Hot Rods Quick and easy early Chrysler Hemi question

I'm having a Hemi built for my Model A coupe. It'll have chromed FirePower valve covers on it. I was looking at the Hemi photo thread and I can't decide if I want the ignition wire openings in the valve covers to have the rubber plugs in the openings or if I want them to be open. What are those rubber plugs that the wires pass through called and where do you get them? I'm guessing they're not made for the early Hemi but rather for the later 426 Hemi and adapted to the early Hemi's?
Also, never having owned a Hemi of any type, I have no idea on this either: do the ignition wires have some sort of hard plastic ends at the plug end that extend toward the valve cover surface that help attach the wire to the plug, or do they just have regular plug ends on them? If that's the case, are they tricky to get the plug end of the wires attached to the plug?

 

My 54 New Yorker had long maybe bakelite ends on the plug wires. That allowed you to attach the wires to the plugs that are way down in the tubes. If I remember right, you weren't supposed to use washers on the spark plugs.

 

Most of us use wheel cylinder rubber boot caps to hold the wire centered in the plug tube. It keeps dirt and junk from getting down inside the tube as well as preventing the wire from wearing against the tube and shorting to the tube. In stock form there is and actual clip that holds the wire in place as they all bunch together under the stock top cover and are kind of self supporting. I wouldn't run without them specially on a hoodless Hot Rod.

 

This is my solution. I get these rubber covers at the junk yard. they come from Toyota 4-bangers. There are two types, you need the ones with an "R" on he lip. Use a razor to cut off the outer lip. I use these Accel silicone wirers that reach the plugs.

The factory use either white porcelain tubes or Bakelite tube to reach the plugs. Expensive if you can find them and old-tech.



Also I form a wide lip on the tubes so they will seal without the wire covers using this wood fixture.

 

I use these spark plug tube covers.: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tay-44300

I like these wires. They have the long, hard plastic boots that you can push down over the plug from the top of the spark plug tube : https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tay-75089

 

Originally the spark plugs were surrounded by aluminum tubes. The spark plugs were put in without washers, the aluminum tube made the washer and there was a rubber seal at the top. Early slant sixes used a similar arrangement.

Then there was a white ceramic end on the plug wire that reached nearly to the top of the tube. On top there was a long steel cover that contained all the spark plug wires and was held down by 4 screws.

 

They also made them with steel tubes. those in my post above are steel.

 

I’ll never have a Hemi, but have seen you post about this before.
Good work!

 

I'll mention that 1950s wires are not what you buy today, so the pull to remove and push to install is going to be rougher than modern suppression wire is built for. That's why having something like what @willys36 shows is important over time.

 

Some good info here. As mentioned just pulling on the wire to remove can give you a headache. I built a Hook if you want to call it that to go down under the plug boot and lift it off. No more metal clip left on the plugs.

 

I just use 1 1/8” wheel cylinder cups, punch a hole for the wire with a leather punch and install them cup down. They work fine but I can see that there are plenty of foreign cars in the wrecking yards that might have something useful that might look better.

 

“I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need“

 

That's my engine! Has Marine valve covers now. A few months ago I traded the small valve '52 331 heads for big valve 354 truck heads. While I was at it, I added the Marine covers with the adjustable rocker arm bumps. It's all for show!!

 

Here is the porcelain insulator tube. I had these on my '52 331 hemi. Work on plain small plug wires. Don't think the modern fat, fancy silicone wires will fit.


Here is the Bakelite plastic type tube. The '54 331 I just built came with these. Again, likely too skinny to fit modern fat wires.


These are late model 426 wires. Available many places. Definitely work on early engines but a bit $$$$$$ compared to the DIY systems described above.

 

I used the 426 Hemi rubber boots on my '52 331 with '54 heads and intake.

Dave