Magnecor wires and FM hood = FAIL
 

Well all I can say is I have found nothing written bad about these wires. Anything I find are positive remarks, and the slogan that they are great wires for turbo cars.

So I got them, had them for maybe 4 years now, every year they get worse...every year I change the plugs. Well I finally need to replace these. With my FM hood and the amount of water that rests on my valve cover in the rain.....:vash:

I searched until I found this tonight; Technical bulletin

I don't even know how to describe how bad my spark plug holes were. I def have to take pictures.

So tonight I'm going to try and order wires to have Monday. What wires are you guys running? NGK stock wires with just colder plugs. If so I'd love to save the money. Are there any other wires I should try?

Vash-

I run the Autolite Professional Series from Advance Auto Parts. They're like 40 bucks and have a lifetime warranty, so if they go bad again, just swap them out. These are some seriously high quality wires, I've never had one go bad and I run them on everything I have.

i USED to run the regular autozone lifetime wires, they would start missing when hot after a couple weeks. got some NGK wires and have not had a miss since. you cant beat regular NGK plugs and wires

I see a drip tray in your future.
I too run NGK wires and plugs, but I don't have a vented hood.

Any specific NGK wire? Just the regular old blue wire NGKs? That's great, I was willing to spend the same amount as the Magnecors, as long as they were better.

Not trying to be a shitface about this in anyway, but before I purchased the extraction hood from FM....I voiced my worry of water resting on the valve cover (mainly speaking when parked). Well, I dealt with it for years....the plugs are black on most of the wire, definitely arching. I was told not a problem at all. Well, from my own personal experience, it is.

Vash-

I'm ordering the CF version of the autokonexion hood hopefully next week. That's if my Rod Millen wheels go for a good enough amount on ebay. Then the FM hood goes on ebay!

Vash-

What's the consensus on stock Mazda plug wires? I've never been much of a fan of aftermarket wires. On my SR20's I always ran stock wires, and they were generally regarded as the way to go, even running boost.

And I just got my vented & gilled Autoconexion hood today. :)

C

Consensus is they work well and last about 10k miles.

When you put it on could you PM me pics? I cant wait, finally a great hood at at nice price. The CF work looks amazing. I love my FM hood, but its time to update.

What plugs do you guys run? NGK ZFR7...I think is the part#?

Vash-

GASH! === OOPS, I mean Vash!!

Good to see you again. You could have gotton a little Stainless A- Frame for your valve cover to keep the water out. It would have saved you money..
Stop by more often -- It's been a year or two since you were here...

LOLA

Hey LOLA! Yea, the last year or so the miata has been a mess. At one point I was going to sell it, but I couldn't do it. It needs some more work, and it'll keep me happy. This shit with the plugs and wires and such is my first step, along with the hood.

P.S. Ebay'd my old Rod Millen wheels for $336, I was pretty happy, now I can order the hood this week!

Vash-

I have an FM hood and Magnacores. I noticed the Magnacores don't seat on the valve cover as tightly as the NGK wires did. I ran dielectric grease around the portion of the rubber that seats on the valve cover just to be safe. In light rain I have no problems. For heavy downpours I have 2 open cell foam inserts for the vents. The inserts are not a big deal, if it's supposed to rain and I'm going to drive the car, I put in the inserts. My car's not a DD, and I wouldn't run the hood if it were. If I had to DD the Miata I would have kept it near stock for reliability sake.

I ran the factory NGK blues when I had my turbo, and I still run them on my N/A 99.

I ran/run NGK plugs on both.

This is all kind of funny. I was going through FM's photo album last night and Keith had a picture of his car with a sprinkler running on it. Said they ran it for 45 minutes and didn't have any issues.
Good info.

They did that when I was asking about the issues with water. Now you see, 45 minutes of a sprinkler and a day of light, med, heavy rain on the car sitting at home or work....can be a big difference...lol. I love my hood, the heat that pours out is amazing, thus why I am getting another extraction hood. Just not one that allows water to piss all over the middle of the valve cover, right where the spark plug holes are! :giggle:

I don't garage my car and it is now my daily driver. It has had its share of problems but in the last 3 years the only problems have been non-engine related....so I'm pretty happy with the results! Hopefully I can ebay the hood for almost as much as the new one costs!

Vash-

Convert to COPS? They're held down in place on the valve cover... would be easy to ensure they're water-tight.

Or perhaps someone could engineer you a way for the valve cover to drain/channel the water off???

I did some reading on the COP setup, but I'm not looking to do anything more than resolve the issue for now. I need to spread my budget on a hood, top, new IC, etc, etc.....you know how it is.

As soon as I find out from Grinder when I can order the hood, I'm in. With the new extraction hood, plugs and wires, I hope to be set with this problem. Any chance this could dick up my coil pack?

Here's some pics. I really think that the FM hood and the magnecor wires issue, especially being the wires they recommend for turbo cars, should be addressed. I just wonder how many other people have the same setup and this problem. I'm not about to pop covers over the vents any time the car might get wet. It wasn't advertised that way, you know what I mean. No big deal, I had enough of this look anyway. :)

Vash-

just the regualr ones, they are only like 30ish bucks from summit racing

Vash,judging from the amount of rust on the turbo from the picture and the amount of gunk in the spark plug holes,there was a shit load of water entering the engine bay from the vents on the FM hood.

It's unfortunate that you had to go through this,but I'm glad I did not get the FM hood just for this reason alone......and it rains alot where I live.

Going from the Magnecor to the NGKs should I expect any difference in performance in anyway?

I see 50 different plugs I can use, I have been using the ones through FM, NGK ones. I searched on here and saw that many suggest NGK BKR7ES plugs. But when I searched for them, something different came up. Anything particular I should look for when choosing a plug when boosted?

I'd like to order both from summit (thanks for the link bryan), seeing the wires are $20 cheaper than most places! :)

Vash-

here you go bud
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

I have the blue NGK's and the 1 step colder NGK plugs. Works great. I used to have a set of plug wires that didn't seat on the valve stem too, it drove me nuts. The NGK's clicked right into place, perfect fit.

I ordered both of these tonight....awesome price! Thanks again man!

Now I need to figure out how to clean the shit out from down in the plug holes. I tried a rag and a socket extension....didn't get everything though. Any ideas?

Vash-

no problem. spray some carb/brake cleaner in the plug holes and blow it out with an air compressor would be the easiest

I'd use a shop vac rather than blowing.

Even though the hood is obviously letting the water in, those wires SHOULD seal the plug well off from the water. The NGKs I've used have always made a good seal around the plug port on the cam cover so if water was on the cam cover it would just sit there until it evaporates. Looking at the pic of the Magnecore, it doesn't have the progressive taper at the wire junction like most of the wires that make a good seal.

The couple times it has happened, I used canned air to blow out the moisture. I don't think there's enough pressure to cause any problems down in the spark plug hole. That, and I've pulled the plug wires while the engine was warm, allowing the moisture to evaporate and escape. Then smeared dielectric grease all over everything, again.

If you are using stock coils I doubt you will notice any difference between the NGK and magnecore wires. FYI, mazda thought about this whole drainage thing. If you car is parked on level or slightly upward incline the water is suppose to run off the back of the cover and down the block. Try putting down two 2x4s and parking with your front tires on them. Should help drastically with the water issue when parked at the house.

You know I thought I noticed that there is a slight incline. When parked in my driveway my front is higher than the rear, so 50% of the time when parked I should be good. This is after years and years of this problem. This is just the first year that I'm throwing my hands down and getting a new hood. I think DD wise for me, that I need something different.

I'm not sure any of the fittings on my shop vac will fit down the plug holes. The canned air sounds good, not too much pressure, like the computer canned air to clean keyboards? I'm gonna wait till Monday to do all of this. I ordered a bunch of shit last night, I was up till 4. Also on Monday I'm gonna try and do my brake job with one hand....this cast has come close to getting cut off about a 1000 times. 8 More days, cast off and pins removed. :)

Thanks guys! Happy Easter!

Vash-

I have had my Jackson Racing plug wire for the past 38k miles. Havn't failed me yet and no misses. Plugs and Plug wells stayed very clean. I would definatley buy these over and over again. Which I am probably due for, but havnt because contacts are very clean still.

Hey guys, I just wanted to update this issue.

So today I tried everything to get the water out. The computer keyboard kind of air cleaner would have worked better, if there wasn't so much water. Best method was wrapping a paper towel around and around, leaving the center hollow, just like the spark plug wire boots. Then to stick it down over the plug, push all the rest of the paper towel in, hold......and voila!! Repeat X10,000 and all the water was out. I used a hairdryer on the rubber boots and down in each plug hole for safe measure.

I must say its weird, the car started right up, no skips, but sounded different than normal. I let it warm up and took it for a quick drive to see how it felt. WTF? Is it possible that my car is running right for the first time ever? Revs are super smooth, car sounds better, I just don't get it. :eek5:

In any case, I ordered the new hood today, so next week Ill have all new plugs, wires, and hood. Anyone interested in a mariner blue FM extraction hood, it will be in the for sale section before it goes on ebay.

Vash-

Wow, that's a lot of water. I haven't experienced the issue like that. Couple times I experienced a miss, there was some light moisture inside, the canned air was more than adequate to get the moisture out. Maybe using the dielectric grease everywhere worked better than I thought it would.

Thanks for the links! I had no idea summit even sold stuff like that! :)


vash, have you tried the FM hood with the new plugs n wires? maybe you dont need to spend money on a new hood now?

I just wanted to update this thread. Car is garbage....lol. I think after years of water and the wires arching and tracking that they are done. I'm putting new plugs and wires in tomorrow to see if the car runs any better.

I want to give a BIG shoutout to BRYANTAYLOR! Thanks for sending me to Summit. I have always thought of them as like a JCwhitney. I got the package super fast and everything was right! (Not to mention a free hat) Very professional and will buy from again. :bigtu:

I recently placed an order with a very popular Miata performance company (not FM) and I cannot begin to describe how bad it was. To sum it up, what I ordered wasn't in stock, so I got a call and agreed to take the "other brand" version of the rotors. Box came, 2 different rotors....fuck. Called and was told give me 5 minutes I'll call you back. 2 days and no call back. I called and was told they were sent out and on the way, I even got the same schpeel I was givin the 1st time around (had no clue he told me how to do a brake job the 1st phone call). I didn't interrupt saying I already knew and just went with it, lalalala....rotors are here, great. Now I find the Brembos I originally wanted for half the price at Tirerack.com. I ordered the rears lastnight and would return these fronts for my $90 back, but I doubt it would go smoothly. :vash:

Sorry for the rant, I guess I'm just trying to say talk is cheap, and I got fucked. I will never order from _______ again, no matter what they have that I want.

Vash-

Spill the beans, who did you order from? This isn't miata.net you know, you don't need to censor that sort of thing here.

no prob man, summit is just great. actually just got in a dynomax catback for the taurus today from summit :bigtu: and if you ever have a problem, you just call them and they will take care of it. i got a fitting that wasnt threaded from them before. i called them and they express shipped one out the same day no questions asked.