Wow, thanks for the input Celly. You bring up a good point with frying one wire, and needing an entire set, or hopeing to find a match single. I'll check out the link. You mention two different styles; is one better than the other, do you know?
Frankly, I didn't understand the difference. The Aurora guy explained that it depends on the valve covers? The more expensive of the two have different plug I didn't know what that meant. I got the cheaper of the two
There were two part #'s, 95300 and 95320. I went with 95320 in red.
Here is what Gary at Aurora told me (back in early 2006 when I first asked him about the two different wire sets so his site references might be different now).
"In 1999, Ford offered two different wire sets depending on the engine configuration. The most common engine uses part number 95300. This set uses what Ford calls a 'duckbill' boot which is a straight boot that fits into the valve cover of the engine. A picture of it can be found by going to the 'Custom Building' page of our website, clicking on the 'boot codes' link, then the 'Spark plug boots' button and checking 'Style FF' Set 95320 is much less common and uses a boot similiar to 'Style Z'. Both sets have the same coil ends - a rubber boot and plastic cap assembly.
Set 95300 is quite a bit more expensive because of the spark plug boot style used.
Despite what he said about the "more common" wires, I went with the cheaper ones and routed them my way. I do know that the Motorcrafts and Magnecors I used do
not have the "duckbill" boots either and instead used more of a 45 degree boot. I routed mine non-standard because I have headers and there are some tight clearances with them.
There are the "duckbill" ones from their site:
Surf through their catalog and you'll see the differences.
I've spent a lot of time being fairly creative using wire looms and zip ties to keep the wires safe. I also use lava rock
heat socks to keep them from burning up. I actually spent a little more $$$ on the heat socks than normal relative to the standard fibreglass ones that are normally available (click on my link above for more info on the socks).
In the course of my routing experiments, I did destroy one of the Ford wires and that was one with a metal heat shield on it. I was test-driving the truck and started missing badly after a very spirited ride. I got it home and the smell of burnt rubber was very evident when I popped the hood. The wire was almost broken clean through. It wasn't the fault of the wire though. I wasn't making contact with the header tube but I guess it was close enough. The wire was partially protected by a fibreglass sock, but a slight uncovered spot was where the wire gave out.
Aurora (and Magnecor) wires are made of silicone which have a much higher heat tolerance than the material used to make "lesser" wires. I don't know what Ford uses, but it's not silicone. The quality of these wires is superb as mentioned. The Aurora wires are a better buy and to me, I think they're higher quality. The boots look more sturdy (but Magnecor are pretty high quality too). I didn't mention how well they hold on to the plugs either. They make a "click" sound as they grab on. I still used a small amount of di-electric grease on the plugs as recommended by Aurora. I have removed some of the wires in the course of routing and they definitely hold better than the Motorcrafts.
I think if you give these a go and be careful how you route them, you'll be happy. It is possible to buy heat socks indvidually if you're watching cost (I have them on all 8).
I'm very happy with these wires and despite the fact Motorcraft are a good wire, they don't last forever. Aurora pretty much feels that their wires are the last ones you'll ever need. Shoot him an email. He's a pretty easy going guy and inspires trust and confidence in his products.