Mathius

I couldn't find a good picture of one of these, but in the latest PHR rag, WAY in the back where there is just advertisements, there's a place called Queen's automotive that sells these little chrome wire holders for an HEI distributor. They look like little top hats, with holes in the brim to hold the back of the rubber spark plug boots. It looks very cool.

But I'm not a fan of chrome, because everything I've ever bought that was chrome rusted. (some of it during the first year, like my valve covers on my chevelle) I thought it would be fairly easy to fabricate one of these out of stainless or even aluminum if I could find access to a tig, but my question is of an electrical nature.

I know almost nothing about electrical. Is the rubber insulator boots enough to keep the current in the spark plug wires from grounding out on a stainless steel top hat? Will this hurt performance or otherwise damage my ignition system?

Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I truly don't know anything about electrical whether it be a car or a house or anything. I barely know enough to get by as a welder.

Mathius

Mathius

No one knows if a stainless steel plug wire loom will cause a potential short, or ruin performance? I figured it'd be a simple question for the guys around here.

Mathius

Comp788

Mathius,

it does not matter is your wire loom is made from stainless steel, aluminum, or steel. What matters is that they are all insulated. If they are not insulated proper they can either short to eachother for a misfire or short to ground. Rubber is a pretty good insulator and also cheap. The sparkplug wire itself when new will insulate from most issues so that you will not get a short. Once they get worn (by use) they start to break down the insulating properties. That is why there are wire looms. if the wires are held away from a ground source (hence almost everything in the engine compartment) they will usually hold up fine for many thousands of miles.

Fabricating some wire looms out of stainless will look nice and work just fine. Just be sure to insulate it as best as you can. Most of the aftermarket wire looms are made from plastic because it is very cheep to manufacture and also has pretty good insulating properties as well.

Even if a wire does short to ground as in the spark plus wire was cut and then the core went straight to ground it would be very very rare for it to damage your ignition system. 99.9% of the time you will just get a dead cylinder and the car will run miss or have a shake in that cylinder. Of coarse if you left it like that for a wile it would put undue stress on the ignition system and could damage it.

Mathius

Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. How would you recommend I insulate it? Will the factory boots suffice, or should I try a rubber grommet?

Mathius

Comp788

Well now you have me a bit confused. What type of wire loom are you talking about? Usually the ones that I see either attach to the valve cover bolts or to an intake manifold bolt. These would best be insulated by a rubber grommet. With these type of looms you use all of the stock existing hardware with the spark plug wires. Yes you would use the stock boots on each end of the spark plus wire. If your talking about something different can you send a link or attach a pic so I can see what your talking about? If you have an idea of what you want let me know I can always cut some on our laser at work. I have made tons of really cool stainless steel parts at work.

PM me if you have any specific questions.

jstoltz

iTrader: (16)

I think this is pretty much what he is talking about comp I would go with this before I would make one. they also have them for the regular in cap HEI's also.

Mathius

No, that's not it.

There's a picture of a Mr. Gasket version here: http://go.mrgasket.com/pdf/ignition_accessories.pdf

It's item 6655. The one I saw looked to be better quality than the cheapy mr. gasket chrome.

Looks really nice on the right engine.

Mathius

jstoltz

iTrader: (16)

same thing except the one I have piced is for divorced coil

jstoltz

iTrader: (16)

same concept as this (I think let me know if I am completely off)except kinda plain. I like msd's because no chance of grounding at all except the normal wire to wire ground out (but hopefully you inspect the wires before then)