guys, i'm looking for a decent aftermarket coil. prefer a "can" style one, like a stock coil. i tried the accell super stock coil. first one, was dead right out of the box.

second one lasted about 100 miles, and then decided to leave me dead, on the side of the road. had the old coil with me (the stock 1989 coil that came with the truck) and it fired right up, and took me to the parts store, where i gave them back their garbage. again. i have a nice smallblock, E3 plugs, firecore wires, nos tan cap and rotor. whats a good "hot" coil, that might offer more than 100 miles of service?


look below, for a pile of garbage.

Sorry for your misfortune as it's no fun to be stranded. I'm running an FBO black coil and an MP .25 ohm race ballast in a DD 318 65 dart. Starts instantaneously. It "seemed" to have more power when I switched from a stock '83 electronic ign coil/65 dart single 2 terminal ballast but it was close enough that it could have just been my imagination wanting/expecting it to be hotter but it does start instantly & has not left me stranded. The new coil has .8 pri ohms and the original ballast had 1.6 ohms so I'm sure I gained something

I put an FBO chrome coil on my Superbird with their box. The positive lug snapped on the coil.

This had never happended to me especially with a nut driver.

I have had problems with EVERY purchase from FBO.
Not to mention the arrogance.

so, what did you use, when theirs fell apart on you?

I've had good luck with MSD coils

I ran a stock style coil on the TT440 for a while. When I upgraded to a big MSD coil I saw zero difference in performance.

I just went through this on my ignition system. When you go to an aftermarket coil with lower pri resistance...this will actually DROP the amount of voltage it gets with the stock ballast.

I blindy replaced my coil with the MSD Blaster II and ran it but never checked the voltage it was getting which was only ~4V! This ended up translating to only a consistant 10-15kV at the plugs when I tested it! I had my car dynoed like this and I wonder if it cost me any HP/TQ?

Either way when the resistaance across the coil is dropped (aftermarket) it is much less in comparison to the ballast resistance so the balalst will "take the lion's share" of the voltage! In my case with 14V on the ballast, it dropped 10V and left only 4V for the coil.

This means, when you go aftermarket, asjust the ballast accordingly. I went to the .8ohm ballast and now I'm getting 7-8V on the coil and it gives me 35-40kV+ at the plugs all day.

Oh yeah, unless specifically designed for it, don't connect the hi side of the coil directly to battery with no ballast resistor. That is one way to cook your coil fast!

What ignition system do you have? That will help figure out the correct coil/ ballast to use.
I ran that same Accel coil for many years with an MP chrome box. I still have it and ran it on the dyno with a couple different boxes. It worked slightly better than the MSD Blaster 2 up to around 5000 rpm on a street engine. Maybe they outsource them now and the quality is no longer there?
You could run a Blaster 2 or 3 and never notice the difference,on a 310 hp engine it was barely noticeable.
Keith

Get Napas best coil and it will be better than the "hi voltage coils" under 5K.

Yup, I concur with what everyone else says. I had a stock coil on my RamCharger over 200k and no issues.

Also get rid of those E3 spark plugs. Complete snake oil and is probably actually doing more harm then good.

If you are looking for a 12v coil, I ran the FBO 12v coil for a couple of years with no problem. It is now my backup. I am currently using the MSD High Vibration coil #8222. You can mount it in any direction.

MSD coil, paint it black, and it will look really close to oem. Im running a MSD SS coil on everything I own, and FWIW they bite HARD!!

right now it's just the stock setup, with some E3 plugs and firecore wires. i'm getting ready to toss the computer, and switch it to a "real" distributor and ignition system. prefer a stock looking coil, and bracket mount. painting i dont mind.

As already said...Get rid of the E3 plugs..they are garbage, and most likely the reason you are killing coils..

If you have set the target a little higher for your car you cannot just buy a "good" coil.
A coil which is "good" in one envirionment may very well be "bad" in another environment.
You have to look at the whole system, as was indicated in some earlier posts.
For example, you buy a "high performance" coil. These require by nature high current. If your system/box/distributor cannot supply the current needed, the spark from your "high performance", expensive coil will be weak, and you have wasted your money.

I've never heard if a spark plug killing a coil

The newer MSD Blaster 2 coils are junk!

The terminals are soft and break off/strip way too easily.

I was being careful and ruined my brand new one!

Went back with a cleaned up stock coil and no problems!