performance ignition coils

has anybody installed ignition coils? If so, did you feel any gain in power or throttle responce?

thanks,
matt

no one

Search a bit, it's been tried. No gains at all, stick with OEM

None at all, and as a matter of fact, they failed on me in less than 35k miles. I only bought them because they were on sale and comparable in price to stock...not for any performance gain. You won't feel a thing.

DON'T get performance ignition coils! Do NOT!!! Especially if they are from BAVauto. I think every single person I've heard who bought these has problems or lost performance due to poor quality.

OEM are close to flawless. The 2002+ ignition coils I would say are flawless, because they never fail, can provide consistent sparks way beyond the RPM range of our engines, are super compact, don't get hot, and best of all are cheap, even from the dealer. The earlier coils are more expensive and had a recall for a few specific production months, but also have not a single problem with them.

Spend modding money elsewhere.

I have been working on using a 16V 5.5A step-up box tied into the power supply for the ignition coils. I have upgraded mine to the newer style Bosch "pencil style" coils, these are not the horrible ones that have been failing those were Bremi. But apparently power can be made by upping the voltage to the coils, widening the spark plug gap to .040"-.050" and actually retarding the timing a couple of degrees. The voltage step-up box can be found on Speedway motors website.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/175-VO...-MSD,3844.html
I still have to check the actual amperage draw of the ignition circuit so I don't know if this will work yet. But I will make a post after I get a working setup going.

man...i just wish i could spark bigger man....gots to have me sum betta coils

Originally Posted by F1004fun

I have been working on using a 16V 5.5A step-up box tied into the power supply for the ignition coils. I have upgraded mine to the newer style Bosch "pencil style" coils, these are not the horrible ones that have been failing those were Bremi. But apparently power can be made by upping the voltage to the coils, widening the spark plug gap to .040"-.050" and actually retarding the timing a couple of degrees. The voltage step-up box can be found on Speedway motors website.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/175-VO...-MSD,3844.html
I still have to check the actual amperage draw of the ignition circuit so I don't know if this will work yet. But I will make a post after I get a working setup going.

FYI, I'm running 2 steps colder plugs with them gapped at 0.045 on stock coils. No problems.

Probably the biggest issue with manipulating the coil signals is that the DME monitors this signal and uses it to help determine misfires. It is part of the logic function that helps advance timing to the limits of the fuel being used. Sticking aftermarket coils, or other devices in the signal chain is like building a brick wall for the DME to operate behind. The World Challenge guys seek 1 hp gains at costs most of us couldn't stomach, yet they run OEM coils on both the M54 and N52 engines. The big difference there though, is that they drive the coils with a Motec CDI8. (And M600 or M880 Stand alone)

The Moristech Piggyback that I'm using does not sit between the ignition coils and the DME, but manipulates the crank position sensor signal to vary timing.

Sounds like an interesting project, but as I'm sure you know, it's very difficult to prove 1 or 2 hp gains with a chassis dyno. Hopefully a before and after dyno will show better gains than that to reward your work.

Best of luck!

I have measured a lot of different spark plugs and found that the NGK BKR6EK have the lowest internal resistance of about 1.7k ohms, most of the other plugs I checked measure 5k-5.5k ohms. I run a BKR6EK with a gap of about .060", by opening up the gap you effectively raise the arc-over voltage, from there a lower resistance plugs allows for more amperage flow, but for a shorter duration. So to increase the spark duration at a given amperage flow and arc-over voltage you need to increase coil saturation, and to do that with only a well designed stock coil at your disposal you need to increase the voltage to them.
I see cars come into the shop a lot with whacked out alternators running at a pegged 16+ volts, and they run just fine. So I am just going to splice into the power supply to the coils and increase the voltage to a steady 16.5 volts.
As far as the DME sensor wire, it uses this to change to dwell time to the coils and for misfire detection, it uses the knock sensors for timing advance. This wire doesn't get messed with anyway it's on the ground side of the secondary windings of the coils. You can tweak the signal a little if you want. but that is another subject.

Try Splitfire Ignition Coils. It increases more power in FI. I do not know the feedback from NA.