Well i finally had my share of bad LT1 luck yesterday. I installed the taylor OTVC kit from thunder and i ran into all kinds of problems. (loose spark plugs, one of which i broke, fried alternator, and more). After a loooong day of problems i finally got it back together... and sure enough problems

It seemed to run/idle just fine for a good minute or so but once i started driving down the driveway i heard a miss. Id rev it and it would backfire. The miss seems intermittent though, it seems that a cylinder turning on and off every second or two - but its more off than on.

anyway i ran out of time to troubleshoot it so the car is at home on the other side of the state right now. (Im at school) I dont think there was anything wrong with my crimping so i dont know what to think. Im going to miss out on my own car show this coming weekend though which kinda sucks.

Ive read about people having Taylors 'Arc' before... what the hell does that mean and how would i know if thats the problem. seriously, theres no room for faulty products with this horrendous install process

 

arcing means that the spark is jumping from one wire to another or to other things nearby.. turn the car on at night and you can see if theres any arching by just looking at it youll see a little light show goin on. There is also something that i cant remember the name... some kinda glow. I have that, it basically is arching but for some reason the car runs fine.. beats me.

AS for the missing. check check and check again that they are all right.. get two people one below and one above and both tug on a wire to find if its crossed.. i had to do this when a licensed mechanic couldnt figure out what was wrong.. and i found 2 and 4 to be crossed

 

I think it's called Corona Glow. It's quite different than an arc, basically the high energy passing through the wires causes a glow around the ceramic base of a plug right by the boot. It's not very bright and causes no problems either. It's actually not arcing its just emitting light from the charged energy/air or some mumbo jumbo like that

Your problem sounds like a bad contact somewhere in there or even a burnt wire, perhaps a boot isn't on right (check the coil wire too).

To see if your arcing start the car up in as dark a place as possible.

 

ok im gonna see if my dad has time to look for arcing, if he can find some i might drive all the way back home and attempt to fix it.

as for the coil wire - i didnt change that. I figured I would leave that alone and make sure the other wires were OK first to help me narrow down problems if i had any... sure enough

another friend told me it could be under the alternator as well because i had to snug the wires pretty tight under there.

 

Yep, sounds like a loose connection or a crossed wire.

 

could it really be a crossed wire when it runs ok half the time? I dont want to eliminate that possibility, but i just didnt get that impression.

 

Check the boots on the opti end as well... Make absolutely sure that they are all seated properly. You should feel a "click" when they're all the way on...

 

I saw a post on finding arcing that mentionted the guy needed to stand in the dark for 30 minutes to let his eyes adjust sufficiently to detect the sparks and glow. Spraying water on the wires is said to help find arcing, too. I'm planning to do both tonite - after seeing several posts about the Taylors arcing, I figured it's a good idea to check mine, even though I don't seem to have any misfires. For me it's a fine line between having good dark conditions outside, and pissing off the neighbors, so the time is about right.

Good luck.

 

Mine wern't arcing right from the get-go, but they eventually started. Replaced with a set of MSD cut-to-fit wires. No arcing issues now.

 

Does anyone make a set already made for OTVC?

 

Isnt the silicone dielectric grease supposed to prevent that?

 

Ok, here's some info to help, and another data point in the Taylor wire experience. I checked, and my Taylors are arcing. They are only a few thousand miles old, installed in July. I could NOT see any arcing when parked in the dark outside, but in the garage (door open) after my eyes adjusted real well, I could see flashes at the bundle around the alternator. They seemed to be more of an indirect glow through the wires, but only where they touched each other or the alternotor, so I think there is arcing between the wires that just isn't directly visible. Also, after spraying water liberally from an atomizer, I could also see arcing at the looms. There were a few reflections in the headers I could not tell the source of. And the one plug I can see clearly in the dark without getting burned or ground up had glow from the boot to the hex. I used light dialectric grease application.

Also, there is a pulsing glow from the windings to the frame of my rather new GM coil. Is that normal? Or should I order a new coil with my MSD wires?

 

wow. reading that i doubt my dad will be able to find it with his eyes... are these wires junk or what?

 

Some folks like the Taylors fine. I've been reading /arcing' search results for 2 hours....After reading this, I'm not so sure I see arcing, as opposed to normal 'corona' effect blue glow. Note the comments from Neversummer and 1racerdude.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...ghlight=arcing

I could not see any distinct sparks, only blue pulsing glow. My wires are blue, too. I don't know what true arcing would look like.

I also found suggestions to check the coil-to-frame ground. You can see it from underneath, braided type, behind the fan and under the ABS. Mine is tight, but I guess I should clean the contact area up.

Late update: I have concluded that glowing is OK, spark jumping is not. So my coil is fine. I still don't know if the glow I see where wires touch is arcing or corona glow, so I will listen for a sparking noise with a hose. I'll try to space the wires away from the alternator and each other, too.

Let us know what you find, please.

 

thanks for all the info man, ill definitely let everyone know what happens. My dad says he found some kind of lead-based testing device for this (no idea what it is) at his work and is pretty sure he'll find the culprit with it.

also i see 1racerdude recommends a .35 gap. All my plugs are at .55 right now (they were like that before i did the wires). could that help with the resistance?