Engine plumbing in?

[cazxr2]

Hey guys am looking for advice to where u can buy the engine wires for plumbing in the engine?? Internet based would be the best bet as I'm in the uk and have no lhs near by. And could anybody show me a small block ford engine that's been plumbed in thanks Craig

[Agent G]

You can order stuff online, but alot of us just scrounge the wire from anywhere we find it. I use a lot of speaker wire, telephone wire, and plain old craft store floral wire. One roll of floral wire, the kind used to tie artificial flowers, will last for years.

I'm looking for that Ford engine online for you.

G

[Jordan White]

I find that phone wire is too big for wiring engines, but works good for heater hoses. I use fine thread for my spark plug wires. It's probably a bit thinner than the "correct" wire, but it looks fine from any distance and is easy to work with.

[Guest]

Detail Master has a great line of wiring. I believe they advertise in MCM.

[Mark Brown]

For my money, you can't beat wrapping wire for spark plug wire. It's cheap, looks very realistic, is easy to work with and you can get it in the UK from this site:

http://www.dayga.co.uk

Just search "wrapping wire" in their search field.

As others have said, for other wiring and plumbing tasks, check home improvement stores and electronic shops, and never throw away anything with wire (like used-up electronic equipment, etc). Scrounge all the different stuff you can and save it in case it comes in useful later.

If you do a Google image search for "small block Ford" you'll find more detail pics than you'll ever need.

[Art Anderson]

One of the problems with using exact scale wire for plug leads, in my experience is--it's so small as to seem underscale, even when it isn't. Real plug wires are what, about 1/4" diameter over the insulation (or for metric, just under 6mm) in diameter. In 1/25 scale, that translates to .010" or .25mm. Most modelers I've conversed with about this issue tend to like plug wires that are larger, fatter, they just seem to look better. While scale fanatics may, and most likely will, disagree with me here, I like going just a bit overscale on plug wires as well, particularly as when I do wire an engine bay, I have a tendency to add the underhood wiring harnesses as well--and those single wire lead outtakes from a wiring harness are MUCH smaller than spark plug leads.

I tend to use .020" (.50mm) diameter wire for spark plugs, which leaves the smaller diameters (generally around .010" (.25mm) for single wires branching from any wiring harness I might add to the engine bay. To my rather untrained eye, these somewhat oversized wires don't overpower the rest of the details, but they do stand out a bit more under the hood, which I think gives at least the illusion of being in scale.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Art

[Mark Brown]

One of the problems with using exact scale wire for plug leads, in my experience is--it's so small as to seem underscale, even when it isn't. Real plug wires are what, about 1/4" diameter over the insulation (or for metric, just under 6mm) in diameter. In 1/25 scale, that translates to .010" or .25mm. Most modelers I've conversed with about this issue tend to like plug wires that are larger, fatter, they just seem to look better. While scale fanatics may, and most likely will, disagree with me here, I like going just a bit overscale on plug wires as well, particularly as when I do wire an engine bay, I have a tendency to add the underhood wiring harnesses as well--and those single wire lead outtakes from a wiring harness are MUCH smaller than spark plug leads.

I tend to use .020" (.50mm) diameter wire for spark plugs, which leaves the smaller diameters (generally around .010" (.25mm) for single wires branching from any wiring harness I might add to the engine bay. To my rather untrained eye, these somewhat oversized wires don't overpower the rest of the details, but they do stand out a bit more under the hood, which I think gives at least the illusion of being in scale.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Art

I agree, Art - that's why I like the wrapping wire, which I believe is .030". To my eyes, even though the Detail Master stuff might be in scale, it just looks to small and lacks the right visual impact.

[cazxr2]

Thanks everybody for the help. I'm on the hunt now around the house and shed lol. I've just got to find pics of my engine so I know what I'm doing. It's from a 1967 mustang.

[LDO]

Thanks everybody for the help. I'm on the hunt now around the house and shed lol. I've just got to find pics of my engine so I know what I'm doing. It's from a 1967 mustang.

I've got a 1988 Mustang with a fuel-injected 5.0 in the driveway. If that will work for you, I can get pics later today.

Edited December 14, 2010 by LDO

[cazxr2]

I'm so do jealous I have a push bike in my drive lol. Yeah pics of that would be ace.

[mr moto]

I agree with the #30 wrapping wire for plug wires. It's available from Radio Shack but not in black. They have red, white and blue. I Googled #30 wrapping wire and found an electronics supplier on-line (don't remember who) that had it in black.

For other wires, plumbing, etc. there is a large variety of items in the jewelry section of Hobby Lobby, Michael's, etc. Just browse around there and get creative!

[Mark Brown]

I agree with the #30 wrapping wire for plug wires. It's available from Radio Shack but not in black. They have red, white and blue. I Googled #30 wrapping wire and found an electronics supplier on-line (don't remember who) that had it in black.

For other wires, plumbing, etc. there is a large variety of items in the jewelry section of Hobby Lobby, Michael's, etc. Just browse around there and get creative!

I found a source online, too - they had white, black, yellow, red and blue, IIRC. But I've lost my bookmark for it since then, unfortunately. It was pretty cheap and one spool would last a lifetime.

I definitely agree with your comment about Michael's and Hobby Lobby - spend a little time in the beading section and find all sorts of different size wire and braided line and other goodies.

[Danno]

I'm with Art and the others who use and recommend the 30ga single conductor 'wrapping wire' as sold at RadioShack. While it is only available retail in red, white and blue ... it can easily be colored by paint or permanent marker (such as a Sharpie) without losing its flexibility.

On the plus side, it is close to scale and flexible enough to shape but stiff enough to hold the shape you give it. A $6-7 package of three spools will last a modeler years! On the down side, it is getting harder to locate it in RadioShack's retail stores as many of them are trying to be consumer electronics retailers and wrapping wire is one of the electronics gadgetry items they are phasing out locally.

I also use it by stripping the insulation, then using the conductor (painted or colored) as a wire alone or using the empty insulation as tiny tubing, flexible fuel line, spark plug boots for smaller diameter wiring, etc.

I'd love to know the internet source of other colors, so if anyone can provide that, please do.

[Eric Stone]

I've got nothing to add on the wire recommendations, as I use the 30ga. wrapping wire too.

Here's an article featuring a smallblock Ford engine, with a strip of photos along the bottom that show the plug wires' locations on the heads, and how they're routed from the distributor. There may be detailed shots of the fuel lines too, but I didn't look that closely.

http://mustangmonthly.automotive.com/146796/mump-1011-ford-347-stroker-small-block-build-part-2/index.html (click the link, because it's displaying an abbreviated version so copy/paste won't work)

[bigphoto]

Hope this helps:

http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vintage-mustang-forum/592013-67-wiring-schematic.html

Scroll down a bit and there is a nice pic!

[brett]

In our local equivalent to radio shack I can get red,blue and black wrapping wire but not yellow go figure (and its $15 bucks a roll) but I digress. I'll show you two pics 1st up my second wiring job ever using telephone wire from about 6 years ago

and 2nd, wrapping wire done in the last couple of months

.

no way will I be going back to phone wire . Cant help with ford engine sorry

[Mark Brown]

I'd love to know the internet source of other colors, so if anyone can provide that, please do.

Here's where I got mine in the five different colors:

http://www.jonard.com/jonard-ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=WIRE/~product_id=11016

[Mark Brown]

Here's a couple of examples using the wrapping wire. As noted above, the stuff is really nice to work with. If the five colors available aren't sufficient, it's pretty easy to color the white wire with a Sharpie marker. Just keep the marker handy as most cements (like CA) will remove the coloring you added.

[Danno]

Here's where I got mine in the five different colors:

http://www.jonard.com/jonard-ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=WIRE/~product_id=11016

Excellent! Thanks, Mark. Greatly appreciated.

[cazxr2]

Cheers everybody for there help. Just away to order some wire asap check wip mustang soon for progress.

[LDO]

I wasn't able to get back in time for photos on Tuesday. It will likely be Saturday before I can be home during daylight hours. I work crazy hours at my job. Leave at 6:30 and if I'm lucky, get home at 7pm. They work us like slaves, but I did interview for a new job on Tuesday. I got the job, I just need to wait until the new year to start. I really feel like just quitting the job I have. The only reason I haven't is because the start date for the new job is not carved in stone. I wouldn't want to be unemployed for a whole month.