Plug Wires
 

96 GT 4.6l .... I am wondering what the difference is between High-Performance Wires and Racing Wires. I have a mostly stock engine and I was wondering if racing wires would be good or do some damage. Any help?

Bennett

Hey Bennet, the first thing I did when I got my 98 GT was a tune-up. I put on MSD wires and Bosch platinum-4 spark plugs. Don't waste your time or money on Bosch plugs, mine were destroyed fairly quick. Stick with Motocraft and you'll be fine.

MSD makes high-quality wires. I compared the resistance of the factory wires to MSD just for kicks. I found that the blue Motocraft factory wires measure about 6k-8k ohms per foot where the MSD wires are in the 50 to 100 ohm range. This difference means MSD wire will not drop as much voltage across itself as your factory wire, allowing more power to be drawn from your coil packs and sent to your plugs, HOWEVER...

Unless your existing wires and/or plugs are going bad, YOU WON'T NOTICE A DIFFERENCE.

On a side note, an easy way to check your ignition system is to pull a boot from a cylinder to verify a plug, and a cap from a coil to verify both the wire and the plug. The engine should miss badly if the tested component/s are good, or show no difference if the component/s are faulty.

That's why I was asking....my current wires are shot. I just came across a cheap set of racing wires and was wondering if it would be ok to put them on.

Bennett

Throw 'em on. Have fun with the number four boot. If they make your car run like crap pick up a set of MSD or Motocraft and you'll be set.

Alright, thanks a lot. :D

Bennett

The one thing I can say about a good set of aftermarket plug wires is the RFI/EMF canceling effect they have. As you know when you energize a wire with electrons you create a field around the wire, with enough power you can distort surrounding electronics and Radio receivers. Spiral wound cores with good condutivity and a good casing drasticaly reduce the amount of interferrence you will see from sending 40KV-60KV through your engine bay.

In short, the only thing I saw was the ability to listen to the radio w/o the need for an antenna.

Hey Steeda, you wouldn't be a EE by any chance would you?

No... was going to, but I changed mid-degree.... I went for Network Engineer degrees for Cisco Systems and MS Win2K/NT4. The other guy I work with here is working on his last yr and a half of his EE/CIS degree

MSD wires or TAYLOR would be a good choice. You do get what you pay for...

If your going to do your plugs also (good idea), try the NGK TR55IX's...Iridiums, they are great plugs for the money.

IMO