Recommended Plugs

Just installed a pertronix II, coil and plug wires and while I'm at it want to replace the plugs. Any recommendations on specific plug and gap. I have a 1776 with what I believe are small webers. I hope to find out which ones when at Knotts. The only small issue with the pertronix after gently installing the unit on the dist. was that the wires from the dist. to the coil were too short. No big deal just used the cable stretcher in my tool box.

Thanks for the info.

Troy

Because of the temp. extremes where I live, I use NGK B5HS in the summer and BP5HS (hotter) in the winter. These are used with stock depth heads.
Eddie

Following up on Eddie's recommendation if you need the deep plugs for Heads like CB 044s, etc, then I used the Bosch W 8 CC. I also used the NGK's with good success, but I don't recall the number. Our Temps are usually more consistently on the warm side (well it was 14' last night.. so) so I was able to run with the same plug # year round.

Guys,
Our temps are usually higher also but 35 last nite with a high of 49 today so far. Not the norm for here. Temps usually 75-85 when I drive mostly. Not sure about heads or anything else in the engine. It is my hope to learn lots about the engine etc at knotts where I can pick the brains of you gents that have been around these beauties longer than I. Also hope to talk with Kirk.

Just tried to install the pertronix plug wires and the coil to dist. wire is too short. I'll call pertronix tomorrow and I'll bet they have a solution. I know I can get longer wire myself but want all wires to match (pertronix red)

89 days

Troy

Troy, pull a plug and see what it has in it now. I would stick with that in a cross-over NGK or Bosch.

It's claimed that you can run a larger gap with the Ignitor II's hotter spark. But they don't say how much bigger. I guess you have to experiment.?

BD

Please let me know if you notice a diff in perf. with the Petronix. I have been told by a guy who sells them that it is just a way to eliminate the points.
I know when I put it and a super hot coil in a trick six I had I noticed a considerble diff.

Troy, my new VS came with NGK's from the shop. When it first got here I noticed it wasn't burning the fuel correctly; it needed some carb adjustment, which was done but still not working 100%. Then I decided to take a look at the plugs and sure enough found one of them with the ceramic cracked. I bought some Bosch replacements (not the platinum, just the basic kind) with a heat rating one step above the NGK's I had. I set up the gap as per VW factory's specs and it has worked perfectly since then.

Ricardo,
Thanks do ya have the plug part number of the Bosch you use?
Troy

Bill,
I was also wondering about the plug gap and found this on the Pertronix web site:

The Ignitor has no set specification in which the spark plugs should be gaped at. Every engine responds differently to spark plug setting. In most cases increasing the factory recommended gap by .005 improves the engine performance.
Troy

Troy; I checked for you and they are Bosch Super W7DC. Good luck!

Thanks much Ricardo

Thanx, Troy, I have new wires and plugs to install. I'll have to widen the gap a little and see how it goes.

I will add that when I went from the Ignitor I to the newer
Ignitor II, the car seemed a bit peppier. I did have trouble with the Ignitor II though. When I installed it before our East Coast run last October, the ignition was cutting out intermittantly. I could see the
tach dropping every time it did it. It was like somebody was tapping on a kill switch button for a split second. It went up in smoke on the way back from Sykesville MD. after our run.
Pertronix replaced the unit after I sent the bad one to them.(along with the FlameThrower coil).
One other thing I noticed when I swapped up the the II is that the timing mark stayed rock steady with the timing lite. With the Pertronix I it wasn't as steady.
If anyone has this kind of trouble with the Ignitor II, please pass it along.

BD

Bill, I had the same experience with a Comp-U-Fire Unit. It cut out fire intermittently, then finally cooked. I replaced it with another unit and never had another problem. Good reason to carry either a back up unit or a set of points! I used a Bosch Blue Coil.

Jim

Troy,

Don't forget to make sure the length of the plugs are the same as you pull out. There is a slight possibility that you may have long reach heads. Do you know about the build of the engine? If you do have aftermarket heads be especially careful when threading the plugs back in, the head material can be soft (compared to originals) and they easily cross-thread!

Jim

Jim,
Don't know anything about the engine build. It is an '01 VS and as far as I know it is still on the original engine with 29K miles. Runs great and NO LEAKS. Not sure why changing the ignition but just felt like it and got a good deal on Petrronix II and coil from Evil Ed.
Troy

Wow finished the pertronix and plug change and what a difference. Smoother accel. better everything. I'll bet it will run even better when I can get the timing really correct. I only have one timing mark on my pulley which I am assuming is TDC. I kind of guessed where I thought 8-10 degrees might be on the pulley and static timed it there. Any one out there know what the distance is on the pulley for the other two standard marks. I can always duplicate the distance using a tape measure.

Troy