Power Spark Ignition & Copper Leads

[William2]

I have fitted a Power Spark ignition module in the distributor in conjunction with an Accuspark Sports coil and have fitted good old fashioned copper cored ignition leads. As far as I can tell it all works ok, but I have read on a certain thread that it's possibly not a good idea to use these types of plug leads. Has anyone been using this type of lead without any problems?

[UAB807F]

Yes, I have copper leads but they have NGK 5k ohm suppressed caps, I've never used unsuppressed copper wire alone.

That's in conjunction with a Pertronix Mk1 ignitor and Lucas gold coil. The pertronix is a relatively new addition, 3 or 4 yrs, but I've always ran copper wire leads with suppressed caps. I've not noticed any problems on either the Elan or Europa.

The Magnecor website (for one) is very much against this type of set-up, claiming RFI (radio frequency) and EMI (electromagnetic) interferences cause lots of problems with modern ignition modules, fuel injection, cpu's, etc.
I figured the Elan was old-tech enough not to worry but perhaps that's the basis of the threads you've seen ?

Brian

[denicholls2]

The Magnecor website (for one) is very much against this type of set-up, claiming RFI (radio frequency) and EMI (electromagnetic) interferences cause lots of problems with modern ignition modules, fuel injection, cpu's, etc.
I figured the Elan was old-tech enough not to worry but perhaps that's the basis of the threads you've seen ?

On the Elan's home side of the pond, there may not be as stringent RFI standards as we have here with our FCC, but the primary issue of copper wire is not how it affects your car, it's how it destroys radio signals that everyone else would like to listen to/watch where you drive. Resistance plug wires weren't created to make your engine run better, they were created to keep automobiles within FCC broadcast interference standards.

Do the regulators care? You betcha. When my younger brother was about 8 (no cell phones then!), he ran a wire to the next-door neighbor's house so that he could communicate with his friend using Morse code. At the time, we thought it was an interesting science project. It took about three weeks for the FCC to come knocking.

Why the analogy? A Twincam on unsuppressed copper wires is also a code key, generating much less intelligible code at typically between 4,000 and 25,000 pulses per minute. And it transmits its wireless code at least half a mile based on my experience hearing scofflaws on copper wires go by my house.