Here we see the bracket that I designed to keep the wires separated and routed in the correct
direction. I used MSD plastic wire separators. The bracket is made from 2024 aluminum alloy.
It is hard black anodized both to prevent it from scratching, but more importantly to
prevent it acting as a pathway to ground.
The anodized outer layer of the aluminum bracket has a very poor electrical conductivity.
As such it forms an insulator and thus does not present an attractive path for spark
energy to ground out to the valve cover instead of continuing on to the spark plugs.
It was desirable to retain the stock mounting location for this new bracket - and this has been achieved. The bracket bolts right to the valve cover where the stock hard plastic loom normally goes. It is possible to take the stock ignition wires out of the hard plastic loom and attach them to this aluminum bracket. But they end up being much too long for an efficient routing solution. Because the stock wires follow circuitous paths with sharp 90° bends they end up being considerably longer than they need to be. Several iterations were required of having ignition leads made up to custom dimensions before the proper lengths were determined. Surprisingly, the final solution is very dependent on wire length. Adding or subtracting 1/4" from the lengths leads to less than perfect routing. |
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All that remained was to decide what type of ignition wires to use. Using factory Bosch wires was not an option as they would be difficult to obtain in the custom lengths required. I also considered sourcing the custom length ignition wires from a U.S. based company which makes a lot of "factory replacement" wires for all makes of cars, including ours. This would allow the use of the factory style connectors, hence retaining the factory look. Their wires are also inexpensive. But the ignition kit I was developing was intended to be the "ultimate solution", and so I felt I had to look elsewhere for the right ignition wires, regardless of cost. |
That brought me to Magnecor. These wires are considered by many in the U.S. to be the best - period.
There are only two issues: (1) Magnecor wires are very expensive, essentially sold by the inch, and
(2) Magnecor does not use the factory "Resistor Connectors" so you lose the factory look.
The Bosch resistor ends are used for suppression of radio frequency interference (RFI), not to
even out the resistance in the ignition wires, a common misconception.
The wires themselves are copper conductor, a simple
wire which transmits the spark energy with very minimal losses. But the 5 KOhm resistors hanging on the
ends of the wires do cause a loss of spark energy. That's just the laws of physics.
Note that this does not imply a loss of power from the engine. But in the overall scheme of things,
especially when you start to go to higher compression ratios, it makes sense to get as much energy
as possible out to the spark plugs.
Magnecor wires use a metallic inductive suppressed conductor to transmit spark energy. Note that it makes absolutely no sense to measure the resistance of a Magnecor ignition wire using an ohmmeter. When you do that you are measuring the resistance down the windings, but this is not the path that the high energy spark takes to arrive at the spark plug. Because Magnecor wires do not transmit spark energy down a copper conductor, they do not need a large resistor at the ends of the wire for RFI suppression. And this is why Magnecor will not use the factory Bosch type connectors, even if you ask them to 8^) For additional details concerning the theory of ignition wires go to the Magnecor website. In sum, with the Magnecor ignition wires and the low-crossfire bracket my S14 revs like crazy. I can't say it has any additional horsepower, though it might. But it does run incredibly well. I always wanted to develop a no-compromise set of ignition wires, and with this setup I believe that goal has been achieved. |
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These ignition wires can be purchased at GSP ... |
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