Doodlebug

Hey fellas, how about bringing an old timer up to date on a few things. The last Toyota I had was a 1987 4X4 and if I remember correctly it had regular size spark plug wires. I sold that one several years ago and now have this 1994 model with the 22RE engine. I was looking at it today and I was surprised at the extremely small size of the plug wires it has. They aren't but about 1/8" in diameter (give or take a little). Is this the normal size wires for this engine? Can regular size wires (8mm) be put on in their place? Would appreciate any infomation you can give.

myyota

8mm wire will work, but a set of stock replacement wires will work just as well.

xzyragon

stock is 8mm

Doodlebug

I was told these are the stock wires and there ain't no way these are 8mm. Like I said, they're about 1/8" in diameter.

Justinlhc

My stock replacements are 5mm.

WetbehindEars

If stock is 8mm that would be ~0.315... or 63/200, yours are 1/8 or .125. That sounds rather small... change em!

Doodlebug

5mm is a little over 1/8", maybe, what, 3/16?

WetbehindEars

Pretty Much.
3/16 = .1875
5mm = .1968
1/8 = 0.125

Doodlebug

Yep, that's still pretty small. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the small wires, just that I have never seen wires that small and was just wondering if that were the normal wires for this engine.

Silas

For the price of a good set of plug wires, might as well put them on.

Its not as important in these rigs i find but my buddy neglected them on his f-150 with a 302 in it which are notorious for going through plug wires, and spark jumped under load and detonated a cylinder. Loss of all compression on that one cylinder.

abecedarian

+1 @ Silas

5 mm / 1/8" sounds kind of small, like maybe for an 18r engine...
but even the cheap autozone ones for the 20r/22r/22re are like 7.5 mm.

Doodlebug

Its gonna get 8mm wires tomorrow.

Justinlhc

I've tried so many different brands and sizes of wires over the years and I have never found any that "perform" any better than another. Unless they're dry rotted or extremely dirty you won't notice a difference no matter how big of a wire you put on it. A 10mm wire will give you the same results as a 5mm wire. Unless you have some serious aftermarket ignition system and you're running super high compression or boost you shouldn't ever need anything more than the stock sized wire. I'm done throwing money away on useless oversized wires only to find absolutely no gain from it.

Doodlebug

The 8mm wires are standard on many, if not most, vehicles today. I'm not getting them expecting a "performance" boost. Rather they are just easy to obtain and most likely want cost one penny more than the stock wires (and probably less). They are more durable, less prone to any possibility of cross-firing and less prone to heat damage. Any performance gain is just gravy.

Justinlhc

Actually, most vehicles today don't even have sparkplug wires. I don't see any gain out of using larger wires than stock as I've seen plenty of factory wires last well over 100k miles with no issues.

xzyragon

hahaha (laughter not aimed at you Justin)

most vehicles today don't even have distributors. they are all electronically timed

24Runna

Go NGK wires.

http://www.amazon.com/NGK-TX50-Wire-...8998041&sr=8-1

$46.73. Free shipping. (Pic is wrong).

Justinlhc

Exactly. My motorcycle doesn't even have sparkplug wires.

Doodlebug

Well, I think you are correct about that. I'll check out both sets of wires today and do a cost comparison.
As I stated in my initial post, I haven't done any mechanicing in years and was surprised to see the very small wires. I was simply inquiring to see if these were the stock wires on these vehicles today. I wasn't debating their quality or anything like that. You young guys today are light years ahead of me when it comes to modern engine systems, I admit that, but I would have never thought the little tiny wires could be as good or durable as the larger wires.

Justinlhc

I thought the same thing when I first popped the hood on my 4Runner. "WTF, are those really the sparkplug wires?" 5mm seems pretty slim to me, but they seem to get the job done.

I remember the first Toyota I ever owned. I bought an MSD ignition and Blaster coil for it and the system said it REQUIRED the fancy oversized MSD wires so I bought them. After blowing up 3 of those crappy Blaster coils I gave up on the system and removed it. Funny thing was I didn't notice a damn bit of difference. The only time a Toyota has ever left me stranded was caused by an MSD coil.