wrd1972

You are maybe the first person to make the claim that OTVC wires are a bad idea. Most could not disagree more.

I know you are frustrated, I was there with wires once too. I had the elitesparkplug.com wires which were total $hit. I got the MSD's, cut thme to length, crimped them and slid the boots on and have been golden to this day.

There is really very few things it can be. I think the answer lies in this post.

JoeliusZ28

the answer to what the problem is, is here. the solution however is not. Even if there is damage to them that is "my fault" that still indicates pathetic quality to me. This is my third try (actually more like 8th) doing this and I absolutely cannot do it any better. Even if I had no clue what I was doing I should be due to just have dumb luck by now.

I need to re-phrase my claim. OTVC would be the way to go if you could get quality wires to do the job (as in not cut-to-fit). But when MSD and taylor are you only options, yea Im gonna have to claim that OTVC is a bad idea. There is no reason for this. Aftermarket wires should be an upgrade, what reason do i have to run a setup like this when the stock parts outperform the aftermarket? The taylors would arc to anything and everything. The MSDs are corona glowing the entire length at idle, and glow more the closer they are to something metal.

The only success ive had so far is learning a $600 lesson

SnakeOiler

What kind of MSD wires do you have? If you have the MSD 8.5 Super Conductors, you should see about 38-40ohms per foot. That is what I have seen in every one of their 8.5SC wires, that has been good.

Get them checked.

JoeliusZ28

Well I am gonna go ahead and say that the MSD 8.5 Superconductor kit completely sucks.

drove the car to work today for our employee car show. Driving home today it was doing "OK" until all of the sudden the car starts shaking at 60mph

Pop the hood and what do I see? A boot fell right off of a spark plug. I triple checked the tightness of these things just last night. (and they were secure) This is a damn joke.

SnakeOiler-- Youre absolutely right, but unless I can do it without removing them I am not going to. I dont feel like practicing this removal and install anymore. My patience has depleted, Ive had enough. Im getting some delcos and routing them anyway I possibly can.

Injuneer

You're completely off base. Why is that kit capable of reliably supporting LT1 engines making over 1000HP, and other engines (SBC) making as much as (at least the ones I've personally seen and been involved with) 1,350HP? But it won't work on your car?

wrd1972

You are intitled to your opinion. Although you will be hard pressed to find others who will agree.

Boots dont fall off unless they are not properly installed. The crimp attaches to the plug tip and I know the rubber fits tight. The MSD wires are low resistance wires that are far less prone to arcing than other products. OTVC makes it gravy to install wires, feel free to do it the stock way. If you are convinced its not user error then you simply have pithetic luck.

I understand your pissed, but your talking $*** here.
I wish you luck anyway.

JoeliusZ28

i apologize for my attitude, its not going to get me anywhere. I am going to take a step back from this for a while because it has turned me into an insomniac and im not thinking clearly. I am not the type to talk ****, so i hope i dont leave any permanent impressions.

I appreciate all the suggestions, i will come back to them.

truedualws6

I have no suggestions re: the OTVC routing since I have stock routing. I use TR5s gapped at .043" and Accel 9000 wires.

As you said, take a break from it and hit it again refreshed.

JoeliusZ28

yea for sure. get ready for this, I just found three more plug caps loose. Apparently I have some kind of bizarre outlier example of a product. They arent the snuggest caps I have ever worked with but they definitely take a good tug to pop off. whatever. "it is what it is!"

Severous01

you can get accel 9mm wires from autozone, cut to fit, for about 40 bucks. i love accel, and if the MSD's werent free i'd still be running stock replacement accels...but the OTVC kit from msd was free, and i know how to cut/crimp them correctly.

any way, try the accels, and DO NOT use the pos 'crimper' they give in the box. spend the 20 bucks and buy the cheap crimpers they sell on the lighting aisle. i have them and they work as good if not better than the $300 snap-on crimpers. only problem i had is one screw was bent in the box, now it's hard to change the crimpers. but i'm thinking about buying another set and leaving one set for connectors, and the other for plug wires/coax.

JoeliusZ28

I pretty much just concluded that I cant handle the cut-to-fit wires I did everything imagineable to ensure a proper install and I still failed. I even had two other friends help me with my crimps to make sure I was doing them right. I just wish that if I made a mistake, it was obvious where it was. Its never just been a "one cylinder" problem. its completely moody. Sometimes it will be running on all 8 almost perfectly and the next thing you know it is backfiring and nearly stalling trying to take off from a light. I am driving the car as-is for the week because it is the dream cruise I plan on testing for resistance when i change the wires. The caps still loosen up ocasionally and that makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

A set of delcos is awaiting their install right now. If i can route them safely I am confident it will fix my problem. If I cant route them safely, then I am just going to take them back, finish out the season, and do a coil pack conversion this winter. being stressed out and mad about it was overrated.

Kevin Blown 95 TA

The plugs set the voltage that is needed from the coil. Everything else has to have good enough insulation to withstand that voltage or the current will try to leak out somewhere. So plug gap and wires are important here.

Also engine ground is important in ignition. If those are left off during a rebuild, that 20,000 Volts is going to have trouble completing the circuit.

Resistance in the wires has nothing to do with the problems here unless they are all broken up inside and faulty. I've heard a lot of problems about Taylors, biut I've never personally used them. I use Accell wires or Moroso Blue Max, or stock Delco wires and never have a problem. I also would use many other brands, but probably never Taylors.

There are good crimpers you can get for $35 and they make a factory crimp. The $15 ones will work and make good crimps but they are harder to get a good crimp with. Anyway, good components and attention to detail when assembling them.

The other thing is that the plugs need to be the right heat range or they will foul if too cool or they might cause detonation if too hot - and that is a lot of misfiring under a load in 3rd or 4th gear. And if you have a crack in a plug it will be a hard to find problem also and will cause a misfire under higher rpm. So if you dropped any of them on the floor then check them real good.

Move your ICM off the head a little to keep it cool. Also remember the coil wire is one of the most neglected wires cause it fires 8 times for every 1 time the other wires fires so replace it often.

JoeliusZ28

how should I move the ICM, just space it with some washers? The problem exists hot or cold motor but I will def do that anyway.

And regarding the crimps - some ends appear to be made to crimp to just the inner wire which i think is much better... while my other ends (Opti ends) do NOT have this, meaning I have to bend the wire around the back and crimp it against the insulation. I used taylor opti ends both times so this was a constant throughout the whole thing

Kevin Blown 95 TA

Bending the wire back around is just fine. The opti terminals are sometimes hard to do because if they are off center, or they have too much rubber poking out the other side of the crimp, then they are hard to get to snap into the distributor towers. I have seen some wire terminals that crimp the conductor and the insulation, but none that just crimp the conductor. I think you need the strength of the insulation crimp. But, again, there is nothing wrong with bending the wire around back and crimping it that way but you have to be careful with the conductor and not distort or unwind it. And there are some sleeves you can use for more insulation, but they are mostly protective of the silicone jacket. I sometimes use hi temp split loom for abrasion resistance, but it will still melt if it gets near a header. Otherwise a silicone coated braided fiberglass tube works well. the only drawback to sleeving the wires is if you get moisture or water in there then it can be detrimental.

SnakeOiler

That should be how all the crimps are done. (Of course, the last time I made a set of wires was some 20 years ago)