PhoenixM3

I’m the chucklehead who could quite seat the plug wires on two occasions, but I finally got them seated, only to have the wire on cylinder #6 touch the header pipe. It only took about 10 minutes of driving to burn through the insulation, then it was idiot light city on the dash. I recognized the faults from my previous f@ck ups, but the CEL remained lit. I installed the wires, started the car and cleared the persistent P0306 code.

Chevy wanted $42 for a single wire and it wouldn’t be in until Monday, so I bought some slightly longer (about 3”) wires (from O’Reilly) for $52. Of note, the resistance on the OEM plug wires varied between 2150 and 2350 ohms, which I thought odd. The cheap replacements had a much tighter tolerance and measured between 580 and 590 ohms. Lastly, the angle of the wires on the plug side were about 75 degrees vice the 45 degree angle on the OEM wires. The increased angle resulted in pushing the plug wires further from each header pipe.

One last tip for removing and installing plug wires - take off your shoes and climb in the trunk. It helped immensely.

Kracka

Ouch! That sucks. Sorry for your troubles... But sounds like you maybe got better spark plug wires in the process. Which one's exactly did you buy? I know people swear by the ACDelco wires, but in my experience I don't see how they are anything special compared to many of the performance aftermarket offerings. They are just your typical mass-produced OEM wire that you would find on a truck or anything else.

mortelec

Why were you changing the plug wires?

Wadejesu

New Dragon Fire 10mm Low Ohm Spark Plug Wire Set For 2020 Chevrolet C8 Corvette | eBay

mortelec

Throw those right in the garbage.

Wadejesu

Have you tried them?

Kracka

I believe he installed headers.

mortelec

Nope and I wouldn't. At least stay with a company that is known fof making ignition parts like Granatelli, MSD, Accell, or OEM. A cheap set of plug wires will fail prematurely.

Kracka

Not saying they're good or bad, but Summit Racing does sell Dragon Fire plug wires too.

killian96ss

The Granatelli wires are high quality. I had them on my C5Z and now on my C8. GM wires averaged 2100 ohms, Granatelli wires averaged 1 ohm.

jbondfl

I’d be interested to see a dyno/HP tuners comparison with the two sets of wires. It would seem the 1ohm wires would fire hotter than the OEM 2100ohm. Would that be enough to effect the tune or would the ECU correct for it? If the ECU corrects for it then you could argue the differences in resistance were irrelevant (or could you).

Fishfryer527

I’m guessing if plug wires alone could make any measurable HP then the factory would have at least put them on the Z51 package and charged another $100 to break that 500hp barrier. However, better wires may not degrade or fail as fast as stock wires, but as long as stock wires don’t throw codes for the emissions warranty period, who cares.

PhoenixM3

Forced to after burning #6’s wire.

22c8z51

Would certainly make for good youtube material.

Racer X

If you are not misfiring, why would plug wires increase HP?

PhoenixM3

My guess is people believe lower resistance equals greater spark, therefore a more complete combustion and perhaps more power. Me, I went cheap. Time will tell if I need to pay for that one OEM plug wire because the "cheap ones may fail prematurely...."