| Kahuna |
11-05-2013 11:22 AM |
Ignition wires
As I pulled off the ignition wires, I gave them an inspection. They looked ok. A little grease and grime on a few. I own a workhorse, not a beauty queen. I could see one coil to ignition wire connection that showed corrosion and evidence of some arching, hidden by the boot of course. No evidence of any issues on this cylinder.
My top wires have been on since day one. Bottom wires have less. My bottom plug wire lengths are custom lengths. This due to mounting the coils on the engine mount and having each wire, well different lengths.
A call to Klaus revealed that his maintenance schedule, now published in a more current doc version online that I had from years ago, says replace these wires at 500hrs or 10 years. I had not ever considered this before. Hmmm. Well he is a pretty smart guy, so I ordered a new set. My average cost on these is $19.25 each. For 12 plugs this stung a little.
Plugs, I ve been going on the cheap for these using the BR8ES plugs at ~$2 each from day one. These have preformed well and last about 200 hours before they are worn and need replacement. I guess 'performed well' is an unknown. Engine runs, plugs fire and are reliable... I have no idea as to performance. Klaus recommended a fancier plug, a IK27 iridium plug that is a... wait for it... $15 each. :eek: Im going to give them a try. Ill have no way of determining any performance difference other than plug life which Ill be able to measure. They will need to last 1500 hours to break even. Thats probably not a reasonable request of any plug.
Why wires need replacement? Im sure there is some electrical reason. I have cars with the original plug wires that are 15 years old and 150k miles. I of course have no way to measure any kind of deterioration of these. My mind says that a plug that fires is a plug and wire that are working. I'm sure its more complicated than that. A wires ability to carry this power surely degrades over time. An appreciable amount? I dunno. I don't race. I dont measure my performance to a nat hair. from Klaus "If you cruise at less than full throttle, you might not notice any wire degradation for a long time. At WOT you should see a performance increase when you change wires, even after 300 hrs." Like I said, Klaus is a pretty smart guy and has been doing this for a long time. So a new set of fancy plugs and wires it is. Seems unethical to install age old plug wires onto a new motor. My thinks my motor might protest. :p
Note: Picture. The plugs come in the proper packaging. I pulled them out to gap them and prepare for installing into the motor.
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