Plug Wires ??? Your thoughts

I don't recall haveing an indepth discussion on plug wires as long as I have been on the HAMB well other than what wires do you think would look good on my car. I personally think that most of the fellas don't give much thought to plug wires, but unless you are running a diesel plug wires are a very important component.

So a little start here and then let the experts chime in:

I have run spiral wound wires for a very long time. Mostly because I have run laser ignition for a very long time. Not totally trad but nuff said on that subject.

When I was a kid the real deal was Packard 440 Wire, that would be real wire, if you wanted to go fast.

Anyway lets here what you know about plug wires. Open discussion here, what looks right, what performs best with whatever type of ignition etc.

Please don't post some article you copied out of a magazine, if you're using something you read give credit to the writer/publisher.

 

These are Nology wires from an outfit in SoCal. Bought them because of the old time cloth covered look. Friend of mine used to work for Dan Gurney and Andretti-Green Racing and he convinced me to replace them with Moroso wires. Couldn't tell any difference quite frankly. The Nology wires were custom made to my specs and were pricy at $100.

 

Runningt Packard resistor wire through stainless looms on a flattie. Got electronic Mallory ignition & have to. Butch.

 

The first hot rod improvement that I ever did to a car. I'm not racing so looks is more important than a HP or 2 on the dyno. There might have been other manufacturers making stranded wire back in the day, but Packard 440 was THE brand name for hot rodders. These logos didn't just happen to show up at eye level. I bought a whole roll off of Ebay so I won't be buying plug wires for the rest of my life. This past weekend a fellow car guy at a show went off about my Rajah clips. He hadn't seen any in 40 years. It doesn't happen often but when it does it makes me smile.

 

I always thought that packard wire was the stuff. Raja clips are a little hard to come by these days. I'd like to find a set of the porcelyne (sp?) covered ones.

 

I use original clear wire from the 60's they work pretty well...I don't know much more than
that.. but they look good

the distro ends are N.o.S eelco and the plug ends are N.O.S. rahja.. it was fun ripping them
out of the original package...

 

you can get Rahja's allot of places.. Speedway carries them and Hot Rod Company has them too..

 

That's what of the next things I plan on tackling on my roadster. It needs some cool plug wires with some pop!

 

you can still get the raja clips brand new. there have been quite a few threads about where to get them. it's a website dedicated to antique restorations.

 

If looks are the only thing that you consider important, then buy/use what catches the eye.
However, its the stuff inside that determines whether or not your engine actually runs. The performance quality of the wire, the resistance, can be measured in 'ohms', one of the settings not many guys ever use on the VOM.
Some of the specialty wire used by the NASCAR folks has levels as low as 200-300 ohms per foot. The wire used by the auto mfgrs will vary from 2000 to 10000. Also, keep in mind that the diameter of the wire is a reflection of the thermal protection/insulation and not an indication of actual electrical performance. If you have wire draped across an exhaust manifold then buy the fattest wire that you can shove into the cap.

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I found these on Ebay. The nipples are bakelite with a threaded spike inside that screws into the wire strands on the ends of the wires. they come with built in rubber boots at the bottom that seal against the cap nipples.

As you can see I like the red see though wires also but in my mind they were used on the show cars. Packard 440 says early 60s high performance.

 

New 7mm cloth covered wire core wires and a set on NOS Sealtight connectors on the distributor and plugs.

 

7mm cloth wire with 90 degree Rajah clips.

 

tommy those ends RULE>.

 

Looking for some cloth covered suppression wires- anyone know of a good source for these?

Thanks-E

 

Just out of curiosity what does a 100' roll of 440 go for these days, i picked one for $20 at a swap meet in january and i figure i'll run it on my 283 T roadster

 

I'm running an electronic Mallory ignition 6AL and was told it wouldn't work correctly with the copper wire cable, anyone know why ??? i thought it might be to do with suppression ???

 

If the manufacturer that carries the warranty says not to run them then I wouldn't run them. If you read it on a message board then I'd check with the manufacturer. I ran solid core wires on my Chrysler electronic ignition (Chrysler module) with no problems. My new engine will have the same ignition with the above Packard 440 wires.

 

Back in the '60s, high school days, lived @ home still, used to piss my mother off, solid core wires put static in her TV and radio.

 

When I first got my 40 on the road I had Packard 440 wire on it. Then I thought it would look cool with the red fuel lines and clear red plug wires on it. Looked cool yeah but ran like shit, Packard wires are back on it now.

 

Don't use Accel wires I had a miss when ever the engine got up to temp. found out that the heat from the headers was getting the wires so hot they would'nt pass the current. switched to Taylor wires had no problem.

 

I like Accel's spiral wound 8.8 mm wires.

2nd set in 15 years and I think there's nothing wrong with the first set.

Kinda got on a clean-up bit and stuck new ones on.

Nice part is, the plug boots can be set at the angle you need.

The first set of plug wires were probably on and off 30 times or so for various things.
The plug ends still clipped to the plugs with a slight click and stayed on.

The distributor is a Uni-Lite and the standard cap accepts the fat wires with no probs.






Dad made up Raja's for both little brothers built Y-block 54 Ford and my Rocket powered 50 Ford.

Lasted a long time, used Packard wire on both.

A few years down the line, the Raja 'kit' - toolbox, tool, wire, clips et al got tossed from the oil field garage where dad worked.

He brought it home and little brother ended up with it....

 

The high zoot mallory stuff is real sensitive to Ohms of resistance. That's the reason i run spiral wound wire as I believe someone else already mentioned with my uni-lite. Wanna knock out a Mallory ignition quick, forget voltage spikes man, just run the wrong wire on it.

My newest dizzy is a YL twin point that I got from Moon Disk (sorry if I got your Name wrong bro) I'll probably be running stranded wire on it. But I gotta do a little research first. Originally I was going to convert it to magnetic but I'm leaving the points I believe atleast until I burn my first set.

I have set of Taylor Spiro-Pros that i have had since '97. They are on their forth or fifth car now a friends Monte SS. he couldn't keep wires on it. I gave him those to use and said they are my lucky wires. They have been on there for 2 years now. For longevity you can't beat 'em.

Here's a question for someone smarter than myself, on an electronic ignition you try and keep the Ohms low, thus the spiral wires, what about points. Big heavy gauge stranded wire or lowest Ohms possible??

 

I don't think it would matter, points are on the primary side. Wires are on the secondary side.

 

Anyway, I'm using basic NAPA bulk wire in a chromed steel loom I built from 3/8 brake line.
No problems yet, Mallory coil and Unilite.

 

Cool idea! Very clean.

 

How about a pic of the other side of that Chevy inline 6 ?

 

For performance, I LOVE the taylor wires. We jokingly refer to them as "the official plug wire of Crushproof"- and a bit of brake cleaner on a rag takes the screen printing off of them.

for looks, for what I do (which is primarily resto-mod type stuff.) I really like the "cheapie" m.s.d. "street fire" wires. they are flat black, and again, the screen on them wipes off with a mild solvent. they have a straight boot (a plus if You need to "tweak" one to get it around a large sized header tube" and carry alot of juice.

for early stuff, though...I run taylors in a fabric tube we buy from dell city. we just nip the "fancy" end off.

 

As a practical matter, I don't think it matters either.

Even so, the least resistance the better.

It takes a particular voltage to fire a plug.
Widen the gap and it takes more voltage.

Anything you can do along the lines of less resistance for more voltage can only help.

 

Packard 440 wires are the way to go if you don't have a radio. The Packard 440 19 strand wire will last indefinately and will withstand abuse. If you have headers where the wire may get on one, use Packard 535 (red) wires. The Packard 535 conductors are 24 strand silver plated copper and the insulation is heat resistant if it happens to get on hot exhaust manifolds or headers. Back in the late 1960s we used Packard 535 wires on our Jr. Fueler with a Scintilla magneto and had no ignition breakdowns.