lavamadness

I was told by my mechanic that my ignition coil was on its way out. I was wondering if it was worth upgrading to better coil (like MSD Blaster) or just stick with a stock replacement? Would a higher performance coil fry anything if it is the only thing I replace?

I don't have any mods at the moment, and not planning any for the next year or so. So I don't expect it to do much for me, but if the price difference isn't too much, and if it won't hurt anything to have it, and if it's something that would be bennificial to have when I do eventually start upgrading the engine (a lot of ifs huh?), then I may as well get it now right?

IROCZ88x

it will be fine but while ur at it u might as well replace the cap, rotor, wires, and sparkplugs, this isnt gonna cost much at all and it is stuff u have to do every now and then anyways...msd, accel, crane and other coils are good and run about 40 bucks or even less and takes about 5 minutes to put in (although im not sure if ur coil is in the cap or not which either way is easy) to answer ur question u might as well get a perfromance coil...

vwdave

I would get it for the hell of it.

Bort62

Well Considering the MSD Blaster II coil is about 15-20$ LESS than the stock Coil, thats a No-Brainer.

Nasty_Bird_'90

I recommend the Performance Distributo's Demon coil. More output than the MSD and about the same price. You can check out performancedistributors.com to see it. I recommend doing cap, rotor, wires plugs and an aftermarket ignition module while you're at it. Just about any aftermarket coil will pull too much power and cause problems with the ignition module. The MSD, ACCEL and Perf. Distributors all work fine. Do all those things and you'll be set for a while!

lavamadness

Right now, I'm short of funds. Just recently got the car painted and have been spending most of my money in that department.

So I don't want to have to get a new ignition module. If a high performance coil will fry my stock module... then I'll have to go for a stock coil for now. So is that the case?

As for cap, rotor, wires, and plugs.. they are all fairly new.

So can I just get the coil on its own? Or will I end up doing more harm than good?

lavamadness

Also thanks for the coil recommendation. Are there any that are preferred most? Or does it come down to personal preference for the most part? Any bands I should avoid like the plague?

Nasty_Bird_'90

They're all about the same ultimately. But I will tell you something, I put an MSD on my car with the stock Ign. module and it would idle fine, but would stumle and backfire at anything over 1500 RPM. I would personally not waste my time buying a stock one if you are going to buy an aftermarket one anyway. I'm not saying anything bad about MSD, b/c once the Ign. module was replaced it ran fine. HTH

Bort62

You will have No problems with the MSD coil and otherwise stock ignition.

Nasty_Bird_'90

I did, so did 3 buddy's of mine. Other people have no problems. Try it if you want. I'd do it right

Bort62

Okay let me rephrase -

If you have a currently worn out stock ignition system, Then yes putting a aftermarket coil on it is not going to magically make it work better and it may even aggrevate some of the existing problems.

If you have a stock ignition system that doesnt cosist of burnt plug wires, fouled plugs, wasted Module and a cracked pickup coil - In other words a Stock ignition system in good working order - You won't have any problems.

So yeah, Do it right.

Bort62

Oh yeah, Im using a MSD Coil with a Module I pulled out of a Junkyard - Seems to be working fine.

383 rocket bird

I have the Crane hi 6 coil and have had no problems with my stock ignition system.

lavamadness

Thanks for the help. I'm going to pick up and MSD coil this weekend and put it in.

Ed Maher

Ignition coils generally do not show signs of 'being on the way out'. More like, one day, you simply just don't have spark. Once it internally shorts, or breaks, it's over, no more high voltage. Unless the short just happened to happen so that it only byoassed a minimal section of coil. I.E. extremely rare best case failure scenario.
Just wondering what your mechanic did to verify a bad coil. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he just pulled it out of his *** as an excuse.

On a side note, i have over 100k miles between several daily driven vehicles that used aftermarket coils with stock ignitions. Never had one cause a failure. Also, there is no way i would remove a functioning original delco module and replace it with ANY aftermarket piece. Unless of course you want to risk your ultimate reliability. If your original module fails,'upgrade' if you like. But in general, the stock module is as reliable and long lasting as you'll find.

lavamadness

I took it in to the dealer to have them try to find the cause of my bad gas mileage and sluggishness.

He said there was corrosion around the coil and said he could hear it arcing inside. He said that it seemed to be working fine and probably wasn't the cause of my problems, but said it "was on it's way out", and would probably need to be replaced in the not so distant future.