New to the 4th gen Camaro and LT1 engines. Rounding up all the parts necessary to change spark plugs and wires, I know, a lovely job. I have a question about the OEM "spark plug heat shield", OEM p/n 12163646. It appears several of these spark plug boot shields are missing from some spark plug boots, are they required, do they actually prolong the life of the spark plug boot? Car and engine is a bone stock 1997 SLP LT1 and will be keeping it that way. Also, any thoughts on Denso spark plug wires? Is there a preferred vendor for 7MM spark plug wires? It appears the OE GM wires are no longer available. TIA. Ed.

 

It is definitely better to have them with the heat produced in either manifolds or headers. I have a set of very lightly used Taylor Full metal jacket wires for sale (they have roughly 2000 miles on them), I would take $100 plus shipping. PM me if you are interested.

 

The original plug wire set for a 97 is AC-Delco 748E and still available. Not all plug boots on my 95 had metal shields.

 

That's what I was thinking. Maybe on #5 and #7? It's been 20+ years since I had anything close to stock plug wiring, but I don’t think they all had the metal shields. And whatever was there stock, I have never reused over those 20+ years.

 

I have Taylor 74239 wires in the factory looms. It's tight, but they fit. I also have Taylor 2570 full metal boot protectors on most wires. My 97 has SLP stainless shorty headers which are known to melt stuff. No problems for several years.

 

Magnacore 8mm wires, IMHO, are very good and have worked well on my LT1 for over 15 years, YMMV

whatever wire set you use, install them in every factory loom/bracket. The heat shields on plug wire boots were not used on all cylinders

if you put new split loom on the #7 wire....make sure its grey stripe