UPDATE: New Jacobs wires on a '99 5.0

[Thallarsen]

UPDATE: New Taylor wires on a '99 5.0

A follow up to my earlier post:
Can anyone recommend wires for a '99 5.0?
Got the wires from Summit. Good service, fast delivery, good prices.
The Taylor Spiro wires are nice. I got blue, because that's all they had in stock. I can see the plug wires easily now, so that's an advantage, I guess.
They are good quality, and a perfect fit. Exactly the lengths of the o.e.m. wires.
The coil end 'caps' are a good fit too, every bit as good as the o.e.m.
The 4 rear (cyls. 3,4,7,8) wires came with Taylor 'space age' heat resistant fabric boots. Nice, heavy, asbestos-like material. Looks like it will do the job (supposed to withstand temps in excess of 1,000 deg.).
It's critical to route the wires correctly, and make sure that the wires aren't touching any part of the manifolds. Use cable ties if you need to. Diagram the routing if you are replacing o.e.m. wires, and replace them one at a time on the driver's side cylinder bank. Check the routing on the pass. side bank, and remove all four wires, loom clamps and all; at the same time. Mark where the loom clamps go, and put them on the new wires in the same spots. Feed the group of 4 wires through the same way they came. You'll save a ton of headaches.
FYI, the number 4 cylinder (rearmost passenger side) is by far the hardest.
If you can salvage the o.e.m. angled alum. heat 'shroud' that fits over the boot, save it and install it on the no. 4 plug boot. It will pop on the Taylor boot, and the fabric will fit over it.
It will give you a rigid hold on the boot to push it over the plug. It takes some contorting, and scraped forearms.
I do recommend these wires. My mileage is up an average of 2 mpg. That may be because of how good these wires are; or how bad mine were.....I can't say for sure.

I'd post pictures of the routing of the wires, but I don't know how.....

J.P.

 

[james t]

if you want the pics posted, email them to me and ill post them for you. jamest45acp@cableone.net

 

[jssong]

id love to see pics if you can get some

 

[98EBinMO]

Darnit! I wish I had known!...

I recently replaced my wires with Borg Warner Select (L.T. Warranty)- they are OK, but not exact fit... they ran me about $57 from the local O'Reilly's and took about 5 hours to put on!

Anyway, could you give me a ballpark of how much they cost?

Also, I had looked at Motorcraft wires, but they were $75 and only had a 1 yr. warranty...

Thanks!

TOBY

 

[jasonb]

your topic is jacobs wires.. but your text says taylor wires. aren't those two different companies?

 

[PUR PONY]

you ordered these from summit? whats the part number? price? all 96-02 5.0 wires are the same- correct?

 

[Holty]

yes, i'm also interested in the part # exact manufacturer and price. pics would be great too!

 

[Thallarsen]

JasonB -Thanks for pointing that out. I changed my post. I'd been looking at both, and confused the brand names.
JamesT - I'll send you some good pics with the routing & a closeup of the wires (pre-installed).
PUR PONY-Don't go by the price & part numbers that I'm posting below! I think that you'll find the '96 wires are different than the '98 & up. I believe that the coil ends on your '96 are silicone 'boots' as opposed to the plastic 'caps' for the DIS systems. You'll probably find them to be less expensive, also.
Holty-The price @ Summit for the set is $81.39. I've found that wires for these 5.0's aren't cheap, and aren't as common as the non-DIS 5.0 wiresets. The Motorcrafts @ the Ford dealer were over $100. The part number for the blue wires is 72623. I couldn't find the p.n. for the reds and blacks, but Summit says that they are the same price (they only had blue in stock when I called). I'd call them to order instead of doing it online, just to make sure you're getting the right wires for your Exp.

Be careful if you're looking at Ford Racing wiresets. For some reason they don't specify the years in their general lookup. The parts guy thought he'd ordered the right wires for my '99...they said Ford 5.0 V-8s. Wrong wires! Probably would have been a nice set for your '96 5.0, PUR PONY.


J.P.

 

[james t]

here is the first pic

 

[james t]

side view

 

[james t]

boots

 

[Holty]

thanks for the pics James.....looks good!

 

[Hokie]

Re: UPDATE: New Taylor wires on a '99 5.0

Originally posted by Thallarsen
I do recommend these wires. My mileage is up an average of 2 mpg. That may be because of how good these wires are; or how bad mine were.....I can't say for sure.
J.P.

You picked up 2mpg off of spark plug wires alone? Pardon my skepticism but if thats true, where do I sign up!

 

[PUR PONY]

i think i am going with LiveWires and the Screamin Demon coil packs instead. But those wires look nice.

 

[Thallarsen]

james T- Thanks for posting those pics. Hopefully they'll be a good reference for the guys out there who are comparing their existing 5.0 wires with Taylors, and will also show a rough idea of the routing. Thanks again.
HokieBert- Yep. That's not an exaggeration, either. I went from 16 avg, 65% highway; 35% rural to 18 avg, same driving/same routes, same gas.
I'm not saying that the Taylor wires were solely responsible for this. I'm guessing that there may have been one or two of the original wires that were problematic (original Motorcraft w/110k on them). With those wires, I noticed some reduced performance in misty/rainy weather, and I'm thinking that my #4 wire may have been arcing against the alum. sheild on occasion/when humid & under load.
Maybe my 2 mpg gain would have come with any new wireset, but my sense is that these Taylors will hold up better than most aftermarket "lifetime" wires that many of the chain parts houses carry, and that maybe my acceptable mileage for an AWD 5.0 will also hold up.

J.P.