Can an ECU burn out a coil or is it vice versa?

Long story short.... Cruising along the '69 decided to sputter & stall out....crank no start on the side of the road.

Checked the obvious wiring etc & all looked good. Unplugged my FBO ign module & plugged in my spare orange box with a ground lead....car fired right up.

Swapped in the orange box permanently on the side of the road....no start again! This time I swapped in a spare coil....car fired right up with spare coil & module.

For shitz & giggglez & re-swapped back in the FBO module on the side of the road & nothing...crank no start.

Get the car home for more diag work. Now I swapped back in the FBO coil....starts no problem now.
Swapped in the FBO ECU...no start.

So now my dilemma....whats up with the coils? When I got home after the ordeal the Mopar resto coil was really hot....I am running the MSD ballast that FBO provides with their kit....need to go back to a "stock" ballast to keep "stock" coil cool?

Yes a given ECU type can only switch so much pri current which as you know is the coil/ballast resistances in series (added together) plus a given coil type can only handle so much current from a particular ballast. Sounds like the FBO ECU went bad & yes the FBO ballast will prob flow too much for the OE coil. Use your MP ballast w the MP coil but post your ohm amts as you do have some leeway

Ok thanks....

I did swap back in my old setup I was running...Chrome box, resto coil & stock ballast which was .6 ohms

The MSD unit that comes with the FBO kit was .8-.9 ohms

Also measured resistance on the coils...from the center tower to either post I got 10.xx ohms out of the FBO coil & 12.xx ohms from the resto coil. Not really sure how to test a coil though....

I have been having the same problem with the FBO box and coil. My car just starts to spudder and dies when hot and I also have the MSD ballast res. Seems like when the box is hot it wont work at all. My car will not re-start when hot and acts like is flooded if it does start. I was going to re-mount the box to a cooler area inside the car or just replace it with a crane HI6 system I have from another car. I did replace the pick up in the dist and that seemed to fix the prob for a while but the problem is back now that the weather is warmer.

my ECU is terminated....just crapped out like a switch was flipped....no longer works hot or cold

I was running a MP chrome ECU, Accel 8145 coil and 1.2ohm ballast, never had a failure.

I decided to try the FBO 688 ignition for a possible performance gain. I lost 2 ballast the first 150 miles, 50 miles later the FBO ECU went, replaced it with the original MP chrome, 50 miles later I lost another ballast, then 50 miles after that my original MP chrome. Only thing left was the FBO coil. Thinking the FBO coil was the problem, I changed it for the Accel 8145 along with another MP chrome, everythings been good for the last 20,000+ miles.

My FBO box died and then the coil shortly after last summer. It was trouble free for about 5 years so I can't complain. Though the FBO supplied MSD ballast lasted about 2 days I remember.

I'm now running a resto coil and orange box that seems to run just as good or better.

A bad or shorted coil can definetly take out and ECU. Ron

not my fault

Quote:

---

not my fault

---

LOL Yes it is!!!