Coil Failure

[swwebb]

I have a MkIV with a 347 engine with an MSD 6AL ignition system and FAST EZ-EFI-2.0 fuel injection. I've had various EFI and "hiccup problems as detailed in my previous thread

https://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fac...x-failure.html

The FAST EZ-EFI-2.0 intermittently loses the idle settings - probably once a month for the past 2 years. At partial and full throttle it is fine, but when it loses the idle settings, being at a stop light is a PITA. I've also had "hiccups" in the past year or so where the engine seemed to stop running and then immediately start up again. Only lasted a second at most except for one time where it died for about 5 mins. Then it started up fine.

I've called FAST a number of times, and they always say something different. Not impressed with their support. I've tried things such as shielding the MSD wire to the coil and adding an MSD noise capacitor, but they didn't seem to help. For the "hiccups", some people said a bad ground. I've done some rewiring to hopefully reduce this possibility.

Well, last week, the car died and didn't start up. It was backfiring and sputtering and then nothing. My wife had to tow it home, which was only about 200 yards away luckily. Don't ask how I hooked up the tow strap. It made it home unharmed.

Had good fuel pressure but no spark. Checked the MSD box and it seemed fine. Finally replaced the coil and it fired up right away and has been running fine since!!

I know Bob Cowan had a problem with his coil and carries a spare per this old 2011 post

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/all-cobra-talk/112243-msd-blaster2-coil-failed-while-driving.html

So, my questions are

1. Do coils fail that often?
2. Should I carry a spare coil? Reasonably cheap, so that's what I plan to do.

Thanks.

[NAZ]

Yes coils fail. You don't mention what coil you have but if it's the MSD Blaster coil designed to work with your MSD 6AL it's an oil filed coil so be sure it is mounted vertical. Better to mount them on the firewall rather than the engine -- less vibration. Electrical components typically don't like vibration.

[brewha]

Initially when some ask me for help when their EFI is not running right and no codes are available from the ECM (no matter the make) I always go to the coil first. It’s easy to check and eliminates most of the dismantling we do to check problems that look to be fuel related. If the coil is good then I pull plugs looking for wet to determine which injector maybe be bad.
Many times it has been the coil or coil pack that has caused the EFI issue. I agree with Naz that the MSD coil needs to be vertical and not on the motor.

[Itchief]

You can get the MSD blaster coil that is epoxy filled and some folks have indicated that they hold up better to the vibration

My blaster coil failed and I replaced it with the epoxy filled blaster and it was bad out of the box I returned it for a replacement and I will see how long the replacement lasts

Good luck

Rick

[mike223]

You can get the MSD blaster coil that is epoxy filled and some folks have indicated that they hold up better to the vibration



+1

Get this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-8222

NOT this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-8202

[swwebb]

I have the MSD Blaster 3 coil. After I just replaced my coil with the same one, I saw the epoxy-filled coil. May get that one. The coil is mounted vertically on the front of the engine. Mounting it on the firewall would lead to a very long coil wire. I think I'll leave the coil where it is - very short coil wire - and carry a spare. BTW, the original coil failed at 7500 miles.

[John4337]

I have a blaster 2, no box, mounted vertically to the drivers F panel. 21,000 miles....I did have an issue early on that was thought to be a coil, but wasn’t, so have the replacement in the trunk as a spare just because I have it

John