As my 97 5.2 V-8 Grand Cherokee was approaching 60K miles, I know I was going to need to replace a lot of the ignition components as part of the required routine maintanence. One of my fellow club members, Andrew, had gone all the way to a performance ignition system from Jacobs, but I wasn't prepared to go that extreme. So, as always, when I'm looking for Jeep parts and advice, I go to Nick (aka Kolak) from Multitronics.

Nick has put together a combination of ignition components that he has personal experience with and feels perform well together. Well, I purchased one of these "Kolak" Ignition Upgrades for my ZJ. The kit includes Magnecor KV85 Competition Plug Wires, an Accel high output replacement coil, Autolite platinum spark plugs (one heat range cooler than stock to help with pinging) and a Niehoff brass distributor cap and rotor.

I have since purchased one of these kits for my 94 Wrangler YJ.

Installation:

The first step that I did was to gap the new plugs. Nick recommended that they should be gapped 0.05" more than stock. Early ZJ's had a 0.035" gap so the new plugs should be gapped at 0.040". My 97's gap should be 0.040" with stock components (according to the tag under the hood), so I went to a 0.045" gap. I then screwed on the plug terminal and the metal gasket.

I then popped the hood and disconnected the battery.

Once that was done, I went about labelling the plug wires at the distributo. Once that was done, I pulled all 9 wires (8 plugs and the coil) and began the process to remove the two screw holding on the distributor cap. I had to use a Swiss Army knife screw driver in order for it to fit under the cowl. My Haynes manual mentioned having to disconnect some things in order to pull out the cap, but I was able to remove it easily from the driver's side of the engine.

Once the old cap is removed, pull the rotor off. It's a pressed on fit, so simply pull it straight off.

I then took some silicone dielectric grease and put a small dab of it on all of the contacts inside the cap and onto the rotor tip. I then put the new rotor onto the distributor. (It's keyed so it will only go on one way.)

Next, I put the new cap back on making sure it was orientated in the same way as the original. (The terminal with the "1" marked on it should be on the front half of the cap.

Next, I cut the zip ties bundling the spark plug wires together in various spots.

I then removed one wire at a time (pulling from the boot) and then removed the spark plug. This is a good time to check your plugs to make sure your engine is running okay. The Haynes manual has a good page showing various spark plugs and what a good one should look like.

I then put one of the new platinum plugs in and torqued it to 25 ft-lbs. Once the plug was in, I pulled the wire from the clips and compared the original wire to the Magnecor wires in order to make sure you pick the correct length wire. Once the correct wire is found, connect the wire to the plug and to the correct terminal on the cap insuring a "click" is heard when the plug wire is pushed down onto the plug. (It's also good practice to put some of the silicone dielectric grease into the wire boots so that they will come off easier down the road...)

Once that is done, put the wire back into the same position in the clips as the original wire.

Do this for all 8 spark plugs and try not to cut yourself on the manifold heat shields.

The last step is to replace the coil. I had a right angle screw driver, but I couldn't get enough force on it to remove the coil screws, so I was forced to remove the battery to make more room. Once that is done, you simply pop off the wire harness coming out the bottom of the coil and pull off the wire coming out of the top of the coil. Replace with the new coil. (It's the yellow thingy next to the idler pulley!)

Next, replace the coil wire with the new Magnecor wire and again, route the wire the same way as it was stock.

Finally, I used some Zip ties to insure the newer, thicker wires stayed where they should and I then replaced the battery.

First Impressions:

This thing idles much more smoothly and starts absolutely immediately. Throttle response is also greatly improved. I'm going to drive it for a few weeks and see if my average fuel economy goes up or if I truly notice more power. (My current routine produces an average fuel economy of ~15 mpg.)

So far, it's a nice upgrade considering the components needed to be replaced anyway!

Results:

My fuel economy has been up by about 1 MPG on my ZJ and I am still enjoying the greater throttle response. I have also just installed the same kit on my YJ and I immediately noticed a quick start, smooth idle and great throttle response. It just wants to rev!!!