Pelican Parts Forums - What a difference new spark plug wires make!!

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What a difference new spark plug wires make!!

Wow!! I just replaced my 3-year old Jacobs spark plug wires with a nearly-new set of Magnecors that were kindly give to me by Jay Laifman (a fellow Pelican) and I simply cannot believe the difference! Better throttle response, smoother and more powerful acceleration, everything! This is the second best thing I ever did to my car, the best thing was the Webers! I didn't know a set of spark plug wires could make such a difference, but I'm a believer now!

The Jacobs wires were fully seated on the plugs and nothing else changed. Could there really be that much difference between plug wires?

I'm highly skeptical of the performance claims made by some wire manufacturers. You seriously feel there was a difference? Considering that your old ones were only 3 years old, they couldn't have been in that bad of shape, could they?

Komenda Fan,

I agree with you, I don't believe the hype, but the Jacobs wires didn't appear to be damaged and they were on the plugs correctly. The difference is substantial and quite noticeable! I wish I knew what to attribute the difference to...

Nobody else noticed a dramatic difference after replacing their spark plug wires?

Did you do anything else to the engine while you were in there? Did you install new plugs, perform a tuneup, anything?

At the end of the day, all the wires do is transmit an electrical current a very short distance to the sparkplugs, I am certainly not questioning your integrity here, I just can't imagine that the wires could make much difference...

Maybe I will have to try a set!

I didn't change anything else or touch anything at all, just the plug wires. The Jacobs wires looked fine and had about 8000 miles on them. After putting on the Magnecors and going on a very spirited 18 mile "shakedown", I threw out the old wires!

I'm not surprised. Replacing a 30,000 mile-old cap and rotor will have a similar effect. High voltage signals are finicky. On a six cylinder engine, at 3000 rpm, there are 150 firing signals PER SECOND.

The car starts much easier now, too.

I didn't notice a difference between my original factory OEM wires and my new Magnecors. In fact, I put my old original factory OEM wires back on since they fit better.

Yeah it helps too when you put them on in the right firing sequence, help to have them all firing at the right time.
Wonder if you drove around for 3 years with them all out of whack?

Or maybe one that wasn't completely seated? It is easy to run on 5 cylinders and not be aware of it.

All of the old wires were on nice and tight and on the correct plugs, so no misfiring was occurring. The car ran fine before, but much stronger and with more acceleration with the Magnecors. It's been a few weeks now and the difference is pretty significant.

Maybe the wires were all wrapped around the throttle linkage, and now they are free.
Did you notice anymore gas pedal travel lately?
Should run strong enuff now to pull a trailer with.

Thus, Magnecores provide 10 hp more than Jacob wires. Is that the answer?

Or perhaps something was wrong with the Jacob wires and the Magnecores were just doing their job like any other normal spark plug wire.

Sherwood

Art,

I made the exact same change (Jacobs for Magnecor) about 18 months ago. The biggest difference I noticed was that the Magnecor wires are better made and fit much better. The Jacobs wires were very difficult to get properly seated and, once seated, were extremely difficult to get off for a tune-up.

I highly recommend the Magnecor wires but I doubt they will give you any noticeable performance gain over other high quality wires if they are properly installed. In fact even Magnecor states that the wires will not give a performance gain. The following is from their website:

Quote:

Claims of Horsepower Gain

Every brand of spiral conductor ignition wires will perform the function of conducting coil output to the spark plugs, but NONE, despite the claims made in advertisements and other promotional literature, will increase horsepower. Independent tests, including a test performed by Circle Track Magazine (see May, 1996 issue) in the USA, show that NO "low-resistance" ignition wires for which a horsepower increase is claimed do in fact increase horsepower - the test also included comparisons with solid metal and carbon conductor ignition wires.

Quote:

Magnecor does not claim its Race Wires increase horsepower, and any horsepower gained by the use of Magnecor Race Wires results entirely from the ability of the wires to maintain full conductance and suppress EMI that previously robbed the engine of horsepower.

It's me, the guy mentioned up on top. I think the answer is pretty clear. There was something wrong with the Jacob's wires. Even so, I'm glad to have caused a positive result.

Jay,
Thanks again! The car is running great and the Magnecor wires fit better (shorter and less slack) and all is well!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 911pcars (Post 3498664)

I'm with Serwood on this one...Mishandled new wires can have the carbon broken on the inside, and perform poorly.