Plug wires debate

[Eagles3k]

As I was replacing my lifters to the 3rd gen ones I have notcied that my timing belt was a little lose and I am going to have to do the 120k tune up this summer before i start driving it again. I was looking at all of the parts for the 120k as listed below (feel free to tell me other parts to replace at this time too if I missed anything at all). When looking at the spark wire replacements I have been told to go to the Magnecor's. I noticed that they have 8.5mm and also 10mm?? I understand that the 10mm guage difference would be better for electrical but my question is basically, what would be an advantage to go to the 10mm as I see everyone else uses the 8.5mm? Is there is a real big difference? Or are the 10mm basically just for the high HP boys out there? I am just beginning the upgrades now soo. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!

Eagles

Water Pump MD972005
Air Conditioner belt gatorback
Alternator Belt gatorback
Power Steering Belt gatorback
Timing Belt going with the PE kevlar this time
Tensioner MD319040
Timing Belt Tensioner Pulley MD140071
Timing Belt Idler Pulley DOHC MD319022
Throttle Body Gasket MD180361
Intake Plenum Gasket MD143791
Spark Plugs Denso Iridium IK 24's
Spark Plug Wires Deciding on Magnecor 8.5mm or 10mm
Oil Try the Royal Purple this time (where to buy
in Ontario though? GTA area)
Oil Filter Mag Power II from 3SX
Air Filter
Oil pump (suggested but might not depending on money right now)

[Fast Eddie]

Magnecor is said to be worse than stock impedance.

Apparently the difference between the 8.5mm and 10mm is just the thickness of the insulation.

This will answer alot of your questions:
http://www.stealth316.com/2-msd-ignwires.htm

I measured my MSD's and the impedance listed there is correct. They are the best available if you look at the numbers.

MSD Ignition 8.5mm Super Conductor (40-50 ohms/ft)
Accel Thundersport (150 ohms/ft)
Taylor 8mm Spiro Pro (350 ohm/ft)
Aurora ignition wire set (400 ohms/ft)
Vitek Performance Cables (their web site does not mention resistance, but John Monnin measured them at about 800 ohms/ft; the label under Vitek's braiding says "Magstar Gold 8mm High Performance S-4 Stainless Steel Mag Wire" - thanks John!; Magstar wires are manufactured by Wiretec)
Wiretec Magstar Gold (800 ohms/ft as measured by John Monnin)
NGK Resistor Spark Plug Wire Set (2600 ohms/ft)
Mitsubishi factory wire sets (3000++ ohms/ft)
Car Quest brand wire sets (3000++ ohms/ft - Thanks to Bret for measuring these wires.)
Magnecor KV85 (6000++ ohms/ft)

[Eagles3k]

Thanks for the tip becuase I actually had no real idea about the ginition wires really. That now gives me confirmation about which wires are best etc. I have just seen that for some reason there is a lot of the magnecar 8.5mm out there on 3S's. But now that I know that MSD's are the best (was my second choice for popularity) I will have to purchase them. Thanks again for the insight and knowledge.

[Manj]

If only I used this site 4 years ago.
I changed all my wires to Magnecor, becasue a) they were thicker and b) they were red (i know, pretty stupid reason but wanted to match the color of my car).
Those wires cost me a little more, but they turned out to be so sh*t. I've been told many times, the best wires to go with are NGK's.

[one day...]

I change my plug and wire last week, and do change for the MSD 8.5.

I buy the V-8 costum kit (8 wire that you have to cut yourself)

they dont cover completly the hole of the plug (water or dust could get there and spark plug could faild faster) so I reuse the "cover part" of the stock wire ( with a screwdriver and some wd-40... or you can break the plastic part inside, sometime, it come easily)

then, I cut a litle of the MSD letter on the rubber and the lip too (to permit the stock "plug cover" to get over the MSD one) *do this BEFORE finishing the other end of the wire!

if someone want to translate this in a good english, go ahead!:)

[SuperchargedWS6]

I see this discussion on a lot of the forums about plug wires, msd testing low resistance and magnecore testing high. Testing for resistance is a bit of marketing hype.

I'll simplify the definitions:

Resistance is the opposition to DC (direct current) flow.

Impedance is the opposition to AC (alternating current) flow.

So, if your plug wires were energized all the time, they woudl be conducting DC currrent and therefore resistance is all you would have to worry about for calculating the maximum energy transfer to the plug.

However, your plug wires conduct a DC current that is switched on and off fairly quickly. Effectively, this is an AC current. Therefore, impedance is important. Impedance is made up of a combination of resistance and capacitance or inductance. You can test the resistance component with a multimeter, but it does not tell you the capacitance or inductance. Inductance resists changes in current. Capacitance resists changes in voltage. As you can see, both of those can affect how a plug wire performs as well.

This is the reason that testing for the lowest resistance wire does not mean that you have the plug wire that conducts the most energy to the coil.