Best $300 Every Spent On my 355

Well, $307 actually ( 8 NGK Platinum plugs $112, 8 plug wires $150, 1 gallon of Swepco 201 Trans Fluid).

OMG! My car was already running good before as it passed the State smog test with flying colors. So I decided to change my spark plugs and wires and do a compression test to check the general state of hapiness.

Well, I got over 200 PSI from every cylinder, with only 5 PSI variance betwen the highest and the lowest reading. The way that those darn wires are cramed together I can see how a cross fire could occour or the spark lost due to leakage. I also see why some people change over to COP. The stock system is redicolus.

Car idles really smooth and the throttle response is way better! I had Redline in the gear box but decided to give the Swepco a try...Awesome shifting! The 1-2 cold shift is not as good as the Redline, but once it is watmed up it is as silky smooth as my first Honda that I had in college.

Total time from start to finish...2.5 hours

Me very happy and I am going driving.

Cheers

 

I used the PMR7A. My car is a 1998 so it has the 5.2 Motronic.

 

Plugs were done about 4K miles ago.

As for the wires: Hmm those in fact may have been OEM and I think that is where I got my biggest gain. It is a 1998 with 17K on the clock so yeah with most cars the wires would probably last longer. However, I was not gouing to drop $1,200 for set of OEM wires when it still ran "good". There was no miss fire just nominal loss of power and it is so gradual that you don't really notice.

That OEM ignition set-up with the 7mm plug wires is a joke. They are cramed in there so tightly you would think that they would be even more problematic.

 

Got the wires from this guy. The fit was perfect and the wires are better than OEM (according to the merchant). I can say that they fit perfectly and look exactly like the OEM wires. The cost was only $150 for the set!!!


http://www.kingsborne.com/index.htm


No pics, but the job is really easy. I give it a "1" or a "2" on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most difficult.

1) Remove the 10 allen bolts on top of the valve cover.

2) Gently remove the cover as there is a gasket to hold water from getting down in the plug holes.

3) Replace 1 wire at a time. Note all of my OEM wires were marked per cylinder. The coil is also marked for each wire number. Also note: My right bank 1-4 aftermarket wires were marked correctly, but my left bank wires were inverted (5 was 8, 4 was 6). No worries just make sure the longest wire goes on the front cylinder, etc, etc.

4) Enjoy smooth ideling, better throttle response, and quicker revving.

5) It is addicting, with my Tubi I find that I am winding the piss out of the engine again...Too much fun.

 

The difference was definetly noticable. Talk to any F-Car Tech and the plugs and wires are the first to get swapped out when perforance strats to suffer.

My car never missed, it idled a little rough but after the wires it has way more power. I just didn't want to drop $1,200 for a moderate increase in performance at best. This way for $150 I got the best of both worlds.

Once you get the cover off you will wonder how the car doesn't misfire the way that Ferarri has them routed. They are literally cramed together. Plus with the boots/extenders, they can leak pretty easily and you will not get all of your spark.

Add to that the anemic 7mm wires and you have a pretty weak delivery system .

As far as performance: If I come within 1,000 RPMs of redline and shift, I will need to shift 2 seconds later (or less who knows as it is almost instantaneous), I am redlining again. I know my car did not do that before I put on the wires. The decline in perforance is so gradual that most people don't really notice.

Every person that I spoke to (or read about) was impressed by the difference that wires made on there cars. The guys that went to the MSD and coil over plugs (when they got them working right) were blown away. The ignition sytems on these cars leave a bit to be desired.

 

As far oils, I think it is a bit of a Regional thing. Redline is in my back yard (Nor Cal). Redline happened to work great on the 1-2 cold shift and was good once warmed up but not great. People have sworn by Redline as it will defintely take care of the cold shift problem. I know a lot of the FNA dealers in the close proximity to LE use their oils.

Tony Pallidino the Owner of Modena Motors in Redwood City was using Swepco (I believe I read that). Anyway, my 1-2 cold shift is not that great with the Swepco , but once warmed up the shifting is definetly better than with the Redline. It kind of shifts like a Japanese transmission it is so smooth.

I am also beginnng to think that each F-Car tranny is so unique that one trans oil that is great for a particular car may not work so well in another.

From a layperson's (customer's) perspective, they may not want to sacrafice a tough 1-2 cold shift for the first 5 miles of warm up to gain a MUCH better warm shift. Explaining that to a customer could be prolematic as he is leaving the shop in his 355.

Cheers

 

FYI, the plug is a really small (10 mm ) thread.

Be sure not to go "Joe Six Pack " on it when you are torqueing your plugs.

The torque spec is around 9.50 foot pounds so don't get too crazy.