I have seen several people using non-factory pretty colored plastic sheathing to cover their wires wraps. Looks great but is not really automotive quaility. The problem is it is cheap plastic and melts anywhere near heat. I even saw one car that used it and it dripped off the wire wrap and onto the manifold and started burning. Another car arrived to my house and the person was going to proudly show off his engine. The plastic sheathing had melted into a big mess. Sure hate to see a nicely done Fiero engine in which the wire sheathing started a fire that causes the lose the whole car. If you are going to try colored sheathing test it first. Put a piece near some heat in the engine and drive around for a day and see if it can take the heat. Do not put plastic sheathing wrap around the spark plug wires. I personally have not seen colored sheathing capable of being as close to the manifold as the factory stuff so be careful.

Skitime brings up a good point. A caravan of our club members was on our way home from the FOCOA show in Osage Beach last summer, when one of the cars (A yellow 88GT) pulled over on the shoulder of the Interstate. We didn't know what was happening until he came to a stop, and that was when we saw the smoke come rolling out of his engine louvers. He had put the decorative sheathing on his spark plug wires for the show. Unfortunately, he didn't get the high temperature sheathing. In the heat of the engine compartment, it caught fire. Luckily for him, the spark plug wires and harness burned through, causing the engine to die. We got the fire put out quickly, but he had to replace all the plug wires, part of the harness, the coil, all of his vacuum lines, and do a considerable amount of scrubbing to get the soot off of everything.

Check out Waytek Wire: www.waytekwire.com. They have four grades of corrugated loom, both slit and unslit, in 12 different diameters:

Black polyethylene (rated 200 degrees F)
Gray polyethylene (200 F, flame retardent)
Black nylon with gray stripe (300 F)
Green polypropylene (275 F, flame retardent)

Other grades and colors are available by special order. About the only down side is that since they are primarily an industrial supplier, the minimum purchase quantity is a full 100 foot length (about $20 to $25). Waytek has lots of other essential wiring stuff like GM/Delphi Weather-Pack and Metri-Pack connectors, dielectric grease, etc. Before you can order you need to get their free catalog, which you can request from the Waytek web site.

I hope this helps.

FIRE !!!!!!! Now we're talking about something I know about.......LOL. I was just thinking about it and the car I bought in Florida had that colored loom stuff all over the place. Very possibly the cause of the fire that burned it up. I remember a smell and thinking it was prob coolant, since It had been overheating, but it could easily have been these wire looms. Well, I for one, will stay away from them for good. Just in case.........LOL.

Phil

I thought I'd go right to the source.

Here an email response from Taylor, the manufacturer of my colored loom.

If they're smart they'll start putting that warning on the bags.

The plastic convoluted tubing has no heat rating because it has a very low melting point and is not designed for heat protection, but merely to tidy up loose wires for better appearance. These should not be used close to a significant heat source.

Thank you for choosing Taylor,

Taylor Cable Products, Inc.
Customer Service Representative
800-821-3600
info@taylorvertex.com

I bought some stuff from Summitracing.com. It is made by taylor. I was held up so far. However, I have not put it on the wires yet. It has only been on for about a month, but it did last through some drag racing. The engine comp. gets pretty hot while you are sitting in the staging lanes. I will let you know how it turns out. On the bright, the stuff I got from taylor was the least expensive, it beat the price of the stuff on ebay and locally. Taylor is a well known brand and I think that it is good quaility. I will let you all know how it holds up.

YES YES YES
most of them colored looms are for decorative use only! Use only in low temp areas! The cheap stuff at the stores gets brittle real quick also.

Thanks ski ok so were can i get red loom stuff that is hi temp because i dont want to burn up my car

j Sokol