rlane

I would appreciate advice on what brand/where to purchase ignition wires. I replaced plugs, distributor cap/rotor today on my recently purchased 78 SD and the ignition wire air seals and the (?boot?..around the plug electrode are all pretty deteriorated. I had the post a couple of weeks ago about a cold start problem as well as a significant misfire that occurs ONLY after 30 minutes or so of driving. I have a MSD 6 and coil on the way (Thanks Bill and Steve..and others!!) but wonder if the ignition wire set is also suspect...would seem to indicate these are aged. I did the peek under the hood at night and do not see any "light show". Anyway..I see lots of different wire sets and prices, and recall several folks saying stick with OEM braided sets. Where to purchase and what should I expect to pay?
Also removed the air pump today....hard ti say wheteher the tune up or the lack of air pump did it but boy it sure seemed to have gained some muscle!
Richard

Bill Gregory

Richard,

Magnecore or Porsche for wires. Some discussion on whether you need the stainless braid Porsche wires or not. When I replaced mine on the SC I used Porsche wires with stainless braid, ie. stock.

Reg

I priced around when purchasing my wires. I requested a quote from a Porsche dealer and these were his prices:

ignition cable w/o spark plug connector: $156.96
spark plug connector: $ 69.65 ea (x6)= $417.90
threaded sleeve: $ 2.29 ea (x6)= $13.74
spark plug cap: $ 2.30 ea (x6)= $13.80
elec.wire cap: $ 4.29 ea (x6)= $25.74


That in total was $628.22 Canadian $, or about $400 U.S.

Needless to say I went with something else.. Kingsbourne wires that ran about $80. That said, I'd up the ante next time and get something inbetween.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi Richard:

Just a few things to keep in mind as you decide what you want,......

1) The braided shielded factory wires were made as one attempt to cure the backfiring and subsequent airbox blow-ups that plagued the 2.7 and 3.0 litre engines. Ultimately, this was cured by redesigning the cold start fuel distribution inside the airbox. The braided wires never really cured the reason for them in first place. These are good wires, but no better than the non-shielded ones.

The main failure items on ALL of these factory wires are the plug connectors. These things have an internal resistor for RFI suppression that is VERY failure-prone. When this happens, it causes all sorts of strange running issues and misfires that can be intermittent, too. I've seen these fail within 2-3K miles,..........

As I hate chasing things like this and prefer to eliminate variables in how these cars run, we use the Magnecor wires sets that use their own resistor-less connectors. Voila', no more connector troubles and you oughta price these factory connectors to see what kinds of costs these can be over time. Its not chump change.

Magnecor use their unique wire design to provide the needed RFI/EMI suppression.

Just a few data points from a user,.......

Buffalo

Replaced my wires several months ago. The subject of braided i.e. strapped came up as to whether unstrapped would contribute to radio static. I went with Fyrebraid wires from Performance Products. They work great, no radio static.

Chris Martin

Interesting topic. I bought a set of braided wires from Vertex. Indeed, the ends are the part that wears out. I think I paid $130 for the wire set, cheaper than getting a new set of ends. I have put about 6k miles on them in 2 yrs with no problems, although it sounds like the Magnecor might be the way to go in the future.

Best of luck

Chris

rlane

As always, great help! Magnecore seems to be a favorite, I will look for a set. Anybody know of a good source?