i just finished putting my engine back together with the vortec heads and edelbrock performer rpm intake. the stock coil mounting location no longer exists and i need to mount it somewhere else. can i mount it on the firewall sideways? and i tried starting the car with the coil just sitting there but it wouldn't fire does it need to be mounted for the engine to run?

 

No, there isn't any path to ground through the case. Sounds like you've got something else going on.

 

Yea five7kid is right, something else is going on.

I have my coil sitting unmounted in a nice little
corner, unable to move.. Car starts everytime
and has no problems.

Sounds like a possible ground issue, or faulty
wiring at the coil terminal connectors.

I had a simliar problem, car wouldnt start.
I move the coil and jiggle the connectors,
tried to start.. it fired back up again!

Turned out to be a loose wire near the
connector boot that was replaced easily.

 

i'm going to recheck all of the plug wires and make sure they're all in order, and then go over all of the connections and make sure they're tight. hopefully it'll fire up then. any ideas on where to mount the coil though?

 

You can mount those little stock-type coils in any position. They're not oil-filled like the old canister coils of yesteryear. A bracket hanging off the bottom lip of the cowl area is one I've done myself a few times.

Agreed, grounding the body of the coil is not necessary (although it couldn't hurt). When I'm testing/futzing around with different coils they often just get laid temporarily on top of whatever is handy for a few runs and I can't say I've had any problems doing that.