Plug Wires

[Steve 00RT/10]

Time for new plug wires. OEM or aftermarket? My OEMs have performed quite well for over 44,000 miles. 37,000 of them with Belanger headers and no heat shields. Is there a tougher, more heat resistant jacket, better conductor material than the OEMs out there?

thanks--Steve

 

[joe117]

Get the oem wires. There is nothing to be gained by any aftermarket wires except the potential for radio noise.

Man, the old ones lasted 44k!

What more could you ask for?

 

[Steve 00RT/10]

Get the oem wires. There is nothing to be gained by any aftermarket wires except the potential for radio noise.

Man, the old ones lasted 44k!

What more could you ask for?

I agree. I just thought I would see if there are any testimonials out there to other types that might be worth looking into. Even if I changed them twice as often, the price would be right for the OEMS. Being into the winter seige....I have lots of time.

Steve

 

[99 R/T 10]

Well, my .02. I like the MSDs. Low resistance, I have no radio noise and look good against the engine(they come red in color).

 

[Snakester]

I just faced this choice last week. One of my spark plug wires shorted out against the plug heat shields and needed replacement. Looking through past VCA threads I saw the main choices were Stock OEM, OEM Blue wires, Magnacor, Jacobs(blue) and MSD(red). And I picked the MSD wires as they were about the same price as stock wires, seemed to be very well built, there's no radio noise, and the red looks cool.

 

[smfettig]

No radio noise on mine either.

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

OEM's

Why?

When ORECA was racing Vipers (now racing an Audi R8 2005 Le Mans) they had motors built by Caldwell Dev. They evaluated plug wires and the OEM's were the best. That is what won the FIA Series, 24 Hour's of Le Mans and the ALMS.

 

[joe117]

See?
Always listen to Uncle Joe.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

If you went 44K on wires they were probably going bad 15K ago but the power loss is so gradual you didn't notice.

Stick with Mopar. $63 for wires.

 

[Bandit3]

MSD'S here also. No radio noise,of course, I can;t hear the radio. Can't argue with success-- the Oreca useage of the oem sounds hard to beat. John

 

[BlueGTS]

Does anyone's opinion change if the Viper is SCed? I only have 5k miles on my wires but was told I need to change them to MSD's since I am SCing. Any thoughts?

The Oreca information is very interesting but I wonder if the running of OEM plugs had anything to do with sponsorship or not ******* off a sponsor, etc?

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

The Oreca information is very interesting but I wonder if the running of OEM plugs had anything to do with sponsorship or not ******* off a sponsor, etc?

It doesn't matter, they won...and won...and won...

 

[Steve 00RT/10]

Looks like the OEMs are the way to go....even if they aren't red.

If you went 44K on wires they were probably going bad 15K ago but the power loss is so gradual you didn't notice.

Stick with Mopar. $63 for wires.

It's possible they were worn out a few miles ago. With gears,flywheel,and a mostly straight through headers and exhaust...it always feels snappy and strong to me.

Where do you find the wires for $63? The Dodge dealer here tells me $80.70+tax

....Chaulk up one for Uncle Joe---although he'd have to be quite a bit older to be my uncle

Thanks for the other input on the subject.

Steve

 

[99 R/T 10]

Try Chuck Tator, 914-763-3136. 20% discount to VCA memebers!

 

[Viper Wizard]

Try Chuck Tator, 914-763-3136. 20% discount to VCA memebers!

OEM Wires #4883365AA MSRP $80.70 less 20% = $64.56 not in NY, NO TAX plus FREE shipping. If you would like them Steve, give me a call when you get a chance or e-mail me with your PH# and I'd be glad to call you.


Thanks Mike!

 

[Steve 00RT/10]

Once again Chuck's the man. Plug wires are on the way.

Thanks Chuck

Steve

 

[Viper Wizard]

Your Very Welcome Steve!
Anytime

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Good choice.

FYI the stock plugs wires were used, by ORECA, because the produced better performance numbers per CDI.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Good choice.

FYI the stock plugs wires were used, by ORECA, because the produced better performance numbers per CDI.

What makes a good wire? I liked the MSDs due to their low resistance. Easier for the spark to get to the plug. I have seen real high numbers from other plug and figured the higher resistance is like a road block, am I wrong?

 

[joe117]

What makes a good wire?

You could have wires made from solid copper conductor with really low resistance and they could be covered with big fat insulation that would be good for a whole lot more voltage than the stock wires.

The stock wires are made with a conductor that is nothing more than a string coated with carbon dust.

The stock wires are made that way in order to round off the waveform of the spark pulse. This keeps down the radio noise.

So, you ask,
Why would anyone use stock wires?
First, they are good enough. The carbon conductor is more than good enough to give all the spark that a stock or near stock engine needs.

You will not see any improvement by buying aftermarket wires.

The big fat insulation on the aftermarket wires looks cool, just like a race car. Well, perhaps not like a real race car but at least like a kid would imagine a race car.

Will the fat insulation do you any good? No, because the stock insulation is more than good enough.

Gee Uncle Joe, if all that's true, what can I get out of the aftermarket wires?

Ah young grasshopper, you might get noise in your radio. Perhaps not, perhaps your radio will work just fine.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Dang Joe,
I expected more from you than that. Not enough info brother . So because the copper has lower resistance, they are better, correct? I don't have a set of stockers here, but out of all the ones I have checked(taylor, MSD, Magnacore) the MSD resistance were marketably lower, to the point of no resistance in comparision. I would like to see some numbers from the stock set, but somebody said(on an earier thread) that resistance isn't the only thing that qualified a wire as good, but the individual never explained it past that, so Joe, can you

 

[JWVIPER]

OEM's will work fine and will save you some bucks, the MSD's look much better if you are into that and I have no radio noise at all.

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

The electronic stark timing and deliver exceeds my knowledge, perhaps because of lack of interest.

The performance of the CDI built ORECA motors was reported , by CDI, to be the best with Stock wires. Why? While the answer may be interesting will it impact the purchase choice? Or is the best performance likely to influence the buy choice. I purchased MSD wire sets for a couple cars and sold them when CDI told me the stock wires were the best. The MSD wires look nice but performance is more important then looks. FYI the(CDI/ORECA) motors produced 700-850HP.

 

[GTS Bruce]

Magnecor wires and new plugs at 6000 miles.Ran smoother and crisper. GTS Bruce

 

[Snakester]

You will not see any improvement by buying aftermarket wires.

Actually the new red MSD wires, you can definitely see a visible improvement over stock wires.

And there definitely was an improvement in performance, but the old wires were only getting spark through on 9 of them. Plus the MSD's look better made with molded ends, and solid, click-on connectors.

The advantages of the OEM plugs is that they are numbered all along the plug wire (the MSDs had slip-over plastic numbers to identify the appropriate cylinder), and the OEM wires were the perfect length for the plug locations, whereas the MSD wires were a couple inches too long for some of the plugs.

Still, it was easily worth the extra $8 or so that I paid for the red MSDs over OEM wires.

 

[joe117]

99 R/T 10,
When I said that the stock wires were good enough, I was talking about good enough in terms of the job they have to do.

The spark that is conducted to the plug must be hot enough to ignite the fuel/air mix in the combustion chamber.

That spark must start the fire under all conditions.

If the spark does this job, it cannot be improved.

So, if you start measuring the resistance of the wires and you find that the copper wires have almost no resistance and the stock wires have 20k ohms,
All you have proved is that 20k ohms is ok and although 1 ohm is less, it will not do the job any better.

We can look at the formula for Volts, Amps and Resistance.

Volts = Amps x Resistance. In other words the Volts lost in the wires will be equal to the Amps through the wires multiplied by the Resistance of the wires.

So why isn't it important when the resistance is 20,000 ohms?

Part of the reason is that the Amps are always going to be very very low.

.0001 Amp x 20,000 Ohms = 2 Volts loss in the wires.

.0001 Amp x 1 Ohm = .0001 Volts lost in the wires.

Is one better than the other? Sure it is but remember,

The V going to the plug is going to be more than 50,000 Volts.

We can afford to lose a couple in the wire. It wont make any difference.

As for my use of the term "good enough",

When you push the horn button a small wire connects the button to the horn relay.
Could you make the horn louder by making this wire larger?
No,

The wire is good enough, it trips the relay. That's all it needs to do.
Just as the spark lights the fire.