Heat Performance & Thermal Management
Why Heat Matters
- Ignition wires live in one of the harshest environments in a vehicle: just inches from red-hot exhaust manifolds, turbos, or headers.
- Heat cycling causes jacket hardening, micro-cracks, and eventually carbon-tracking (arcing down the outside of the wire instead of the plug gap).
- OEM EPDM wires often fail in 3–5 years under this stress. IndestructaWires were designed to eliminate heat as the weak link.
Stage One IndestructaWires
- Suppression Core (10 mm): Oversized dielectric mass slows heat soak and resists jacket collapse under clamp pressure.
- Low-Ohm Core (8.5 mm + sheath): Slimmer conductor but still armored to the diameter of a “10 mm” wire, giving nearly the same thermal buffer.
- Jacket Options:
• Braided fiberglass: ~1,200 °F continuous, ~2,048 °F melt point.
• Silicone-impregnated fiberglass: ~650 °F continuous, ~1,000 °F short exposure. - Boots: Silicone (~450 °F continuous) or ceramic (~2,000 °F+ localized).
Shielded IndestructaWires
- 8.5 mm ultra-low resistance conductor surrounded by multiple thermal defense layers: dielectric core, copper braid, and outer sheath.
- Copper Braid Advantage: acts as both EMI shield and thermal sink — spreading localized hot spots along a broader surface area, reducing jacket blistering.
- Sheathing Options: same fiberglass or silicone-glass jackets as Stage One, chosen per application.
- Boots: same silicone/ceramic selection.
Thermal Aging & Life Expectancy
- OEM EPDM: ~250–300 °F continuous → rapid aging, cracks in a few years.
- IndestructaWires (Stage One): built for 5–10+ years, even in high-heat bays.
- IndestructaWires (Shielded): 8–15+ years realistic service life, since the braid prevents localized “hot spots” from becoming jacket failures.
Real-World Scenarios
- Street builds with cast manifolds: Silicone boots + silicone-glass sheath = more than adequate.
- Headers within 1–2 inches of plugs: Ceramic boots + fiberglass braid = shrug off glowing tube temps.
- Turbo/downpipe proximity: Shielded set with ceramic boots = best defense against both EMI and radiant heat soak.
In Plain English
- Heat is what kills most plug wires. IndestructaWires are built from the ground up with jackets, boots, and reinforcements that tolerate 2–4× higher temperatures than OEM.
- Stage One = more than tough enough for headers and daily abuse.
- Shielded = same ruggedness, but with the braid acting like armor and a heat spreader — making them even less likely to fail from heat over time.