plug wires for electronic ign.

I been running solid core plug wires that I bought new a couple years ago and the distributor's been converted to electronic ignition, but I have seen a few places suggest that solid core should not be used with electronic, need to use carbon or spiral core wire. the thing is still popping a bit but it was before the conversion. I'm wonderin if I should be running the newer spiral core wires?

sounds good. I am running a distributor, interestingly it used to be a magneto but my grandpa sold it to a guy to use on an airplane years ago. has a D17 distributor and governor on it now.

 With a electronic ignition they has been horsepower found by using the helicoil or spiral wound wires over solid core wires on the dyno.   THE EMI that is produced from solid wire that affects the solid state components in the radios can affect the the electronic ignition also to the point of induced cross firing.

Bill_MN wrote: that sounds right the main concern with solid core seems to be the (lack of) EMI suppression. it also sounds like solid core can't handle the hotter, more concentrated spark that an E.I. puts out, would make sense to have some power gain there with a spiral core. i think I might try it and see how it goes, plug wires aren't that big an investment. Brian, I had the distributor rebuilt when it was converted to electronic so it's nice and tight now.

Sounds like you had allready done youre homework.

I'd be real wary of any electronic ignition that has 'problems' with the EMI the system generates.If true, it means the design or manufature of it is wrong. I've got 12 years of electronic design in optical emission spectrometry for steel mills.I could always measure down to .001 volt with the Zinc stand running.Think of the biggest,bad poor word choice ignition coil on steroids,akin to a huge but lethal Tesla coil system,30,000 volts,several AMPS.Now adays I design itty bitty microcomputer circuits for 'fun', there ain't no profit in it, believe me,but keeps the brain active in the cold weather!

On a tractor, I'm no fan of carbon wires. I bought a used tractor and it ran badly, when I checked closer the coil to distributor wire would open up when bent and it would bend with vibration. Made the tractor jerk in road gear. (Another color). Carbon wires are great for reducing ignition noise in radios or for planter monitors. Carbon plugs will do the same a bit more reliably, in my opinion. Carbon wires and carbon plugs are too much carbon on a conventional system and I think wasters of the high energy you bought the high power electronic ignition to achieve. Because the resistors limit the current at the plugs.

On top of that, if you open up the plug gap to make use of the high energy ignitor, then you need wires with better insulation to keep the fire IN the wire and not jumping to ground and to other wires. Those wires with more insulation are hard to plug into the standard distributor cap, and for that matter hard for the standard rotor to hold from arcing through to the shaft. I think the high voltage wires are only avaialable with spiral or carbon cores, either of which reduces the energy at the plugs. With the high energy ignition systems you want to be careful about plug wires running next to each other, they can cause loss of energy to the plug you want fired and firing of plugs you didn't want fired at that instant, e.g. cross firing which sometimes makes an engine sound more than a little rough.

I'm not a fan of electronic ignition systems on tractors because while there are only three parts in the old scheme there are many more in the electronic module and reliability can be less the more the parts. And I can replace points and condenser about 20 times for the price on one electronic ignition module. And in the last 20 years, I've replaced more plugs that points on my two tractors farming a patch of ground.

Gerald J.

jaybmiller wrote: re. mlpankey's remarks.. I read the MSD info you included.It's rather sad that the manufacturer puts out a disclaimer basically saying 'our product produces EMI(elctrical noise) and we can't figure out how to shield our own product from the EMI it generates. As an avionics tech, I was well aware of the consequences of bad grounds,open shields,loose screws,etc. As for designing and marketing an EMI quiet system, the money is just not there,not in this economy.I rather doubt I'd get orders for my unit if it had a $1,000 price tag on it,but it'd be dead quiet.Then again, tube amplifiers are making a comeback!

The mad 6 boxes that are floating around the dirt tracks are bringing that and up to 2500 . they have traction control feature . when it sees a sudden spike in rpms it cuts timming out till spike evens out. this allows a driver to flat foot the car coming out of the corner. driver just has to know how to enter the corner.

you would have to give one or two away . then when the two you gave away spent alot of time in the winners circle the market would be there. racing is follow the leader in more ways than just around the track. more a monkey see monkey do. sometimes with a little devation of inovation.