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Accel vs. MSD vs. Moroso plug wires, my personal assesment w/n...

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Old 05-12-2001, 05:42 PM
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Car: 86' Z28
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Accel vs. MSD vs. Moroso plug wires, my personal assesment w/n...

Well in the past year and a half i've gone through 3 sets of plugs wires (mainly because of headers) below are my experiences with them all.

**Disclaimer** this is just my personal opinion based on my personal experience with all three. your results may vary.

Accel Super Stock 8mm wires-
Sucked badly. Engine ran rough, gas mileage was not too great, and the plug boots on them weren't the greatest.

Moroso Blue Max 8mm wires-
MUCH BETTER. Smoothed the engine right out, got 2 MPG better, and the boots seemed a whole lot better.

MSD heli-core 8mm wires-
BEST. Not much difference in smoothness, power or MPG campared to Moroso, but the overall construction was great. The boots were strong and tuff and durable. they even withstood direct contact with a header tube for nearly 800 miles of constant driving. The only reason i don't run them right now, is they eventually did burn up on the header and i got a great deal on the Moroso's

Take this info for what you will, i thought i'd share this everyone. All three sets of wires cost about the same, but the quality differences are definately noticeable.

thanks for listening,

Eric

------------------
My 1986 Z28
GM350, T-5, 3.23's, lots of go fast goodies, 4th gen Firebird interior etc...
85 IROC w/ 1364 miles!

You'll always find what you've lost in the last place you look

R.I.P Dale Earnhardt

[This message has been edited by zupmanZ28 (edited May 12, 2001).]
Old 05-14-2001, 04:34 PM
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Car: 04 GTO
Engine: LS1
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Here's my experience. I've run accel wires on every car i've ever owned. Even put a set on my mom's POS cuz for a few $$$ over stock, why not, lol. I have never had one fail, including on my 85 Z w/ edelbrock headers (which are the worst as far as routing goes, except maybe SLP 1 3/4s.)
If you have gone through 3 (!!!) sets of plug wires in a year, i wouldn't take your experience to mean a thing. You obviously don't undertsand the concept of not burning your wires, therefore, why should we believe that any of them were not burnt and therefore misfiring from the moment you test drove it.
Sorry to be so harsh, but it's the truth. There is no magic, or luck involved in keeping your plug wires from burning. It takes an extra 30 seconds to make sure everything is routed correctly before you start driving. Maybe some wires stand up better to contact with headers than others, but i'd rather spend half (or less) the money on a part that i know works just as well on a NA street car and be a little more careful.
I can't stand to hear people slam accel wires just cuz they abused them (i've only heard a few cases of what sounded like true QC issues, and personally i have had nothing but luck).

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Ed Maher - Moderator @ The Carb Board
92 Z28 Convertible - Quasar blue / Tan top
LB9 4L60 GU2 G80 - stock, soon to be sleeper
-=ICON Motorsports=-

- Definitely prototypes, high powered mutants of some kind. Too weird to live, too cool to die

[This message has been edited by Ed Maher (edited May 14, 2001).]
Old 05-14-2001, 04:40 PM
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Most of the people in my F-Body club (www.cofba.com) run Taylor wires, they all seem to like them and they are priced well at $45. I plan on getting a set.

http://www.thunderracing.com/3gencatalog.htm



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EVILFACE

88 Camaro
Stock 305 TBI Auto, Flowmaster, Full 3" Exhaust, B&M Megashifter, K&N Open Element
Runs A Blistering 16.5 @ 81.5 mph (due to major tire spin)

http://www.evilface.com/evilscamaro.htm
Old 05-14-2001, 06:16 PM
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i think i was a little bit too vague in the first post in regards to the accel wires. i ran them long before i had headers, the motor was pretty much stock when i had them. Those are the only set that didn't burn on me. There also the only set that wasn't on the car when the headers went on. The wires where not abused, the only ones that were, were the MSD wires becuase they went on about a week before the headers and i didn't take the time to re-route them. The accels caused alot of hesitation that dissapeared as soon as i got rid of them.

To each his own, alot of people swear by Accel, but many people don't. I personally will never run them again, especially when MSD and Moroso wires cost just about the same price. I hope that clears things up a bit for you. im not gonna get in a shouting match with you about this, im just stating my opinion. Have a nice day

[This message has been edited by zupmanZ28 (edited May 15, 2001).]
Old 05-15-2001, 12:18 PM
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Car: 04 GTO
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Yeah, sorry about my tone, i do tend to sound like i'm flaming even when i'm not...i'm just a direct kind of guy.
I just wanted to add my opinion just cuz i have never had any bad luck w/ accel stuff, and it's all i've used since i started turning wrenches. And i've heard of and seen as many people killing high dollar wires as i have from teh accel, but i guess b/c of the low cost it's easy to rip the accels.
Basically, i look at it like this. Anybody who is reading this board looking for plug wire advice is probbaly just starting out and pretty much stock. And if you honestly think that spening an extra $20-40 more for wires is gonna make a difference at that level, well...

btw evil, taylors are nice wires, if i didn't burn a torch for accel they would be the only other wires i would run. I can't recall ever hearing anything truly negative about them. Every other brand though has had it's issues.
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