okay by now most of you know that i am a mechanical engineer, and i work producing electromechanical power switching components. so what i am about to say is not off the top of my head, but a well evaluated and tested evauation of these wires.

The nology wires claim to have an internal capacitor that increases spark intensity and decreases spark duration which would be the characteristics if a capacitor was placed in the spark plug wire.
I have had a set of wires on my car for about 3 years now and i took them out because i accidentally bent one to much and broke it. my fault. Given this i took the opportunity to dissect this wire and see really what it's all about.
I know there have been many mixed opinions on these wires and people saying that they are just plain wires internally. that is only partly correct.
here's what i found out.
i removed the outer covering of the wire. I found that the ground strap is actually a tube which is sheathed around the inner wire. The inner wire is just a standard spark plug wire with a metal spiral wound inner conductor like you would see in a magnecor wire. the jacket is i believe, silicon.
this is where it gets a little complicated. I will try to explain it the best i can.
A capacitor is essentially 2 metal plates seperated by a dielectric material. one plate charges with electrons, as many as it can hold, it does this in a static state as long as power is applied. when 1 more electron is added to this plate all the stored electrons jump from one plate through the dielectric into the other plate and on its way through the circuit. this is how a cap works basically.
These wires utilize a rather interesting way to produce this capacitor affect. The inner core of the wire (which is a spiral wound conductor) is essentially one plate, The + side of the cap. The steel braided sheath is the other plate, The - side of the cap. The silicone jacket is the dielectric. it is a rather ingenious incantation of the capacitor. There is really no "capacitor" as we would normally know it embedded into the wire, but the entire wire is essentially a capacitor.
When I first installed these wires in my car i did feel a seat of the pants difference and i was like wow how nice.
So in conclusion, These wires are basically a normal spark plug wire internally, but as you investigate more you find that they really are NOT normal wires. I believe that the people that have problems with these wires are not properly grounding the ground strap. My recommendation is if you are going to use these wires, remove the coil pack from the valve cover. lightly sand the 4 standoffs where the coil pack screws attach to the valve cover and then ground the 4 straps to these points under the coil pack. THEN run a 8 or 10 gauge amp power wire from the screw hole on the drivers side of the valve cover near the intake pipe to the firewall sanding both locations to maintain the good ground. I have had ZERO problems with these wires when properly grounded and it is essential that they are grounded correcty. a capacitor does not work if its negative terminal is disconnected.
lates
james

Good information man. I was wondering what was up with a ground wire hanging off a set of spark plugs wires, I had never looked into what was 'supposed' to be special about the nology wires..

Very good write up and ill agree 100% with you (electrical engineer here). My company used to design RF connectors for the telecom industry and we used very similar design principals to greatly improve the performance of our connectors (going from 500Mhz to 1Ghz with identical signal loss using that capacitive wire design, basically we improved our connectors performance 100%). Alot of time went into the design of these Nology wires that warrants the expensive price tag. As the old saying goes "you pay for what you get"

Excellent info. I'll save this post and add it to the main page once it slips down a page or two.

How much do nology wires run? and would there ever be a problem of the wire releasing its power too late due to the "capacitor" charge up time? or is it to small to make a difference.

You want the truth...you can't handle the truth! ;) (I love that movie)

Scroll down to the section:
"CAPACITOR" EFFECT WIRES with grounded metal braiding over jacket

http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/truth.htm




Eric Madden

well, imagine that the electrons are moving at the speed of light, which is basically how fast they move, and immediately after it discharges, it fills back up again waiting for that 1 electron to cause the jump. mind you that all this is happening at the speed of light. so to answer your question, it all happens so fast it wouldn't make a difference. i think they are like 130 dollars or something like that
lates
james

i don't want to start a fight, but the magnecor "information" is given to make you not buy nology, who is probably their biggest competitor. Nology does not claim that the spark will make more horsepower by itself, they Do claim that the timing will be more exact. basically, any person who does not have a backround in electronics or engineering will believe what magnecor writes. for example, the braiding is not a shielding, nor is it made to be a shield of any type. what it is, is a - for the capacitor. Nology has done their homework that is why the wires for our cars are rather long. they have to be to store the electrons needed. and finally, anyone who knows anything about capacitors knows that there is never an actual spark that transfers through the dielectric from plate to plate in a properly designed capacitor....DUH!
hehe
lates
james

Lets say this.... I cannot believe the claims either wire manufacturer makes until I collect data to substantiate the claims, it's just the nature of things, I'm an engineer. That's how we do things. I have had magnecor and nology and msd and stock wires. you know what the stock wires worked better than the magnecor's for me. I tore all these wires apart. The stock, MSD, and Magnecore's internals are basically all the same. The nology was different. I was starting to believe what magnecor was saying on their site about nology wires. so i took it into my own hands to determine the truth. I did testing, analysis and theorizations. talked with capacitor manufacturers and electrical engineers. they all tell me after I showed them the wire that it was a rather simple and effective way to increase the spark intensity. they also told me that the duration would decrease significantly. which is exactly what nology claims. Being an engineer and anyone that knows me knows that i do not tolerate inprecision and "well, that's good enough" attitudes. Any way to produce a little precision out of our ignition systems makes sense to me.
This anaysis is an un-biased evaluation of Nology's wires made with thorough investigation. I have tried many wires and the nology has worked the best for me. I'm not saying you have to use them, but I have done the work to determine if these wires are bunk. and in my personal opinion they are one of, if not, the best wires on the market.
lates
james

i believe the saying is, "you get what you pay for" rather than "you pay for what you get".



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To avoid argument, I will only post once more with my opinions. First off, I don’t think that Nology is Magnecor’s biggest competitor; actually I don’t even think that they focus on the same market of buyers. Magnecor has, and will continue to focus on larger displacement engines while Nology will continue to focus on smaller displacement engines. Second, Nology does claim that the spark will create more horsepower.

“At that split second point the entire power of the stored spark is discharged at once, creating a spark 300 times more powerful. The result is faster, more complete combustion, and most importantly,
MORE HORSEPOWER…” – taken form the Nology web site (http://www.nology.com/hot.html)


Third, and I’m going to be a little picky here, Magnecor never states that the braiding is a shielding; they call it a “sleeve” that fits over the wires jacket. This is a very important distinction, as you have pointed out.


Lastly let me comment on your words, which I completely agree with.

“anyone who knows anything about capacitors knows that there is never an actual spark that transfers through the dielectric from plate to plate in a properly designed capacitor”

The problem with Nology wires is what happens when the wire jacket begins to break down. It is then that the spark begins to transfer through the dielectric material (in this case the wire jacket).

“…it is unwise to use ignition wires fitted with grounded braided metal sleeves fitted over ignition cable jackets on an automobile engine. This type of ignition wires forces its cable jackets to become an unsuitable dielectric for a crude capacitor (effect) between the conductor and the braided metal sleeves. While the wires function normally when first fitted, the cable jackets soon break down as a dielectric, and progressively more spark energy is induced from the conductors (though the cable jackets) into the grounded metal sleeves…”

Sorry for the long post.



Eric Madden

with respect to the jacket breaking down. i think you are misunderstanding. the jacket is made of silicone, a high dielectric, this under all normal operating conditions will not break down. magnecor makes the assumption that silicone is a poor dielectric and that the transfer of charge from one plate to the other will cause breakdown of this dielectric. if this is truly the case then ALL SPARK PLUG WIRES WILL BREAKDOWN DIELECTRICALLY AND ARC TO THE NEAREST GROUND LOCATION. and as we all know this is not the case.
with respect to more power, it is true, if you make timing more precise then you can extract more power from the engine. when nology wires are installed timing becomes much more precise, therefore the car can be tuned to extract more power.
http://www.c5-corvette.com/C5Dyno_2.htm#Nology%20Hotwires%20and%20Beru
http://list.miata.net/miata/1996-04/1944.html

directly from magnecor's site

"The perceived effect a brighter spark, conducted by an ignition wire, encased or partially encased in a braided metal sleeve (shield) grounded to the engine, jumping across a huge free-air gap (which bears no relationship to the spark needed to fire the variable air/fuel mixture under pressure in a combustion chamber) is continually being re-discovered and cleverly demonstrated by marketers who convince themselves there's monetary value in such a bright spark, and all sorts of wild, completely un-provable claims are made for this phenomena."

Don't I see a reference to the steel braid as a shield or am I dreaming?

My main point here is not to believe everything you read. I'm not asking you to take my opinion as truth, but as an honest opinion formed by substantial investigation.
You are reading information from a manufacturer trying to sell their product, they are not going to say anything good about the competitors and they are not going to say anything bad about their own product.
I wouldn't if i were trying to sell something.
lates
james

i bet his ground locations were not adequate, if the wires do not have a good ground they will cease to function correctly.
lates
james

Im impressed to say the least james, its funny you posted this as I was just about to order some magnacore wires but now I want to go with the nology wires. Where can I get them from online?

Thanks for taking the time to post this I found it very informative.

Im going to stick with the magnecores just to be on the safe side and its just a wire it will not make that much of an impact in our cars.

sounds good, magnecor's are good wires, i think most wires will work pretty well. i provided this information so people can make up their own minds if they are wondering what wires to get, and to clear up some misconceptions about nology's wires. But I think everyone should do their own research and make decisions based on what they find out.
lates
james

ok. topic 1. Nology wires were liek one of the "first" modifications I had back in the day. I noticed a gain of 1 hp through the entire powerband with a virtually stock car back in like 98 (power rose from 116 to 117 peak with only random tech. 2.5" cat and 2.4" power extreme exhaust). Also, I am curious about the capacitor design myself. I am just begining to learn the different ODE's for RC circuits involving time, but from what I have learned from capacitors, the current goes from the positive plate to the negative plate of the capacitor. if the negative plate of the passive capacitors is a metal sheaf around the wire, how is the circuit completed to the spark plug? Also, ho woudl a high voltage ignition system affect the capacitor affect? without knowing the capacitance or anything of the wires, I am not sure. once the circuit reaches a certain ammount of current, wouldn't it just complete the circuit? do you wee what I am saying? I have been studying for a different class all day, so my mind isn't exactly in circuits right now, but from what I remember, once current reaches a certain level, you get discharge (voltage with respect to time). if, say, a MSD ignition was used with it, would it make the capacitive affect fo the wires less significant becasue of the increased power from the coils? I really shouldn't be askign difficult questions liek this at 2 AM but I am just curious of the pen and paper has to say......and I am too tired to try to figure out an equation myself :-P

A.D.P.
"...If you do too much, people become dependant. If you do to little, people loose hope. If you do it right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
bring it on............

Personally our stock Mopar wires are pretty good as well. Just my opinion. they haven't failed....yet :P

kaiser

regarding the completion of the circuit to the spark plug, the ground strap of the wires (1 plate) is basically connected to the shell and ground electrode of the spark plug which is grounded. regarding the high current i believe it would be like this. the air gap in the spark plug is extremely resistant to current flow i forgot the exact number but is like it requires over 5000 volts to arc over 1mm or airgap. i actually thing it is more, but i am not certain. You have to remember that voltage is the potential difference between 2 points. and this is what causes arcing. not current per say. when the arc is produced there is large current in the system but at any other time there is almost 0 current, but a high potential difference between the plug tip and ground electrode. I believe that the capacitance of the wires ( remember this is all speculation without knowing the exact capacitance) is such that the cap will charge then discharge producing the spark when voltage is applied. you must remember hat voltage and current are 2 completely different things. current is the flow or movement of electrons and voltage is the potential difference between 2 points. you can have extremely high voltage and and almost no current. in our systems and any other system that produces an arc across an air gap there is essentially no current until the arc is produced. the resistance in the system (still theoretically speaking) is high enough that the "cap" will always charge before the arc is produced therefore retaining the capacitor effect. I believe this is why nology wires have to be a certain length and not shorter. they have different lengths for different cars, and on our car they are longer than necessary. I think the research that they have done takes all that we have discussed into account and i think that is why the wires are the price they are. not for just the materials, but the research that had to go into determining the proper lengths (capacitance) required for each application.
lates
james

kaiser is right for stock... hehe.. just to let everyone know James is the man hehe...=)

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