What makes these trucks destroy distributor caps/rotors?

[Supercharged111]

? does anyone KNOW if there's an aftermarket (or OE) cap for Vortec (both V6 & V8) that is Not a "crab cap" and does NOT have an internal crossover ?
? A cap with a more conventional wire routing; But made to fit the Vortec design distributor housing ?


** FWIW, I'm familiar with 4-7 cam swaps in sbc and in circletrack racing classes that prohibit such FO swap cams ... and using aftermarket big cap HEI with aftermarket internal crossover caps in order to help mask (cheat) the motor having a 4-7 swap cam. ALL of those caps suck and have a high rate of failure; they were produced to aide R-L bank wire routing in conventional FO motors ... to help it look nice under hood. But then adopted (& adapted) by us 4-7 cheaters to make our wire routing look OE. I forgot the name of the small company that made them; IIRC Accel also did so briefly but soon bailed. They sucked; all of em. I'm now seeking the inverse of that; but made for Vortec distributors.

If you ain't cheatin you ain't tryin!

 

[Caman96]

NOTE: The single biggest thing you can do to take some of the pressure off of your ignition system
is to back off from the original .060" spark plug gap, and run a .045" gap instead.

Would you recommend this for the GM Iridium plugs which are supposedly set at .06? Also heard you shouldn’t play with regapping Iridium’s.

 

[Supercharged111]

Would you recommend this for the GM Iridium plugs which are supposedly set at .06? Also heard you shouldn’t play with regapping Iridium’s.

I wouldn't. But I run copper plugs in my trucks so no worries there.

 

[Caman96]

I wouldn't. But I run copper plugs in my trucks so no worries there.

I don’t understand, if a GM TSB recommends .045 as an updated gap, but continues to manufacture all its plugs to .06! I can’t find that TSB either.

 

[Supercharged111]

I don’t understand, if a GM TSB recommends .045 as an updated gap, but continues to manufacture all its plugs to .06! I can’t find that TSB either.

Yes.

You could get it closer to 45 without getting it so tight you have to shove a feeler gauge through.

 

[Caman96]

Yes.

You could get it closer to 45 without getting it so tight you have to shove a feeler gauge through.

Yeah closer might be an option. What are you gapping the copper plugs?

 

[Supercharged111]

Yeah closer might be an option. What are you gapping the copper plugs?

.045", main reason I went copper was to drop a heat range for the superchargers. AC Delco is insanely cryptic with their plug nomenclature so I run NGK.

 

[99xcss4]

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I wish they made a clear cap for tbi and vortec engines I like them and think they are pretty cool even if they are kind of gimicy

 

[Schurkey]

Any fine-wire spark plug should not be re-gapped, especially to open/widen the gap. There's the chance of bending the skinny center electrode, or breaking the precious-metal (Platinum, Iridium, Kryptonite) piece off of the side electrode.

I'm not aware of a precious-metal/fine-wire spark plug with smaller gap that interchanges for a Vortec. I'm not saying they don't exist, but someone with more motivation will have to check the spark-plug catalogs.

ACDelco/GM made a big point twenty-something years ago, to stop using a spark plug numbering system that actually described the plug characteristics (thread size, heat range, reach, gap size, and so forth) in favor of a totally-random part number. The intention was to make it difficult to swap heat-ranges or gap sizes, therefore "assuring" that the "correct" plug was installed in the engine. Fookin' bastages.

 

[Supercharged111]

Any fine-wire spark plug should not be re-gapped, especially to open/widen the gap. There's the chance of bending the skinny center electrode, or breaking the precious-metal (Platinum, Iridium, Kryptonite) piece off of the side electrode.

I'm not aware of a precious-metal/fine-wire spark plug with smaller gap that interchanges for a Vortec. I'm not saying they don't exist, but someone with more motivation will have to check the spark-plug catalogs.

ACDelco/GM made a big point twenty-something years ago, to stop using a spark plug numbering system that actually described the plug characteristics (thread size, heat range, reach, gap size, and so forth) in favor of a totally-random part number. The intention was to make it difficult to swap heat-ranges or gap sizes, therefore "assuring" that the "correct" plug was installed in the engine. Fookin' bastages.

You ought to be able to bend that strap, just don't put a gapping tool in the middle while you're doing so. But again even I don't play that game, I just rock copper plugs where that isn't an issue.