Best plug wires?
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 120
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From: Eastern, MD
Best plug wires? Time for a new set of wires, just wondering which aftermarket wires are the best. Thinking about the MSD wires or maybe Taylor's, any opinions appreciated. Are the aftermarkets really that much better than the factory wires as far as resistance? Thanks, Bill
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 369
Likes: 0
From: Easton, MA
Re: Best plug wires? Hey Bill,
I just went through this, I had changed my wires over to MSD about 10,000 miles ago. I had recently changed the plugs and reinstalled the wires, the car was not running on all 8 cylinders so I checked the wires, sure enough the passenger side wire (the one all the way back) was not on properly. I tried to fix it and thought I was successful but sure enough the dam thing was not all the way on. I did it one more time and failed to get it on correctly. The problem is the MSD wires do not have the same positive clicking mechanism that the OEM wires have; it's hard to tell (especially on the passenger side back plugs) if they are all the way on. I went out and bought Bosch at Auto Zone for $80.00 including tax. You have to order them but it only take one day to get them in; they are OEM replacements and fit exactly like the factory wires do (they cost approximately $20 less than OEM). The MSD's do not fit correctly into the metal tube that goes over the plug, the Bosch wires fit perfectly into the metal tubes and you can clearly hear and feel the snapping sound when they go on. I will never use another aftermarket wire, IMO there is not enough difference between the OEM, Bosch, and aftermarket wires to justify switching to them, each cylinder has it's own coil and the coil is only 8" away from the plug. My car is now running better than it ever has. BTW… Bosch makes a very good product, and don't forget to use the dielectric grease on the boots.
Brian
I just went through this, I had changed my wires over to MSD about 10,000 miles ago. I had recently changed the plugs and reinstalled the wires, the car was not running on all 8 cylinders so I checked the wires, sure enough the passenger side wire (the one all the way back) was not on properly. I tried to fix it and thought I was successful but sure enough the dam thing was not all the way on. I did it one more time and failed to get it on correctly. The problem is the MSD wires do not have the same positive clicking mechanism that the OEM wires have; it's hard to tell (especially on the passenger side back plugs) if they are all the way on. I went out and bought Bosch at Auto Zone for $80.00 including tax. You have to order them but it only take one day to get them in; they are OEM replacements and fit exactly like the factory wires do (they cost approximately $20 less than OEM). The MSD's do not fit correctly into the metal tube that goes over the plug, the Bosch wires fit perfectly into the metal tubes and you can clearly hear and feel the snapping sound when they go on. I will never use another aftermarket wire, IMO there is not enough difference between the OEM, Bosch, and aftermarket wires to justify switching to them, each cylinder has it's own coil and the coil is only 8" away from the plug. My car is now running better than it ever has. BTW… Bosch makes a very good product, and don't forget to use the dielectric grease on the boots.
Brian
Re: Best plug wires? I use the MSD wires but I think there isn't any difference considering that yes I dropped between 250-300 ohms but if you ever measured the spark plug its got a 4.5K resister in it so the couple hundred from the wires really won't do anything.
LAter <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />
LAter <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />
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Re: Best plug wires? I had Magnecor's on my T/A, and they seemed to work fine. I had a friend with Taylors, and they fell apart pretty quick. I'm running the stock wires w/ no problems on my SS. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
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Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 120
Likes: 0
From: Eastern, MD
Re: Best plug wires? Ok, stock wires have lasted since I bought the car in 99 with no problems, guess I'll just go with another set of factory wires. Doesn't really sound like any of the aftermarkets show any noticeable improvement over stock, so I'll stick with what has worked for me thus far.
Re: Best plug wires? When I switched to the MSD wires I also had trouble with the #8 wire not engaging properly. I tried a couple of times with no success - always a miss on #8. I ended up putting the stock wires back on and no more miss on #8. About a week later I decided I wasn't going to let a set of sparkplugs wires beat me <img border="0" alt="[judgement]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_judge.gif" /> (plus I had always had good luck with MSD's in the past). I tried again and I'll be damned if they didn't click on just like the stockers. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> I can't explain what the difference was, but they have never given me another problem after about 4000 miles now.
If I had it to do over again I would still go with the MSD's or, as an alternative, the GMPP wires available through Pace et.al. Besides, the GMPP wires go for around $50 if I remember correctly.
If I had it to do over again I would still go with the MSD's or, as an alternative, the GMPP wires available through Pace et.al. Besides, the GMPP wires go for around $50 if I remember correctly.
