Has anyone tried these? If so do they work like they say?

 

They do work, the built in capacitor creates a more intense spark for beter fuel combustion. The ground strap on each wire is also a nice look. Beware of the price though, not cheap. I want to get a set for another one of my cars but the price tag for an V8 is around $450 ouch

Karl :smile:

 

>>They do work, the built in capacitor creates a more intense spark for beter fuel combustion. The ground strap on each wire is also a nice look. Beware of the price though, not cheap. I want to get a set for another one of my cars but the price tag for an V8 is around $450 ouch
>>
>>Karl :smile:


It sounds like marketing drivel to me.

 

Beware of Nology and other spark gimmics. Helix has a some good info on the subject.

Their info does come from one of Nology's competitors (Magnecor) but this information is supported by several tests I've seen in major auto mags. If I can dig those tests up, I'll post them here.

Personally, I think that until your wires and plugs wear out, there are probably better places to spend your money to increase power.

 

Just an update. I put these wires on a customer car and this was the email I received from him

"Thanks again for the help! I think the Nology wires are the single best
improvement you could make for $500.00 and they are only $200.00. It seems to have smoothed out the power and improved
acceleration from the bottom and all the way through the rpm range."

That's a quote. I drove the car and also noticed a difference in throttle response. I wondered if it were "marketing drivel" as well until I put them on the car. I think it is now a must do for me.



Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

Randy,

Just out of curiousity can you expand upon what else this customer has done to his car (intake/exhaust)??

Dave

 

Dave,

The comments came from him when no other mods were made. Now he has the BMP intake and stock exhaust. He said the wires made more of a difference than the intake.

I also saw in Grassroots Motorsports that they had a gain of 1.7 hp over stock, and that was in the Cooper. That's impressive to me when they just did a wire change!

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

Here's what GRM said, Feb. 2003 issue, pp. 122, 124, " The Nology wires showed us 108.9 hp (their baseline was 108.2) and 101.2 lb.-ft. of torque (baseline 102.2). There was a dip in peak torque as the engine approached 5000 rpm."

They also tested the Magnecor wires, which typically cost less than half the price of Nology. Here is what they said," The Magnecor wires have consistently impressed us thanks to their high- quality materials and factory-style connectors. The dyno numbers indicate that these wires were also a close match to the originals, with 107.8 horsepower and 102.8 lb.-ft of torque." GRM subsequently used the Magnecor wires on their Cooper that won the SCCA H Stock class at the Nationals in Sept.

I still have stock wires on my Cooper, and what these numbers tell me is that changing wires aren't going to make a difference in power that you can feel. If it smoothes out your engine that's great, but its possible you had some poor stock components to start with. I will probably change wires someday, but its not a priority for spending $80 or $190...

 

Whoa, sorry for the misquote. I was using recall, and it must not be what it used to be. I can say from personal experience with the wires, that they DO make a seat of the pants difference.

After talking to the folks at Nology, I have been consistently impressed with the research that goes into their product.

You can see from the numbers that GRM posted, the Magnecore wires are just about 1.2 hp down on the Nology wires. I also would have a tough time believing that the ECU has adapted well enough to show differences as small as 1-2 hp or 1-2 ft/lbs. Again, by seat of the pants, the Nology wires really smoothed out the entire RPM range response. The car felt just like any other stock S before, so I can't believe there was anything wrong with the stock wires.

The other difference is that the car I have installed them on is the S vs. the Cooper GRM is working with.

I have access to both sets of wires, but the customer who has these on his car, I respect, and he continues to tell me they have made a definite difference. I'm leaning toward the Nology wires, but if anyone wants the Magnecore, or Jackson Racing for that matter, I can supply those as well.

That said - I will continue testing and posting. Right now - the nod goes to the Nology wires.

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

I'm so confused. I've been told personally by Mini Mania that the Nology wires don't make any horsepower difference and that they have dyno tested them (and that the reason they carry them is for those people who specifically want to buy them). The Helix's online diatribe against Nology pretty much rips Nology a new ***hole and seems very convincing (though perhaps less so now that I now it is based on data from their main competitor, Magnecor).

But on various online BMW forums before I read posts from people swearing by Nology wires as being worth every dollar (and of course those with the opposite point of view).

Now from I opened the "bible" (Grassroots Motorsports, Feb. 2002, pg. 122) and low and behold they have dyno tests showing the Nology plugs making a tiny bit more horsepower (7 tenths of 1 horsepower, but every little bit helps on a base of 163 HP). Further, RandyBMC, the MCO guy who seems to have one of the broadest sources of information and be the most impartial since his MINI biz carries multiple lines... seems solidly in the camp that Nology wires are the hot tip.

Hey, we just got our red Monster Mini wires because they look cool and I assumed - perhaps mistakenly - that wire selection wouldn't affect horsepower to any appreicable degree.

Whazzup?

Anyone know of any other dyno tests other than Grassroots Motorsports or any other seat-of-the-pants experiences that verify superiority of Nology wires?

 

>>Has anyone tried these? If so do they work like they say?
I have nology wires on my car and would say that they had little to no effect.So save your money but that is just my 2cents.

 

On other cars I've tried other brands of "hot wires" that were supposed to be better than OEM and I have never noticed any power increase. The exception would be if you replaced a set of wires that had 50,000 miles on them with a set of hot wires. That's about the only time you'll notice an improvement. You'd be better off spending your $$ on an air filter, intercooler sprayer, exhaust or saving for a chip.

 

Tom,

I'd get a set of high-quality wires like magnecor if you're interested in this kind of mod. I think you could argue that the 7/8 of a HP is just the normal variance from one dyno run to the next, but Randy (I think) did say that they smooth out the idle and improve throttle response.

The paragraph on Helix's web site seems well-reasoned, whereas Nology's does not. I mean, a coil is a capacitor itself, right? And once you open the gate, the electricity flows, no?

I have a really difficult time understanding how grounding the wire would add to the spark, and no one has produced dyno charts that say otherwise.

Finally, the cost of these things is outrageous for what they are (electrical components like capacitors and the like cost pennies), and I have to believe that if HP were this easy to come by that ALL manufacturers would be taking advantage of this revolution.

Just my $0.02.

Jeff

 

This may not apply to the Mini but I raced Formula Vee's at the national level in SCCA and on the air cooled VW engine we used , the Nology wires showed a small loss in horsepower when compared on the Dyno to stock Bosch wires.In FV a small loss is still significant in these low powered cars. I threw mine away and they weren't cheap.

 

Hey runamok,

The FV has a pretty low power electrical system right? A battery and a total loss system if I remember right. That may be why the wires showed a loss.

As for the wires themselves, again I say that I installed them and ran them in a new (customer) '03 MCS and I noticed a difference. The reason I drove it was because the owner swore to me he noticed a difference. I agreed with him; the wires definitely smoothed the throttle response. The owner of the car still says they are a great wire. He requested them, so I didn't push them - I had already secured the Magnacor wires - but now I carry both just because of this experience (and talking with Nology techs). This guy has been a member of BMWCCA and PCA and SCCA and has been doing track events with the Porsche and M Roadster and has motorcycle experience as well. What I'm saying is, I trust his judgement.

They are expensive, about twice what the Magnacor wires cost, but I would recommend the Nology wires again. They are discounted now to $150 by the way.

If I ever get the dyno facility secured (I've been trying - really), we'll find out what the difference is in numbers. I just don't know if the "feel" they produce will show up. Again, I just supply what you want, so if these aren't for you, I have plenty of recommendations on what mods to make.

Hope this doesn't turn into a hornets nest

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

I haven't really seen all that much hp improvements in the area of plug wires of any brand. If you change to a higher grade plug as well with the wires, then maybe there'll be some sort of improvement worth noting. In my experiences as with others, there seems to be about 1/2hp-1hp increases. You're not going to notice that. It may smoothen it out a bit, and that's about all one really may notice in very few cases.
But with some friends' cars, they actually were losing hp on the dyno after installing wires. It all depends. There's certain situations that'll either add a bit of hp or take a bit away. Things like make of car, other mods that may cancel out new mods, make and reliability of mod, proper install of mod, etc.
I'm not saying that I doubt what Randy and his customer friend of his has been reporting. It's just that *most* of the time, there's going to be little or no improvement. And if there is, most of the time it'll be in your head. That seems to be the case a lot. Spend a wad of cash on a mod, have it installed, and then go for a rip. You're automatically going to be expecting differences. Expectations of such may alter your subconscience into thinking there's improvements.
I also agree with Orbhot. If you have wires with a substancial amount of mileage on them, and then switch to a new wire set, that's pretty much the only time there's going to be a real noticeable difference in hp and gas mileage.
With what's being asked for a set of Nology wires, I'd go with a BMP intake or something along whose lines. The cost of the product vs the hp increase is not really worth it. You MAY gain 1hp, but your losing like $150 for it. Not much bang for the buck there.
Spend $150 on some yellow type'R' decals and slap 'em your MINI. You're probably going to get a better increase with those.
Cheers,

 

There's a lot to be said for what MINI-MadMan posted. I totally agree with the fact that if you are going to spend the money, spend it on an intake. If you are going to do the wires, I would use the Nology. If you have done everything else, and you are looking for the one unfair advantage that may give you a tenth at an autocross, the Hotwires are the way to get it I believe.

I have seen the "spent it so now I feel it" syndrome, but I was trying to be very objective (if anything I was skeptical). Throttle response is the only change I felt - but it was a change for sure.

Like I said, if you have the money and you've done everything, this mod would be for you. If you are scraping cash together to get just one mod, for the money, the intake is the best one to go with.

Randy

 

somr more input on wires (a great site btw)

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.c...=71&page=2

 

I know that this is way past due, but I just thought I'd put my two cents in. I am currently driving (and attempting to sell) a 2002 Cooper that I bought from Bill Jacobs in Naperville, Illinois in March of 2002. At that time they were tricking out their first dozen cars pretty nicely, and I bought one of these cars that they advertised as a "Willspeed" edition, which was basically a Cooper with 17" R90s and Pirelli runflats, a spoiler, driving lights and Nology wires (I'm not sure about the plugs, but they could be non-stock).

The story for me is: I pulled into the dealer in a Volvo S70, just wanting to test drive the cool car I saw at the Auto show. During the test drive (of a pretty basic Cooper) I was mightily impressed by the handling, but pretty unimpressed with pickup. I was generally enthralled with one of the models they had on the floor, so I ended up trading in my Volvo on the spot and driving away in "COOP." I (and my father as well, who drove the tester and COOP nearly back to back) were surprised by the overall pickup performance versus the tester. A lot more "off the line" power and a definite "seat of the pants" pickup.

The only "mods" to the car versus the loaner where the larger/nicer wheel/tire combo and the Nology wires. I am convinced that the wires alone DEFINITELY improve performance, especially noticable on an un-modded Cooper.

Having said all of this and made an outrageously long post, on the Cooper S that I'm picking up next week, my first mod will definitely be a swaybar and air intake combo. The wires will have to wait for another paycheck!

 

for what it's worth, I've got the Helix (magnecor wires) and cannot tell any difference over the stock wires I replaced -- except that they look cooler. At some future point, when my wife has forgotten that I replaced the stock wires, I'll try the nology wires.

 

If you find a safe and legal method of making her forget, could you post it here please?

 

anyone who thinks they are making HP from wires is a fool.

 

Now let me preface this by saying I don't have any experience with wires and have no auto knowledge of any significance to know if wires even could make a difference. With that said, I think people MAY be missing the point here. Performance wires or even an ECU could improve throttle response and/or throttle smoothness and make a noticeable difference in driving experience and enjoyment without ANY increase in HP. And if there truly is improved throttle response, that may be worth $80 at least for the magnacores and it MIGHT make a 1/10th of a sec difference or so at an autocross or something.

I'm leaning towards the Magnacores eventually b/c i like the look and they're relatively cheap. I mean I spent $60 on a chrome piece for my boot that looks cooler so why can't I spend $80 to make my "under the bonnet" look cooler too?

Just two cents (or a cent and a half)...

 

Before anybody flames me, let me start off with an old saying: Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has them and they all stink!

That said, no one has provided any statistical data as to why wires do not make a difference. When you upgrade your stereo equipment, whether in your car or at home, don't you change out the wiring for larger diameter, oxygen free, sealed, blah, blah, blah wires? Perhaps the reason you do this is to reduce the resistance of the electrons flowing from point A to point B. Another reason is to handle the current load and reduce heat caused by the current. Both these scenarios give better perfomance. Why is a capacitor added to amps and subs? It charges up like a battery to maintain specific voltage and currrent requirements from the load.

Why is it hard to accept that an improved wire or cable for your engine would give a preformance benefit. If the charge from the coil is maintained to the plug so a "hotter" spark is created, wouldn't it benefit fuel combustion? I know from various bbq "accidents" that I can burn more hair off my eyebrows from using a match as opposed to rubbing two sticks together. :smile:

Now if we move on to motorsports, do F1, CART, NASCAR, et al use standard wires? I would have to think not?

Anyway, sorry for the long post. $150 is alot of money to spend on wires. But like anything else, spend as much as you can afford, don't worry about what the other guy is doing and do what makes you happy!

Just my stinkin' opinion.

 

A question for Randy (or anyone else who knows):

I live in the boondocks and have part of the stock wires eaten by field mice. Looks like I need to replace them sometime this summer.

Are either the Nology or Magnecore wires intrinsically rodent repellent?

Tom