I'm finding bits of information here and there and I'm in the sharing mood.. maybe this helps somebody and answers some questions...

http://asia.vtec.net/beystock/tuning/plugcable.html

Take it for what it may be worth. I'm very interested in what other people's experiences have been with aftermarket cables...

 

I've heard this before and wonder how true it is when dealing with domestic cables like MSD and Accel. Probably the same results. I have MSD's on my R and can't say that I noticed any improvement at all from them. Go figure.

 

Thank god I never bought those aftermarket cables LOL. I am a fan of stock parts and going fast with stock parts.
EVIL

 

Resistive losses through cables is negligable to begin with. No matter if you have a 500 ohm or a .0050 ohm cable, you're putting it in series with a 10+ Megaohm spark plug gap. Regardless of the resistance of the cable, it's not making any kind of real change in the current flow of the circuit.

I've also seen a lot of problems with aftermarket wires, mainly Magnacores. They seem to short out to the block at high rpms.

 

The one and only requirement stated in the Shop manual is that the resistance shouldn't be larger than 20 kOhms.

 

I'll echo your comments on the Magnacores. I had them on my R for about 3K miles and I hated them. My dealer remarked after having them on for just one month that my plug wires were arching and I had a discernable miss under load at low rpm's and could not get rid of it with those wires. Of course, when I switched back to the OEM's, all was well again.

They Magnacor's just never seemed to fit correctly and I ended up selling them on eBay. I actually just ordered a new set of OEM wires, cap, & a rotor for ~$50 from Naples Acura. Helluva deal IMO, since the cap and rotor was gonna be $28.

YMMV, but I'd stick with stock unless you have some killer motor built and need the extra special (read: $$$) wires.

 

One comment about the dyno. It states in the article that the dyno was performed one after another. Well, when i dyno-ed my car last weekend, I hit the highest HP and highest Torque on my first run (read: cool engine temp). (162 -> 160 -> 158 -> etc.) What I'm trying to say is that if they started with stock, then to "generic 8mm wires" then to NGK with no time for the engine to cool, then stock will fair just as well as the expensive NGK's. I guess I would like to know how the dyno was performend... Also, I believe in reputable JDM brands (i.e. NGK)... they've got no reason for making false statements.

 

cool, thanks for the testimonials guys...

 

Flux,

I've been running NGK Power Cables & Iriways for a little over 6 mos. now; no problems and the plugs looked fine last week when I did a valve adjustment.

However, the only tangible benefit I can claim is an increase in fuel economy (approx. 20-25 miles a tank), as I have never dynoed my Si. Maybe with forced induction or a more aggressive NA setup, you would notice a bigger difference.

 

fyi, I had the opposite experience when I dyno'd Cosworth... I dyno'd 158, 159, 160. So I dunno... BTW, this was on the same dyno you used.