Does anyone else have a problem frying #5 plug boot (MSD Superconductors) on Hooker Supercomps and causing a misfire? I've cooked two already. The headers are ceramic coated and wrapped, and I have the fiberglass sleeves over the plug boots. It's impossible to get the 'glass boot all they way over that particular boot with the header being wrapped.
Any ideas? I thought I read that some of you have had issues with the MSD wires also? Thanks!

(Posted in the C4 Forum also.)

 

Yes, I always have had a problem w/ my #5 ever since switching heads. These are straight angled plug heads I have on now, stock l98 heads are angled properly to clear the header. But it's worth it to me, I got the heads really cheap off of a racing team in the area, so I live with it.

Boots, insulators, all that bs will eventually just burn off and turn to char.

I bought a set of Jacobs ceramic plug boots (tink-tink, hard ceramic like a toilet bowl not just regular plug boots covered in the insulating wrap) and let me tell you, you could take a blowtorch to one and not have a problem with burning boots. Wires are a different story. You're going to have to replace wires every month or so still just on that #5 plug because that boot is still gonna get hot and eventually the wire will fatigue from the heat after running the engine after so many miles.

They're like 190 a set from Jegs, and they don't sell them piecemeal. If you are interested in buying just one, email me and I'll break one off of the set here for you at cost.

Another tip is to run shorty plugs (accell or others) to get the boot even further away from the header. This helps with fitment too, the ceramic boot come off much easier if you have some side-to-side room to work with.

 

So I should start out with a LONG wire, and keep giving it a haircut as it fries!? Aren't headers a blast??!! Are these Jacobs boots 90* or straight?

I talked to TPIS, and they recommended Taylors. I had run them in the past with pretty good results, and they now have some super duper 1,000*F capable wires/boots that allegedly do not require fiberglass boots.

 

[QUOTE=h rocks]Does anyone else have a problem frying #5 plug boot (MSD Superconductors) on Hooker Supercomps and causing a misfire? I've cooked two already. The headers are ceramic coated and wrapped, and I have the fiberglass sleeves over the plug boots. It's impossible to get the 'glass boot all they way over that particular boot with the header being wrapped.
Any ideas? I thought I read that some of you have had issues with the MSD wires also? Thanks! (Posted in the C4 Forum also.)/QUOTE]


I think part of problem is you allow that boot or sleeve to touch the header pipe even though its cerc coated and wrapped. Could be the materials are conducting heat enough the insulation can't stop it. And after enough time even the insulation gets as hot as the pipe like in an oven. If you put fiberglass or even asbestos inside a 1000* oven long enough it will heat to 1000*. I just don't think you need to wrap headers once cerc coated. I know that header wrap will increase the temp of carbon steel header pipes enough to cook the carbon out and weaken the steel to failure. Just my 2 cents here but I would try to get some airspace however small between the hdr pipe and plug boot. And I know it was a ton of work to wrap them hdrs but you could try and unwrap just the affected area for some air gap space. Have read that the fiberglass shielding should do the job.
Good luck. cardo0

 

I think you're right about an air gap, no matter how small. These particular MSD boots are the really large "logo" boots, and take up a lot of room. I'm going to try to wrap the #5 boot with some ceramic convoluted tubing next.

 

You really need some clearance between the headers and the wires. Shorter plugs can help. I would think the wrap on the headers would keep the outside temps down a little bit but it also does add some bulk to the tubes.

Another option might be underneath routing like the stock car guys do at least for that one wire and with the additional heat sleeving. You might get more clearance that way.

 

Wires/routing are not the problem, I've got the "Made for You" looms and standoffs that bolt to the heads. It's just that there's virtually no room for the boot on #5, and it gets cooked. One of the guys offered a Jacobs ceramic boot which I may give a try if it's a 90*.

 

hrocks- Yes, it's 90', and you should run a shorty plug to get some wiggle room. The #5 wire may eventually get cooked over time inside that ceramic boot but the ceramic boot itself won't skip a beat.

If you're as close as you are saying to the header, don't even bother with anything else, it will burn through very quickly, the wrap just doesn't cut it with rubber plug boots underneath. Even if the rubber doesn't burn it will heat/cool off, contract/expand, and eventually crack like broken glass and fall off.

Good idea about cutting the wire every so often, I have a box of old wires that still pass the ohms test, I use them. I never thought of the haircut approach!

I was taking a razor and shaving he thick MSD logo plug boots to get about 3/4" to 1" of clearance between the #5 plug boot and the header pipe. This would last for about an hour or so before it burned through. Kind of limited the cruising capability of the car, and sounded like a POS when it finally did burn through and you were running on 7 cylinders.

 

Hookers fry my # 5 and # 6, I plan on cutting the offending Hooker tubes and will attempt to reweld new tuebs that will allow for more clearance this winter. This is really a lod of crap that Hooker cant do better than this. I have AFR L98 heads and it really irks me to have to re-engineer Hookers design

 

First, take off the header wrap. It's completely unnecessary with coated headers.

Second, get a set of Accel Header Plugs. I fried the #5 boot on mine until I put in the shorter plugs. There's not much space, but at least it's not touching now. I haven't burned another wire since i switched to the Accel plugs.

 

I`m not sure what engine your using, but with a BB or SB 90 degree plug boots running from underneath instead of over the top will provide maximun clearance around the header tubes without any fancy fixes and I use the biggest Hooker Comps available. Besides running the wires underneath cleans the top of the engine up. Out of sight out of mind.