Any recommendations on aftermarket plugs & wires?

[wieger54]

I was thinking on changing out my plugs and wires for better peformance. Do you know where I could find some better ones? Any pro's or con's to any brand? Thanks!!


mike...

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[skidplatez]

I am very happy with my Magnecor wires and Torquemaster plugs. Not cheap but I will Never have to replace them and they gave a nice gain in smoothness and mileage.

[BigElm]

If you do a search...you will find LOTS of info on this....trust me...LOTS OF IT!
Good luck!

[SCRAPPYDO]

hello buddy, if your car is new, and I can see it is... then save your money. Unless its heavily modified, I think that wasting well over a hundred bucks are better spent somewhere else. Horsepower from spark plugs is for the most part a misnomer. IF your ignition system is in good shape, then you will probably not notice anything, except some pretty colored wires.

I dont mean to be a pessimist, but spending large money on something as simple as a spark plug and expecting huge changes is a disappointment waiting to happen.

Spend that money elsewhere, or use it to buy something more worthwhile, like a sway bar or an intake.

Thier will never be a cheap, super easy way to acheive large gains in HP. Spark plug companies market these power gains to appeal to a very broad array of people. People want to belive that spark plugs will give them HP. It makes it an easy sell. Their are 6 and seven second Pro Street cars that run, plain champions, or AC delco plugs. These are guys that need every last HP, and they use 89 cent plugs. Spending 40, 50, or even 100 bucks on plugs is money down the drain.

I suppose people will follow my post and say they got NOTICEABLE gains form plugs, saying they use iridium, platinum, uranium, or plutonium type plugs, and thats fine. If I spent that much money on plugs I would swear it works too!

Happy motoring, and I do hope that I might have helped you out.

take care
SCRAPPYDO

[wieger54]

Hey thanks guys.
I guess the main reason is my car idles kind of rough. I heard that this might help out some. I'm not expecting mass hp power from this. Maybe a couple max thats it. I just want to have my car run smoother while in idle. Maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Could something else help? Is this a common thing? Or should I just take it to the dealer?

mike...

[SCRAPPYDO]

interesting question mike,

you are justified in wanting your car to run smoother...I certainly dont blame you dude. You may want to consider taking it into the dealer before spending money on wires.. just to see if its something else.

Good luck!

SCRAPPYDO
stephen

[Dissenter]

An interesting description of wireing benifits can be found at http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/overview.htm
They talk about how you aren't going to get HP gains and such from wiring, but that there are benifits such as higher conductivity and heat resistance from their wires.

[This message has been edited by Dissenter (edited April 17, 2001).]

[bruno]

hey man,

ill tell you one thing , it is worth changing your plugs. i was pretty pissed when i found out i had champion plugs in my car. anyway i went with the Nology hot wires and these suckers are great, and they come with a ground and will give you 300 times more spark than stock. and dont forget to get the ngk triple platinum plugs or denso iridium.

[Julian]

300x more spark? Please. Besides, after you ignited the air/fuel mixture, what's left? What do you need the big spark for, once it has done its job?

Unless your ignition system is worn (30K on stock plugs, years on wires) you won't feel any true gains. You'd never feel 1-2 HP either. And as far as the "iridium" plugs, you won't feel the claimed 6HP on a 500HP Skyline (that's less than a 1% improvement!).

As has been said by the wise sage above, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Meanwhile, consider your rear sway bar and/or intake to be broke, and fix that instead

[SCRAPPYDO]

300 tims more spark huh?

Sounds like something out of a Nology brochure. <IMG SRC="http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/smilies/rolleyes.gif" border=0> How exaclty did you measure that? The coil puts out the same amount of voltage as before. Somehow the nology wires are 300 times more conductive than a brand spanking new set of Subaru wires. And what exaclty is spark measured in. I mean I can say my car has 300 times more "go fast" than the next guys car. What are the units of "spark".

As for the plugs, what are they like 10 bucks per each (I may be wrong, since I dont buy into the marketing scam that started with the splitfires). So you figure 120 bucks for wires, and 40 bucks for plugs, ± 10 bucks because I am weak on my "not needed show off parts" prices.

so now you have invested ~160 bucks to replace wires and plugs that are as of now - brand spanking new. If that does not bother you I have a titanium beryllium composite metal matrix radiator cap that is carbon fiber coated and will dissapate 300 times more heat than a stock radiator cap! It is also 300 times lighter than its closes rival! It is a must have!

If you car is running rough, take it to dealer, or talk to a buddy with an RS and see if his/hers runs the same way. The RS has a fairly smooth idle, not like a lexus, but still its pretty smooth. I would go to a dealer and get it checked out if you are worried. It will cost you nothing. If you still feel compelled to purchase these pure silver "magic" wires, then more power to you...300 times more power to be "exact".

good luck with your car!

SCRAPPYDO
stephen

[scooby5]

ScrappyDo's got a good point.

The Magnecor website is very eye opening on that. Anyone thinking of getting high end 12 tip superduper conductor plugs and space age wires should read the magnecor website.

As for the claim of 300x more spark, it's not worth even starting a debate on this.

[Texas25RS]

As a non-car-professional I can say that I am a psychology major... and one little thing about your article...

<FONT size="5">CONSIDER THE SOURCE</FONT s>

Of course Magnecore is not going to rag on their own products... nor would Nology... nor would Jackson Racing... no one would rag their own parts... they are trying to sell you $90 spark plug wires...

I would change out spark plugs though... I went from $.89 Champions (stock) to some $1.99 Bosche Platinum plugs. The change has been great and my copper plugs were worn out (noticed a 4.5 mpg gain on my first road trip with the plats in) but the "gains" have not been worth trying the Irdiums (what are they $60) or anything with multiple anything (Split Fire, Platinum +4)... spend 8 bucks and be through with it.

[subarurabbit]

NGK spark plugs are probably the best bet.

Roger

[scooby5]

Texas25RS,

While Magnecor doesn't rag on their own product, they do say something along the lines of "You don't need our wires unless you're doing serious engine work".

A good quote from their site:

In recent years, performance market ignition wire "improvements" by our competitors
have amounted mostly to nothing other than copying Magnecor Race Wires' innovations
of larger cable sizes and color (particularly in the USA and Australia), at the same
time cutting manufacturing costs by using inferior materials and conductors. The need
for EMI suppression by late model vehicles is simply addressed by our competitors by
including words in advertisements and promotional material which suggest there is EMI
suppression. Unfortunately, the claims that "low-resistance," "super conductor" and
"built-in capacitor" wires are EMI suppressed are as factual as other claims made for
the same wires such as: "300 times more powerful spark" - "30 times more spark
energy" - "15 times more powerful" - "over 300% more spark energy" etc. etc. etc.

[wieger54]

Thanks again,

I'm just going to take it to the dealer and have them take a look at it. There's another thing I want them to look at also. Don't worry about me going out and buying 60+ plugs. I got better things to spend my money. Yup, my intake is on order now. Looking forward to that. Thanks again people!

mike...

I have been experiencing the same roughness of the idle. I can not really think of anything to blame but the plugs. While you may not get more HP from more expensive plugs, I do think you'll get more wear and greater life. I must say I was pretty diappointed to read in my owner's manual for the 1999 RS that they suggest replacing the plugs at 30K miles. I'm at 37K miles now and will be replacing them soon. I believe the 30K mile change is directly related to the cheapy Champion plugs installed by the factory. Almost every major auto manufacturer is putting platnum plugs in their "100K miles before first tune up" cars. Speaking from experience, Bosch Platnum work well, wear well, and aren't that much more expensive. Especially since you most likely will not need to replace them every 30K miles. I've also heard good things about NGK. As far as wires, I'm sure the stock ones are as good as any as long as they are in good condition. Although my girlfriends Outback need new ones at 40K. The aftermarket ones may be more resistant to heat or something maybe.

[Gerry]

Well I just installed Sparkco wires and Desno Iridium plugs and it whas the best 150 I spent on the car so far...Gerry

[Dissenter]

Come on. The best 150 you spent? This must be one of your first mods to honestly say that. There are swaybars, anti-lift kits, cold air intakes and all sorts of other things that will outgain the benifit of wires and plugs in either handeling or acceleration. No offense, but what else have you done with your car for wires and plugs to be the best 150 you've spent?

[SCRAPPYDO]

look - you are entitled to your opinion, and if you say that was the best 150 you have ever spent on your car, one of two things must be true in MY most humble of opinions..

<1> this is the absolute first performance mod you have ever done to a car ever in your entire life, or...

<2> You have bought some SERIOUS junk in the past and anything at all would seem like an improvement.

Either way it tells me that you are on the tip of the iceburg as far as performance goes. I cant wait to see your posts when you add an intake or an exhaust, and God forbid you get a turbo. Boy are you in for a treat!

If neither of the above is true, and I paid 150 for a set of plugs and wires, I would swear they were the best thing since anti lock brakes too!

have fun guys, this is sage signing off

SCRAPPYDO
stephen
My purpose for posting is not to be a jerk, or a party pooper

[Gerry]

OK here we go..It wasn't the first mod that I have done to my car. The first mod was I believe my N1 exhaust, then was my Intake, then was my AFC controller "that really didn't do anything..But looks good" then came Extruded intake and had the 64mm throttle body done, ummmm, suspention came next..20mm sways front and rear stock springs/struts for now. The HKS coilovers are on the way..And a bunch of other stuff. The reason I said that it was the best 150 i spent was because from day 1 since i got the car it wasn't a smoth idle, when I get on it there is a little less hesatation then before and it just plain feels better. But the best 80 bucks i spent wad definitely the KARTBOY shifter Listen i'm no stranger to cars. I have a 7 second camaro that has 1000 plus horsepower on tap and you learn as you go especially when you blow up 3,000 dollar blowers, but the main thing is that you need AIR to make you car run faster but you also need SPARK to ignite that Air mixed with FUEL. It's easy.. AIR + fuel + Spark= HORSEPOWER. Also as for the turbo question..There is a brand new 2.2 shortblock sitting in the garage at this moment still sitting in it's crate. I'm waiting to pick up Adam Blooms DOHC heads."low on funds" so there will be a turbo in the future. And as for the Antilock brakes..I HATE THOSE THINGS So that's the short of it...Gerry

[This message has been edited by Gerry (edited April 19, 2001).]

[DoctorMoo]

While we're "quasi" on the subject... Anyone know a decent place to get YELLOW plug wires? Not looking for super performance increase (well, other than the well-known fact that cool colors add 2-4 hp ) ...just dressing up the engine compartment...