Notes on Plug wires....

[Rogue Leader]

I am just removing a set of Magnecores from my TTA... supposedly really good wires, they are approximately 2 years old and only have about 4000 miles on them. They are being replaced with a set of MSD wires (btw for the MSD's to fit you have to cut the straight ends off two of em and replace with angle boots for the #2 and 4 cylinders by the downpipe, no big deal), MSD only makes a GN set not a TTA set thats why.

Testing the wires I see the following:

MSD Wires 55-65 Ohms Resistance
Magnecore Wires 350 Ohms Resistance

Anyone else have any wire experiences to share????

 

[TType84]

my auto zone plugwires were better than magnecores

SCREW MAGNECRAP.

seriously, i put the 2 year old autozone plugwires on the MSD tester.. they were better than every wire but the msd wires, and keep in mind, the wires are 1 ft lengths, this was a 3ft long wire... i think it was my #6.. if you take that into account it was abotu as good as the msd, resistance wise.


btw.. if anyone is buying a set.. just get the cut to fit 8 cylinder set.

if you ever fry a wire for some stupid reason.. well you have 2 extras!

 

[Darklord]

Holy crap. That really makes me want to check out my magnacores. Never really had any problems with them though and I've had mine for 2 or 3 years but haven't checked them. What kind were you running 8.5 or 10mm?

 

[Rogue Leader]

8.5 mm wires

I always had heard Magnecores were really good... but this just plain shocked me... I had my meter on 1x and i figured maybe they were around 90 or so, but it pegged the meter so i switched to 100x and it hit 350... I was like WOW... that explains quite a bit....

I figured they were bad thats why I went MSD, I had MSDs on my previous Trans Am and they were great... I had Taylor 409 10.9mms on my GN but I dont see that set available anywhere anymore.. i only had em a few weeks before the car was stolen so I never really formed an opinion. Honestly I had heard MSd was better anyway.

Oh incidentally another wire brand to avoid is Jacobs, I had them on my old Trans Am before the MSD wires and they arced off everything and made the car run worse! Then the coil wire burnt itself and I had my last straw with that one!

 

[Ash]

you can order the taylor 409 10 mm through summit. I got the ones that were for the buick but they had a 90 angle on them and rested on the heat shield of the headers so i sent them back and orderd the slap to gether your self wires with the straight neck. The part no. is tay79645 for the blue ones

 

[salvageV6]

Assuming your coil is weak and only at 10000 volts or so and the resistance of the human body is about 300,000 ohms or so with normal skin moisture, you gonna grab the top of the coil?

I don't think so.....

I would venture to say that as long as the wires ohm out the same the transfer will be fine for their purpose.

DC resistance isn't a good measure of high tension performance wire.

350 was actually lower than I measured my Magnecores at.

I'd keep the magnecores for spares when the MSD's crap out.

 

[Rogue Leader]

uhh... more resistance in the wire less juice makes it to the end... it requires more enrgy to make the same spark (or in an automotive case you just get a weaker spark). 350 is terrible for a plug wire, and even a factory plug wire isnt that bad. yeah they will work, but youre not getting the most power to your plugs... or even enough sometimes!

 

[xrunner123]

Originally posted by Rogue Leader
uhh... more resistance in the wire less juice makes it to the end... it requires more enrgy to make the same spark (or in an automotive case you just get a weaker spark). 350 is terrible for a plug wire, and even a factory plug wire isnt that bad. yeah they will work, but youre not getting the most power to your plugs... or even enough sometimes!

That it true, but is the impedance measured with a spectrum analyzer and at what freq? It was probably measured with an ohmeter which uses 1V and DC.

So that resistance reading means sh1t with the transient times that occur from these coils. The lower DC reading from the 1 manufacturer may actually rise much higher at the higher freqencies than do the other wires.

It is only a useful measurement when comparing the same make and model wire. ie to see if one may be bad.

 

[BLACKHAWK38]

Originally posted by Rogue Leader
I am just removing a set of Magnecores from my TTA... supposedly really good wires, they are approximately 2 years old and only have about 4000 miles on them. They are being replaced with a set of MSD wires (btw for the MSD's to fit you have to cut the straight ends off two of em and replace with angle boots for the #2 and 4 cylinders by the downpipe, no big deal), MSD only makes a GN set not a TTA set thats why.

Testing the wires I see the following:

MSD Wires 55-65 Ohms Resistance
Magnecore Wires 350 Ohms Resistance

Anyone else have any wire experiences to share????

I bought a Used Turbo Riviera 1 1/2 years ago, IT had ACCEL 8.8's on it, TOTAL CRAP, weak terminal connections, would break when changing spark plugs, OHMED out OK , but still Hi speed misfire, S canned them ,for MOROSO BLUE MAX << top quality !!

JUST also replaced my 3 year old JACOBS wires on my other Turbo Riviera (convertible) with $35 Bosch premium wire set from autozone, NO COMPLAINTS< OEM LOOK AND great price, note , tHe jacobs wire were still functioning OK, but just dirty, LOL

Regards,
Blackhawk38

 

[boostcreep]

If you know the resistance of the wire, isn't there a formula that tells you how much voltage drop there will be

Nick

 

[Red Regal T]

magna-CRAP!

 

[Steve Wood]

Resistance is not a valid measure of wire performance. It is advertising hype only. Apparently it still works, tho.

The only problem with Magnecores has been that if one did mess up a wire, or it failed, they are hard to warranted.

I have had them on one car since 1996 or '97. As Salvage says, as long as the resistance between wires is proportionate to length and does not change as the wire is wiggled, the wire is good.

 

[salvageV6]

Now go take the DC meter and measure a nice A/C CR43TS plug from the top electrical connection to the center electrode.

No not the ground electrode.

Tell me what you get for a reading.

They don't call them resistance plugs for nothing.

Now use ohms law on the 250 extra ohms in the Magnecores and let me know how much more voltage is gonna go to that plug.

The key to the Magnecores is not the core actually it's the high temp. insulation and thick 10mm insulation that prohibits breakdown and arcing. Not much more to them but compared to many thinner poorly insulated wires they are very very good especially if you don't like changing them every year.

 

[Steve Wood]

Salvage, weren't the factory carbon impregnated wires something like 10,000 ohms per foot?

The real difference in spark plug wires is in the quality of manufacturing....it's an aggravation to grab the boot and leave the connector on the plug.

 

[salvageV6]

After I measured the A/C plug, yes I know the answer, I measured some older wires I had lying around for spares.

My 1990 Kenne-Bell 8mm set meausred 600 ohms for about 18" wire.

I had an old Whitaker early silicone wire (6-7mm) that was on my 70 Olds in the early 80's and that measured 1.7K ohms for about 18" wire.

I couldn't find my original Buick WE4 stock wire or I would have measured that one.

I think the 10K ohm wires were back a few years earlier.

It's pouring rain but I'll look harder for the stocker Buick wire tomorrow. Would be interesting to see what they measure.

I am all for getting the spark to jump on cars running higher cylinder pressures and more fuel which tends to kill the spark at high boost.

But with the stock inductive coil system all the relatively low impedance wires should be okay.

Capacitive discharge systems do require the lowest impedance you can find to work better. They tend to have a shorter duration spark as well.

 

[Steve Wood]

I threw my original wires out when I moved. I am probably mistaken but I thought the carbon centered wires were much higher resistance as compared to spiral core. Factory did not plan on electrical interference.

It was probably 1k per foot...what's a zero between friends?

 

[Lee_Burough]

Off Topic....Well, its related

When you mention some of the spark related difficulties with our turbo engines, spark gap comes to mind....Has anyone here actually tried those Halo Plugs?

 

[Slowhawk]

Anything under 500 ohms is nothing.Just putting a meter on it and reading it means nothing.It needs to be hooked to a coil and voltage blasted through it and read the voltage difference begin/end.Resistance is different with different materials when loaded. So you guy's are kind of wasting your time comparing resistance on the wires laying around.Wire leakage is the issue,what wire doesn't short to metal under the hood

 

[Russ Merritt]

Ohms resistance means basically nothing related to plug wires. Just a great way to sell a ton of wires with "low" resistance cause people believe BS. With the MAGs having so much resistance, by the time the juice made it to the plug how would it ever jump the gap in a turbo engine? It jumps the gap, the car runs mint, because ohms resistance doesn't matter on plug wires. Read up boys, especially the truth bout "conductors".


http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/main.htm

 

[salvageV6]

My CR43TS measured 8.5K ohms from the tip to the center electrode. Now THERE'S some resistance!