sb66

hey everyone

may be a dumb question but... As I am trying to shore up my 1985 with fresh fluids and a tune up - I noticed people seem to change their plug wires when they change plugs - ? does that seem to be the norm for these?

I noticed the plug wires that I have on the car are msd brand -so I am assuming the po changed them out at some point. I was going to change plugs, distributor and rotor (plugs ac r43ts?) is it necessary to swap out the wires also?

also - are the ac plugs r43ts the way to go for the 85?

thanks

Sean

BrandensBeast

My 84 won't look like your vette, but it's been converted to carb, did the spark plugs and wires since who knows how old they were, and were easy and cheap to do, I used the AC Delco replacements for the spark plugs.

My wires looked dirty, but okay, took them out and sure enough (where it couldn't be seen) they were cracked up, one was so bad it was ripped about 6 inches the rubber covering completely ruined, none of it could be seen as it was on the underside of where the wire was ran, if you don't replace them give them a good look over never hurts.

hemivett

As long as the wires are not too old, you should be fine. A good way to check them, is at night. If you have a light show, they are bad. I use e3 plugs on all my cars, and love them. h

Joe C

(my 2-cents, FWIW) -- some folks say plug wires are good for 100K miles, some say, "if it ain't broke...," but I look at these things from a "time" standpoint. an 85 would be over 30 years old and original plug wires, especially the insulation, most likely have seen hundreds of heat cycles. plug wires are cheap, so why not change them? it may, or may not help, but it certainly won't hurt. if you do not want OE delco, any premium brand will suffice. my personal, aftermarket choice is taylor spiro-pro, 8mm silicone. I usually change them out about every 10 years or so. since you seem to have a quality replacement set, and if they appear to be in good condition, no need to replace them at this point, unless you just want to establish a maintenance baseline.

for plugs, I bought and installed NGK G-power platinum's in my 85 (three set's over the years). I change them out about every 50K miles. don't seem to have ever had any issues.

for the cap and rotor, I've been using ACCEL products now for some 20 years -

sb66

thanks everyone - I will give them a good going over to make sure, but I am leaning towards a replacement to establish a baseline for all of my regular maintenance type stuff. I was looking at some of the delco sets from ecklers and corvette central - they have packaged all of that together - we'll see - I will check the brands mentioned

thanks

Sean

sb66

http://www.ecklerscorvette.com/corve...1986early.html

anyone using these?

WVZR-1

OP - I believe that if the wires there now are routed correctly and the correct retainers are used to anchor them I'd save the money.

What are the details printed on the MSD wire? If it's a higher end product I'd certainly consider not tossing them. You don't need "new wires" to establish a maintenance base. You could spend $50 and maybe end up with a LESSER PRODUCT.

Joe C should be able to supply you a couple snapshots of correct routing and retention.

sb66

what is the hypertech coil - straight replacement or upgrade?-

sb66

thanks- I found an old post that he had with a couple of shots of the engine and wire routing.

sb66

I found some ac delco rapidfire plugs also - has anyone tried these ? if so are they worth the extra $$?

thanks
Sean

BrandensBeast

Not sure, was there when I get the car, I would assume an upgrade but I have no idea.