I am just wondering something. I see some people getting ign. box, distrib, coil, 8.5mm wires, most expensive plugs, and pretty much the most expensive everything. #1, I hate bosh platinum plus 4's. they are a POS. #2, i can see getting a better distrib, and wires, but those MSD wires are way too expensive. I just wanna know how much after market ign. is too much when your pushing under 450hp...

 

It is'nt going over board it's called peice of mind. You can push 450 horse on a stock HEI, hell, 700 hp on stock HEI. Factory wires too.

 

I use a Holley Annihilator ignition system and coil just because it has programmable features such ar rev limiters and rpm switches.

I use a typical HEI late model distributor with Accell cap and coil. MSD 8.5 wires. AC Delco R43TS sparkplugs.

You're not going to see a performance advantage by changing your ignition system unless your old one is defective. As mentioned above, a stock ignition will work fine in most applications. The only thing really needing replacement is cap, rotor, coil and plug wires. You need to get the spark energy to the plugs.

The only advantage to platinum plugs is they don't wear out as fast so you don't need to change them as much.

 

The only thing I've found to make a noticeable difference on my car is the 50000 volt Proform coil. It idles smoother with it.

All the fancy MSD stuff, etc., is just for quality and durability.

It's when you have nitrous or really high compression that you would want to move to the capacitive discharge ignition boxes, to make SURE the mix gets lit

 

ok this I know is fact
I used to work for an airplane mechanic
he explained and showed me spark plugs out of a cessna because they are just like the platnum 4'sonly difference is how the wires connect and they only have two post's
airplanes have two mags but the spark plugs dont care they dont know where the juice comes from
howeverthe spark still only comes form one post or the other and they take turns one side fires then the other

this guy said that plugs of this type are all gimmick and no substantial difference
it stands to reason that car engine spark plugs do the same

 

i agree. try some punctuation though, it makes for easier reading.

 

platinum 4's = big waste of money. Like everyone said, anyone who says they notice a difference in plugs or wires is either lieing, or there other ones were shot all to h*ll. Or they paid alot of money for there sh*t and want to notice a difference, so they do.

 

See, that is what I tell my friends. All these young people (25 and under) think that they have to get MSD ignition, blaster coils, MSD 8.5 wires, platinum 4's etc...I tried to explain this to them, but they didn't listen. I've been using AC Delco plugs since day 1 (for over 3 years) and have had great performance and life out of the plugs. As far as the cap and rotor, yea I agree about upgrading that. I just wasn't exactly sure what would suffice for my 400hp engine. Thanks for the tips guys!

 

I literally laugh sometimes when I read about all the money spent on things that don't do much of anything. Modern electronic ignition systems are more than adequate for our cars. My 67 chevelle saw an improvement with electronics but it was a whole different animal back then. Stock Packard Electric wires and AC plugs will work as well as anything else out there. The only real advantage to a platinum plug is increased longevity since it tends not to deteriorate as rapidly as standard electrode material, but heck even with the 99cent plugs they'll last 30k or better with a good electronic factory ignition. You get to a point of diminishing return on many so called performance enhancing products. It took me 30 years to get smart, guess we"ll have to give the kids a break.

 

I went out and paid 30 bucks for a set of accel shorty header plugs a year ago. I thought I would see a performance gain, but nothing. They were easier to get in and out, but since I normally change my plugs before 10,000 miles, I use the ac delco's now. I actually bought 2 sets on sale the other day for .65c a plug. The accel's actually sucked, the end kept on coming unscrewed and it would cause a misfire. Just goes to show you just because you spend more does not mean it is better.

 

Hey bad 84z, do u know what your car runs? Cause you have close to the same setup as me, and I figure i might be a few tens off due to the 3.11's

 

I have not had it to the track yet, but the person I got it from said he was running high 12's with it. I do not know and hate to go off of what someone else says, but all I know is it is very fast. Fast enough for me not to have gotton beaten in it yet.

 

In my last project (72 Lincoln Mark IV) I replaced the entire ignition system with MSD parts and standard Ford plugs. Yes, I did notice a huge impovement over the stock (28 year old) stuff, but it's all relative.

Anything beyond a bigger gap plug, MSD cap, rotor, coil and wires is overkill in my book. Yes the MSD parts were of an extremely high qulality (the best I've ever used), but I believe on these more modern cars, an ignition box and MSD distributor is a waste of money.....unless of course it's a pure race vehicle.

 

Yeah sometimes it is hard to get your car out to a track if your not close to one. Lucky for me, i live about 30 min away from one in OKC. I am hoping for a mid to high 12...but who knows.

 

Hey 84maroman
I raced at thundervally
I am gussing thats the track your talking about
are you in norman ok.

 

Yeah thundervalley is the one I am talking about. I live in Midwest city on Tinker AFB. I will be down to the track with my new engine here in a month or so.

 

When I put my crate engine into my car back in march I went all out. I got the Accel 8.8 custom spiral's, bosch +4's, and I already had Accel cap and rotor. The main thing I noticed, and I belive this is due to the ignition I have set up, cuz I never had this happen before, is that my car fires RIGHT up, even dead cold. Not even a single full crank, it just roars. The main thing I like about the Accel 8.8 wires is they're nice and thick, and customizable so that I have them each perfectly cut to length running along the engine. And as far as what everyone else has been posting, what do you guys not like about the +4's?? If you go with the standard AC Delco's per-say, don't you have to re-gap each of them and all that other pain in the *** stuff (if you want to get optimal performance anyway).

 

84maroman
wish I could be there to see
but I dont live in norman anymore
thundervally was cool I used to run a white crx there
turned high 13's made okies cry it was great

 

stingraye,

The reason +4s are not recommended is because they are a gimic. Since electricity follows the path of least resistance you're only going to get one spark to one electrode just because it's .0001" closer than the other three. After a while that electrode will wear out and the spark will just start jumping to another electrode. If you run the plugs a long time, the spark will carve a trench through the ceramic because the centerwire is eroding into the ceramic so the spark has to travel out of the hole and to the electrode. After the sparks make their rounds to all four electrodes you'll have four trenches cut through and it's possible for one of the pieces of ceramic to break in your engine.

 

Yeah, I am glad I didn't run those wires...I just perfer to keep it simple and cheap. I'm sure us guys on budgets can agree! hehe