Technical CAN WE HAVE AN INTELLEGENT CONVERSATION ABOUT SPARK PLUG WIRES?

I'll be the first to admit I don't know a lot about the different types and when they should be used, there seems to be 3 different types, solid-core, carbon-suppression, and spiral-wound.

What the best for our hot rods & customs that are not daily drivers?

What is your using electronica ignition or points, would you use the same wires? HRP

 

I have the same wires that were on the Hotrod when I got it...They were on likely since 2010 when Jerry built it...it was points in a stock pre electronic Chev distributor...I went to Pertronix in same, left the same wires on and they're still going strong with no issues...I will check what they are but they met the spec for the upgrade...

My coil wire is a one off though as the coil wire must have been to short and the one that replaced it just makes it and is cloth covered...I should replace that with one an 1" or so longer...

I took the Hotrod to the Carwash the other day left it running and blasted the engine keeping it below the intake but soaked things pretty good...the first time since I got it......again no arcing, missing...but the drum brakes...man did they chatter and pull for a while...

I did change the plugs last year and they sure needed it...
















The wires are cleverly ziptied / ziptie spaced and anchored to the flower power wire holder...mickey mouse on the mouse I know but Hambers are clever like that...I've come to appreciate the simple things in life many times, especially when it religiously gets me home...

The Plugs are NGK R V-Power UR4
engine - 327 of 68 vintage...

As far as electronics in the car...there is no radio, but GPS and Cellphone hooked or unhooked to 12v cigarette style port with 120V convertor have zero issues with a 12 Volt Delco generator supplying the charging power...



​

 

There is kitchen cabinet full of some incredible spark wires in a town in Minnesota.

 

Are any of us capable of having an intelligent conversation about anything serious?

 

Most cars won't lose anything by using the cheapest carbon suppression wires you can find....

but if you want to get fancy, go for it. I have the cheap set on my Chevy II, it's run high nines, they've been on the car for 8 years, and covered almost 30k miles.

 

Yes there are...I do try...

 

I hear he uses them for clothesline.

What I want to know is, on carbon core wires, is the conductor the little black tubing or the stringy stuff inside the tubing?

 

An intelligent conversation about spark plug wires you say? I for one think it’s umm, revolting. Lol

 

I'm wired right now thinking about it...I'm suspecting Squirrel's analogy may have been executed on my Ole Jalopy and Ohhhh!!! I'm glad they're just plain old black...and they have delivered for a similar time period...

 

I put new wire ends and boots on a motor I bought a few months ago. Surprised to find solid core wires until I remembered this engine was assembled almost 50 years ago. When I light it off I'll go in the house to see what they do with our TV reception.
I once had a 57 Pontiac with solid core wires. When I pulled up in front of my girlfriend's house, their TV would get static and horizontal lines across the screen!

 

Solid copper core -
Mostly used in the early days, 50's, 60's. Usually sold as, Packard 440 Wire .
Is currently sold by various companies.
Is good with older (Vertex, etc.) magnetos only today. They normally emit bad radio interference, so you hear buzzing in your radio, and can interfere with other electronics (MSD and other boxes) and make them go crazy.
Even your neighbors may hear you by the buzzing in THEIR radios and TV's (old TVs !). I used to get hassled by neighbors back in the 60's all the time !
Normally a single rubber insulation, normally 7mm dia.
Moderately expensive, can last as long as the outer insulation allows.

Carbon suppression core-
This was the next step in wire design. It's normally a "wire" made up of long fiberglass strands infused with carbon particles to allow the electrical flow.
They were and still are plenty usable, do not emit radio interference....a good thing. Will not bother other electronics in the car.
BUT their life span can be somewhat short, because of the carbon particles separating within the fiberglass strands. And they can be badly degraded by rough handling, as on a car where the wires are removed and replaced from the spark plugs often.
Can have either rubber or silicone insulation, normally 7mm dia. The silicone insulation in these wires is normally a single layer.
These are normally the cheapest wire that you can buy...and for good reason !

Spiral wound core -
The current top of the heap in spark plug wires !
The "wire" or central core can be of various materials. Fiberglass or other cloth based materials. Then the central core is tightly wrapped (like a guitar string) with a fine Inconel or other high grade wire as the electrical carrying medium.
Then the "core" is covered in various things. Can be silicone-silicone, can be by silicone-nylon (or other cloth material for pull strength),-silicone. They can be just a large diameter, single layer of silicone (cheaper kits) .
The silicone-braid-silicone insulation is the best, for overall pull strength and electrical insulation.
There is no radio interference, most all (MSD and others, and current MSD magnetos) ignition makers recommend this type of plug wire. Many OEM's used this wire in the last years before the coil on plug design systems.
This wire can be had in 7mm, 8mm, 9mm, and 10mm diameters. Maybe...more !
These, as you might expect are the most expensive, but they are still very price worthy when you consider their lifespan and overall construction.

Hope this helps...

Mike

 

I know this is an intelligent conversation, whatever that is, but would televisions be affected in the same way these days now they have new tangled electronics and not valves?

 

TV used to use analog signal, and any electrical noise would show up pretty easily on the screen as noise. Now most broadcast TV uses digital signals, and electrical noise doesn't show up until it obliterates the signal, and you see...nothing.

I would not make my choice of spark plug wires based on how much it interferes with AM radio or the neighbor's TV set. But I also wouldn't choose solid core wire because it's "better" somehow. Using wire that looks right in an old hot rod...now, that's a good reason to use solid core wire.

 

...I just returned early Sunday Morning from a 240 mile drive in the Hotrod...It was a pretty much all superhighway drive at 60-70 mph...I get blowby on the windshield as a regular thing but on this particular drive the windshield had a finer mist on it...I actually stopped at several sevice centers to clear the windshield of that mist...

...well I just went out to the garage to take these pics and noticed the filler cap...I did change the oil just before the trip last Friday and checked the cap and pushed on it to seat it several times in check...the last leg it really got close to saying sayonara obviously...

...anyone have this happen? Tangs need spread? New Cap needed?

Not to hijack just noticed this...

​

 

. I think that town may be Mound, but you didn't hear it from me. This thread is shocking and should not be distributed.
It should be plugged, not coiled, it may cause sparks. I hope you get the point, I tried to condense it.

 

You appear to have a breather style filler cap, but is the filter material inside it plugged or restricted. I can't tell from that shot but do you have a PVC hose and valve plumbed in to a source of manifold vacuum? Is the hose free-flowing and does the valve stay open when it's supposed to? Could the hose be soft, collapsed or kinked?

If this happened after a stretch of high speed driving it might just be the result of building more crankcase pressure; higher operating temps and more blow-by. Or added turbulence in the c/case from moving more air back and forth beneath the pistons and windage from the spinning crankshaft from sustained higher engine speeds.

If you have PCV make sure it's working properly. And maybe consider adding more c/case ventilation, like some breathers in the valve cover.

 

Those would be "tubes" to us Yanks . . .

 

That's the problem with you kids today! Everything's a goddamned joke!

 

Just to be different we called them valve radios and teles then with technology advancement went to trannies.

 

No PCV system...Cap is 10+ years old and well saturated...and yes there would have been a pcv system on this engine...this is the first time for this and it was cool nighttime air with extended 1-2 hour highway speed driving...I will replace the cap...I have driven this for 5-6 years as it is without anything more than some light managable blowby oil on the windshield, firewall and the frontal engine at manifold carb level so I'll start with the cap...Perhaps a Corvette style filler pcv may be a future consideration...but I know there's more to it than that.

Good info @ClayMart, Thank you...

 

This for me. Haven’t had any issue’s running tiny Bluetooth amp to get tunes either.

 

My grandmother would always refer to the radio as the "wireless" (wah-less). I'm not sure if she was thinking 1920's, or was ahead of her time imagining bluetooth

Cheers,
Harv

 

Trannies, you say?

Amazing how people from different countries, speaking the same language, can unintentionally generate this kind of misinterpretation and jocularity.

 

Would my 90 degree elbowed at the plug black wires been available in 1963 minus the zipties and I suspect modern inner wire structure...

I think I know the ones you're referencing...I have a few deviations from a plausible 1963 period Hotrod but I do pass it off as pretty close minus those details.

 

As far as I am concerned, it is Packard 440 and Rajah ends.

Luckily. I have enough squirreled away to last me as long as I need.

 

Thank you...that's good to know...

Are coil wires fabbed from the same material as the sparkplug wires, I'm suspecting yes but the coil end is different...

Because my coil wire is about 15" away from the Distributor typical GM wiring sets have the coil near distributor length, which is much shorter than I can use...Who does one typically source for making a single wire...I've went into Napa and they don't do these kind of things. I don't want to buy a whole set of wires to get one either...Again the one I have works but is really 1"- 1.5" too short...

 

Most coil wires are the same as the rest are at the cap end, but the rubber boot at the coil is larger. The contact is the same as in the distributor cap connections for the plug wires.

NAPA might still sell wire and terminals that you can put together, if you have a decent crimping tool.

 

Thanks Squirrel....
I will approach them again, they sure didn't sell single assembled ones...They never said make your own either. I was thinking another brand in say a Dodge of a 65 vintage might have a longer coil wire due to different locations...but referencing those details is difficult especially when sets are the going thing...you might open 20 boxes and find nothing...