat shields...since I hate them and they are a pain! So I'd like to keep the wires black for a more original look but curious as to what you have found stands up to the heat.
 
If you want a somewhat-stock looking wire (as I do, though I'm not sure why), run the Accel 300+ 8.8mm wires. I've had great luck with them in the past.

Anything less-expensive from Accel is garbage. When I told Stretch I had Accel wires, his response was, "I'm sorry." :D He's right, though, regards to their cheaper wires.

Otherwise, I like MSD's SuperConductor 8.5mm wires. Some are available in black, but most are bright red. MSD also makes a more budget-minded wire in their StreetFire line, which is all-black. Though I haven't used them personally, customers report good results... and they're a lot cheaper than the 300+ or SuperConductor wires.

While you're at it, you may as well upgrade to a better cap and rotor. To me, the only choice is Standard's Blue Streak line; which has the possible drawback of being blue (it won't look stock). If you must have the correct tan-alkyd look, damn the luck again, you're stuck with an Accel cap, though I'd still use the Blue Streak rotor. In all honesty, the Accel cap is, last I knew, a very good piece. I just really dislike Accel for the most part because much of what they sell is garbage (the less-expensive wires, and I'm not a fan of their coils either).

An MSD Blaster 2 coil can have the label taken off and be shaker-canned black to appear stock, but you will have to wire in a secondary ballast resistor. Still, it's about an extra 15Kv over the stock unit. Pertronix makes a high-perf black coil; for that one you actually have to bypass your ballast.

I assume you're using Champion plugs. If you're not, start. In my experience nothing runs right in an old Mopar street engine like Champs. I've tried 'em all: ACDelco, Autolite, Bosch Platinum, NGK, etc. I even tried "trick" plugs like SplitFire and ACDelco's now-dead RapidFire. No luck. I was such a Champion fan, I tried to run them in the RA-III engine in my Trans Am, with miserable luck. It had to have ACDelco, period.

If you still have fouling issues after upgrading your ignition, you might want to go up a heat range. It's the absolute opposite of what you want to do in a race engine, but in a street engine it might help burn up the blowby. Just watch your timing; you may need to lose a degree or two to prevent detonation.
 
And once again I thank you....:2thumbs:

I am currently running a black stocker type cap...make unkown, rotor...same...probably got both from canadian tire...:shifty:

I have a pertronix conversion with their flame thrower coil 50K...never had to by-pass the ballast and it runs fine...would it run better if I got rid of the ballast?

I have Autolight plugs..I think they are 86's? They were a hotter step up from the stockers which I think were 84's? Will try some champions when I have everything ready to go.

I will look into the plug wires...can you wrap the boots with any type of heat tape? I know there is header tape but is there something that can be used on the plug wire boots?
 
The Taylors on my 440 got replaced with Accel 300+ wires. The Taylors couldn't take the heat and failed in pretty-short order. I routed one of the Accels incorrectly and it shorted out on the RH header being burned right to the core; after wrapping it in electrical tape the car still ran better than the Taylors.

Do you have the part number of the coil? That would help, since when looking for Stretch I couldn't find a Pertronix coil that worked with the stock resistor. That doesn't mean they didn't make something at one point, though.

If it ran fine, we wouldn't be having this conversation. :D

Lose the Autolites. Off the top of my head, the correct plugs are either RN12YCs or RJ12YCs. You might want to jump to the 14 heat range, though.

There is not a good black cap on the market. They're all junk. Either the Accel tan or the Blue Streak if you don't mind the color. Period. End of discussion. I've not tried the Accel rotor, but I can tell you the Blue Streak rotor is excellent. Though the center contact, by nature, has to be spring steel, if the outer contact on the rotor isn't either copper-plated or brass, it's garbage. My Blue Streak cap has solid-copper terminals; the rotor is solid brass. No, it won't go 100K miles, but it will deliver spark.
 
ive run the accell cap and rotor and with a lil cleaning they will go forever and ever..treat em like points :p

the msd streetfires i have a set..nice wires

blue stree HELL YES!!!!!!! tho the accell brown does look more stock on there than the bright blue of the bluestreak
 
On the Campion spark plugs is there any advantage to running the longer RN12YC's to the short RJ12YC's?
 
personaly...if you can still get them...i like there "truck plug"..it seems to last a little longer via slower wear and i know there a lil harder to break......but they did disco them for many aplications
 
I used the firecore wires. Love them, The fit is excellent too, I have for both my small and big block
 

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I use 8mm Mallory Pro-Sidewinder wires. Mine are red but I think they make black sets too. Champion plugs, Blaster 2 coil, never had a problem.
 
Well I got my stuff a couple weeks ago....went with the Doc's advice.

I ordered the Accel 8.8mm 300+ wires and the matching Tan cap and rotor. I then ordered the RJ14YC champion plugs...these arrived NOS and say "Made in the USA" on them too!

Now I have to get arround to making up the plug wires....anyone use the two piece crimper the kit comes with? I also piced up 4 heat shield socks for the plug wires on either side of the exit on the HP exhaust manifolds.
 
Did you ever firgure out a part number on your coil? If it's the same one Stretch got for his Charger, it would probably run with the stock ballast. It would be putting out far less than the advertised voltage, though.

If memory serves, I crimped my last set with a set of cheap crimping/stripping pliers that had a spot for ignition wires, but had to be careful since they were designed for 8mm wires, not the large 8.8mm size.

If your fire sleeving is obvious and you want to help make it vanish, Thermo-Tec makes a black silicone spray for their header wrap that will help it disappear. Things may get a little messier at plug-change time, as some of the coating may come off on your hands.
 
Dr.Jass said:
Did you ever firgure out a part number on your coil? If it's the same one Stretch got for his Charger, it would probably run with the stock ballast. It would be putting out far less than the advertised voltage, though.

If memory serves, I crimped my last set with a set of cheap crimping/stripping pliers that had a spot for ignition wires, but had to be careful since they were designed for 8mm wires, not the large 8.8mm size.

If your fire sleeving is obvious and you want to help make it vanish, Thermo-Tec makes a black silicone spray for their header wrap that will help it disappear. Things may get a little messier at plug-change time, as some of the coating may come off on your hands.
Click to expand...

My coil was/is a Pertronix 50,000Volt Flame thrower unit. I will try and look and see if there is a part #. If hooking without a balast gets me more voltage...then bonus![smilie=::

The leads came with two pieces of stamped steel and they have cut outs for crimping. Looks a little awkward to use these so maybe I'll call a buddy and see if he has a nice Snap-on set I can borrow.

The fire sleeves are stainless/beige in color...not really concerned if they can be seen but this is now before I install them so my opinion mught change once they are on...thanks for the tip on the silicon spray. :2thumbs:
 
I'm agree with Kamstra, I have Firecore wires on the mighty 318.
Black with the orange boots, look factory. Great wires
 
I run the Accel 8.8 wires with a super coil and mopar performance electronic ignition. And NGK plugs in my 318/391 stroker. If you don't run the factory ballast resistor with a super hot coil your going to burn the coil poll out of the car and fry the rotor.
 
Yes, you have a point, Patrick... but as I said before, the Pertronix coil of which I'm thinking actually needs to have the factory resistor bypassed as it's an internal resistor unit that wants a complete 12V or better fed to it. I smoked an MSD coil years ago on my '81 Imperial, because the Blaster 2 requires not only the factory resistor (which I had in place) as well as another inline ballast, which I failed to connect.

Personally, I wouldn't run the Accel Super Coil designed for applications such as ours. It's a 30+ year-old design that's never been revised, it's several thousand volts less than the Pertronix, Jacobs or MSD units for the same applications, and it's spank ugly. The newer Accel coils (such as the 140032 for the Ford "mod" motors) are great, but that yellow finned alkyd-tan-top oil-style unit is outdated and overpriced. There are a lot better options within a few bucks and none of them are as hard on the eyes. I prefer actual performance, rather than the (supposed) look of performance. I guess that explains why I've never bought a set of chrome valve covers. :D
 
I took apart an old Accel Super Coil and gutted it. The yellow body is now bolted to my metal shelves in the garage and serves as a pen/pencil holder. It's the best application I could come up with.

Speaking of ballast resistors, I had a similar problem with a Unilite converted factory distributor. I kept burning out the LED module. Come to find out it didn't like full 12 VDC all the time. I had to run a pair of resistors to drop the potential to a more Unilite friendly level.
 
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