i have a question on proper spark plug wire looming. i have always loomed my wires with dividers or the poor man zip tie in a way that the wires never touched. now i am seeing alot of builds that have the plug wires bundled togather. i like the clean simple look of the bundled wires, but what about cross fire issues? are todays wires that good? thanks, pkj
With good wires and a vintage ignition system, there are no probs, though the possibility is certainly there if anything deteriorates. I think with something like modern HEI, which puts out high voltage over the required amount via CD or some such, you will have troubles. I've seen HEI's quickly burn a pinhole connecting two close wires with good new 8mm silicon wires.
i know i look at my desoto hemi with its wire covers and think, inductive crossfire, i was at a campion sparkplug clinic back years ago and they ran a brigs on inductence crossfire only, they had two plug wires about 2-1/2ft long, one on the plug and one on the coil, when the wires were held togather along there length the motor ran, when moved apart it would stall, these wire were not connected togather at the end, i like 4 two wire looms held under the valve cover bolts on a sbc, keeps everything apart. did you ever get your camera Bruce?
Camera is here...I am cautiously circling this apparition, which clearly has suprhuman intelligence and power. Chihuahua will kill it if it makes any sudden moves.
I have heard bad things about electronic systems like HEI and Pertronix with bundled or metal-loomed wires. It seems the induction causes cross-firing issues and sometimes the units burn out from it. I've also heard about problems caused by generators as opposed to alternators to Pertronix systems. I have zip tied wires on my 6V dual point system with no issues.
My experience is with flathead tubed wire, solid-core, generally Packard 440. Never had any problems, and with a 59A cap the wires are cozy from the beginning. It is easy to see how this could go all to hell with any bad insulation, and if you went to either big plug gaps or an electronic system with some form of capacitative discharge to jack voltage, all bets would be off.
About ½ of the Hemi rebuilds we do use stock wire covers. If we supply the plug wire we use the best we can get our hands on and even with 7mm wire and the Mopar electronic system we rarely have questions .
To be completely ideal you should not bundle them. Keep them gapped and try to only let them cross at 90* or near it. But yeah right, who does that.
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