OEM or Professional?

[SAATR]

Delco 9718Q works great. Set on my truck was at least 11 years old, came off in one piece, worked fine until the when I changed them today. Got mine off Amazon warehouse deals for about $30.

 

[stutaeng]

No specific recommendation, but did buy some AC Delco from RA last year and one of the wires was too short. It was for my 4.3, though. But still! I think it was around $30 or so.

I went and got whatever AAP had, Carquest, probably. They run just fine.

I'm bad about screwing the boot when I try to remove wire. I always add dielectric grease, and I almost always damage one. I just bought that Lisle puller. I hope it saves some plug wires.

Anyways, just buy whatever is cheaper. "Plugs and wires" are the first things people change when these trucks start acting up, based on the posts I read here, LOL.

 

[Schurkey]

I bought Moroso "Blue Max" wires... ...They're low impedance (a lot less than OE)

More likely, they're low RESISTANCE, but extremely high inductance.

Two simple ways to kill Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in a spark plug wire set:
Add resistance
Add inductance

Thus the popularity of resistor spark plugs, and "carbon-rope" plug wires.

The "helical-wound" (sometimes called "spiral-wound") wires advertise low resistance but "forget" to mention the high inductance. Either one--resistance or inductance--dramatically reduces current flow through the secondary ignition system. Current flow causes the RFI. Reduce current flow, reduce RFI.

I like the helical-wound wires more than the carbon-rope style. I've been buying them from Summit as their "house brand"; but there's a hundred companies selling them.





Funny thing about spark plug wires. "Custom-Fit" plug wires are always too damn long, so they fit as many vehicles as practical. "Universal-fit" plug wires are cut to the correct length by the installer, so they're custom-fitted to each individual engine.

Wild Guess: There's not a thing different between the "OEM" and the "Professional" plug wires except the "OEM" are the correct length, and the "Professional" are extra-long to fit all sorts of vehicles.

 

[df2x4]

To the point on the original question...

I would buy the OEM wires personally. I do so pretty much whenever it's an option. The only exception would be something like alternators where the OEM options are rebuilt units. ACDelco Professional parts are generally OK but they're lower end Chinese parts.

EDIT - For example, lots of the ACDelco Professional brake drums are re-branded Raybestos drums. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that the Raybestos branded drums are half the price and the exact same product.

 

[SAATR]

Wild Guess: There's not a thing different between the "OEM" and the "Professional" plug wires except the "OEM" are the correct length, and the "Professional" are extra-long to fit all sorts of vehicles.

The "Professional" wires fit perfectly, in this case. I haven't handled the OEM to verify COO, but the 9718Q's are made in Mexico, probably from one of the many OEM suppliers that GM has down there.

 

[LVJJJ]

when bought my 94 GMC k1500 with 130,000 miles, found that it had never had new plugs, wires, cap rotor. The one original owner had kept up with all the fluid changes but not a tune up. So I got some new AC plugs but got some NAPA "premium" wires. Didn't run too good, friend who used to work at GM truck plant and taught tune up, said only use AC Delco parts on GM trucks. Did that, ran much better with the right wires. That was in 2016, now its got a 383 Stroker with AC delco wires.

 

[Supercharged111]

I've been using AC Delco wires because they're not a mile too long. Parts store wires can suck it. Now a good, universal cut to length setup would be great.

 

[Madscientist]

Oem. There is a reason they put 100k mile warranty on their stuff when these were new

 

[alpinecrick]

Shurkey might be right, same wire for both, but OEM is cut to fit better. Interesting that the Professional set is same part number but an added digit.....

 

[Hipster]

I've replaced wires in my truck twice. The first set were Taylor Spiro Pro's and I thought the ends were weird...... I bought them becasue they were going to make my truck run super awesome. The next set I bought were AC Delco.... OEM, I t think..... they came from ebay. A guy bought them but sold his Suburban, before he installed them. I'm comining up on 300K miles, and will likely be going with United Motor Products wires. That's what I have on my Saturn, and they work fine..... Supposed to be Packard wire.

I'm not paying the price for AC/OEM/Delphi wires.....too expensive in my opinion for what they are.

I just put a set of the United/Packard on mine. Quality seemed to be pretty good