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Plug wires, I think I may have discovered the problem

78Suburban

78Suburban

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I was thinking that one of my old sets of plug wires would have run good on this motor, becase they both were working.. Maybe moving them around unsettled them just enough. They both have some swiss cheeze burns, blue spark at night, and one gave me an incredible shock and my buddies an incredible laugh... Perhaps bad plug wires caused all that missing, black smoke, sputtering, plug fouling, and unburned fuel.......due to bad/ not enough spark.... Anybody ever experienced these problems from crappy old spark plug wires?
thanks,
James
 
you just might be onto something, mine ran purdy $hity when i saw blue sparks on mine ,not to good. it would be a cheap shot to try to fix it if it dont work you needed them anyway but that might be it:D
 
1 time it was missing and backfiring (tbi) so the first thing I did was take a spray bottle with a water and sprayed the wires and sure enough I saw spark!........new plugs and wires went in right after and it ran great.
 
A new set of plug wires is pretty cheap dude....get some new ones. Throw the old ones away. All of them.
 
1985_K5_Silverado said:
Either buy a new set of wires or make some extra money by renting out your truck as an oversized defibrillator.
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haha, nice!

Yeah, replace ALL those plug wires, and make sure your spark is nice and hot -- Dead cylinders always make an engine run bad, and cause fouling / black smoke :P
 
SierraClassic said:
haha, nice!

Yeah, replace ALL those plug wires, and make sure your spark is nice and hot -- Dead cylinders always make an engine run bad, and cause fouling / black smoke :P
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I just looked and AutoZone has a cheap set of "xact" brand cheapies for 20 bucks - and they come with a lifetime warranty:eek1: . Certainly not the best wires, but bound to be better than wires that have been thrashed half to death and leak spark all over, cross-spark to other leaky wires, etc.
 
Well I hate to say I told you so (actually I kinda enjoy it :ignore: ), but I've been saying ignition all along. I'm glad you finally found a real problem though. Now hopefully you can get that thing going a little better. :grin: If you don't mind waiting a week, you can get plug wires off ebay for pretty cheap. I got my set of Mallory's for $20, they've been good to me so far and have endured all the header heat.
 
Sweet, i will try this. I need to replace the plugs too. I wonder what AC delco plug number would be the best.. I've tried 44's and 45's... I'm not sure which is best suited for my motor.

Any other ideas on what wires would be best? Any tips on keeping these wires from getting sorched by the manifolds?
thanks,
James
 
You shouldn't have problems with manifolds getting to your wires. As long as they're not touching, they should be fine. Headers are another story though.

I think I use the 45 Delco's. That seemed to be the general concensus when I researched it so long ago.
 
don't waste you time or money on the exact wires. i put a set on an x-girlfriends car once (she bought them). they were brand new and jumping spark all over.
 
YZEATER said:
don't waste you time or money on the exact wires. i put a set on an x-girlfriends car once (she bought them). they were brand new and jumping spark all over.
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Yep, not good but since his current wires were leaking voltage like the Bride of Frankenstein, even lamp cord would probably be an upgrade.

By the way, have you ever run across anyone that will spend $100 for a kit to run power to their stereo amp, but wouldn't spend even half that for a set of good ignition wires" I have, and it boggles the mind.
 
lamberthkp said:
thats a good idea! :waytogo:
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It's painfully short of blingness, but the socks work all right, with the bonus of being nice and cheap.

It's like steel wheels, super spartan and dirt cheap. They are also heavy, but if you're not drag racing or doing severe braking from high speeds, keeping the rotational mass down isn't critical. I'd replace my old alloy wheels (that were on the truck when I bought it) with black steelies, but that would cost more than not doing it, so I just keep the aluminum.
 
YZEATER said:
don't waste you time or money on the exact wires. i put a set on an x-girlfriends car once (she bought them). they were brand new and jumping spark all over.
Click to expand...

What are "exact wires", some cheap knock off brand? What wires should I get?
thanks,
James
 
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