Jacob's ignition frying dist cap!

[BobM46128]

I have a 1998 chevy express van with the vortec 5.7. The van forum's do not have the level of help you guys have, so I came here. Anyway, I put a jacob's ignition system on and did a tune up with cap/rotor wires and original-style platinum sparkplugs. Now the van has burn out the cap/rotor to the point that it stopped running and had to be towed.
My thinking now is that the platinum plugs are not working with the Jacob's. I did not really notice as much improvement when I installed the Jacob's on this van as I did on my old '92 van or my '88 c-1500 pickup or the 9c1 caprice that I also put this ignition on.
Does anyone out there know what sparkplug I can put in to replace the platinum ones I have now?

[dawnnewsome3]

1 What tip of wires are you using ? If the resistance is to great it could cause this type of problem. 2 If the plugs we're the problem they would just burn from wrong gap setting . Lost i would check the wear of the dist. itsself,too much play may be allowing too close contact with the cap and the extra spark is overheating it/ Just where i would start looking first.

[sub006]

For what it's worth, I ran a Jacobs Pro Street ignition and coil on my '90 Suburban 350 for over 200,000 miles, changing the Accel cap and rotor at 50,000 mile intervals. Generally good, reliable performance and mileage. Then I fried a rotor after only 17,000. Removed the unit within another 20,000 on advice of good professional troubleshooter. Guess they're only good for so long.

If you read your instructions, platinum plugs are definitely NOT RECOMMENDED with Jacobs ignitions! Cheapest Autolite standard-core plugs seem to work best as "sensors" for the adjustable spark.

[BobM46128]

Yeah, I read the instructions (for once!) and it said to not use platinum plugs. But I talked to Jacob's customer service and the guy there said that he thought that they would work OK. And I AM using just standard AC delco wires. That also may be the problem. I am planning on putting maybe some Jacob's wires on when I change the plugs. I kinda think the customer service guy at Jacob's was full of baloney!

[wedser]

Originally Posted by BobM46128

Yeah, I read the instructions (for once!) and it said to not use platinum plugs. But I talked to Jacob's customer service and the guy there said that he thought that they would work OK. And I AM using just standard AC delco wires. That also may be the problem. I am planning on putting maybe some Jacob's wires on when I change the plugs. I kinda think the customer service guy at Jacob's was full of baloney!

i can't really give you much advice on which specific plugs to use but if the instructions say not to use the platnium plugs, the engineers who designed the ignition system know what the system was designed to do, and the customer service guy while no dought trying to be helpful, probably did not design the system, and see if they say anything about the wires and a specific ohm reading or tolerance for the plug wires

[BobM46128]

I e-mailed Jacob's/Mr Gasket and they recommended Accel# 0574 copper plugs. I will get some and put a better set of wires on and see what happens.