BHR Ignition Kit Impressions
 

Well, I've gone through the first few tanks since the ignition swap. The biggest story thus far is mileage. I've had a couple of "city only" tanks, that have had close to zero highway miles on them. I'm averaging 18.3 city now. I was honestly getting below 15 before, averaging around 14.3 on city-only tanks. Keep in mind, these are tanks that have absolutely NO highway miles, thus the lower numbers. I've only had 1 tank since the swap that was primarily highway (6th gear, cruise on 84 mph, with a few bursts here and there), probably about a 90/10 split. That came out 26.1 mpg.

So, mileage comparison:

Before: 14.3/21.2
After: 18.3/26.1

Pretty decent improvement there, if you ask me. No other changes were made, nor were driving habits altered in any way. I'm pretty diligent about documenting mileage, so the "before" numbers are measured from when I know I had 4 good coils. Or at least, 4 functioning coils. There's also a small power increase (verified on dyno, and an improvement in top end smoothness (from 7-7500+ in my car prior, it kind of felt like it was running out of breath. Not the case now). It was also nice that I filled up yesterday for under $30.

So better economy, more power, hopefully more durability, and an easy install rates this as an A in my mod list. Even for us NA folks, there is enough of an improvement where I would recommend. Naturally, everyone's mileage and power results may vary.

holy smokes, those are awesome mpg figures. I need to stop redlining so much from stop light to stop light. :(
dyno figurs you say???

I was waiting for a thread from people who have this kit! This is very good news. I would like to see some results of how well it runs with people who also have a MM AP. Sucks for me because I think I am # 4,548,291 on the list for the kit. Keep us posted.

Since I haven't scanned the dyno sheet, and now can't locate since the wife cleaned house, I didn't want to post numbers. I'll call the shop and see if he can email me a new one. Curve is identical to my last curve (run when testing the AP last March). Just peaks slightly higher now. I'm pretty pleased, though. AP +Ignition has added 18hp and about 5 lb-ft to the car. Ignition accounts for 8 hp and less than 1 ft-lb peak overall. Unfortunately, I can only speak to peak numbers, without having the charts to overlay. Ignition and AP are the only engine mods made to the car. Stock airbox/cat/exhaust/etc. I plan on playing around with a few things over winter, and making another run on the dyno come springtime. So far, my car has seen the dyno 3 times and has gone from a stock baseline of 171, to 181 with the AP, and 189 with Ap+Ignition. Different ambient conditions when the last dyno was run, probably about 20 degrees warmer, but all other conditions (baro, humidity) roughly the same.

I'm not guaranteeing anyone will see the same results at all. These are just the numbers for my own car. I'm most impressed with the increased economy.

Quick edit: My AP is running the stock Cobb Stage 1 map, I don't have any MM maps as I received my unit from Cobb.

I have the mazsport kit because it came out first and I to had soem improvement in MPG. I would prefer the BHR kit because it is more straight forward, the mazsprt requires some slight modification. I think both should preform almost identical, stronger spark equals more power and MPG.

Now as far as the results shown by the OP, I find those hard to believe. He is showing an almost 30% increase in MPG for intown driving and 20% for highway. If those are legit then he had some weak coils and or fauled plugs. Not to mention the first set of numbers for the intown driving seem a little lower then stock and the post coil swap numbers seem a little high.

I think the coil upgrade is a great modification but I would not expect anyone to see anywhere close to a 20% increase in MPG. 5% tops.

I can post Excel spreadsheets if you like, but anyone can claim they're fudged. I can only document what I have personally seen. Whether or not it's believed, I don't care. Just wanted to share what I have seen with my car. Prior to the coil upgrade, I had seen anywhere from 12.9 (yuck) to 15.5. The cumulative average in the year I've owned the car has come to 14.3 for city mileage. Who knows, maybe I've received bad gas. When in town (which is 95% of the time) I've always filled at the same station. The highway mileage, I've only taken 3 road trips in the car, each required at least two tanks of gas. The 21.2 figure comes from a round trip to KC from Denver, which was prior to the coils. So that was the average over 6 tanks (may have been 7). The 26.1 is over a trip that required 4 tanks of gas. The 18.3 is figured over 2 tanks of city driving.

So, I'll report back a year from now (since that's the historical baseline data I have) and see if I still have roughly the same results. Honestly, I have no reason to mislead anyone. My previous coils and plugs were replaced under warranty at 23,778 miles. I currently just hit 40,450, and have had the new coils on for 1692 miles. So my oil coils/plugs had 14,980 miles on them. When I swapped the plugs, they didn't look bad, but figured I may as well swap them while I was messing around with the ignition. Could the coils have been weak? Sure. I still have them, so I can test them and see.

Edit: That's why I don't like posting results/impressions on this forum as they're immediately doubted. Note that I DID say these were only the results for MY personal car, and that results may vary.

^^^ Nice man , good to know you got such an improvement. Hopefully i will see a dramatic change in mpg , but mainly want the ignition upgrade once i go turbo. But meanwhile my car is N/A , the better fuel economy is never a bad thing :).

sounds great

It seems the opposite for me. My gas mileage went down. Before I was averaging between 185-200 on a gas tank, from a full tank until the fuel light came on. Now I average less then 170. At first I thought I had a heavier foot since it seemed there was a little more oopmh at higher rpms, but that feeling quickly went away and gas mileage remained the same. I went through several gas tanks since swapping the coils and same results. I still have my old coils so I'll probably switch for a little just to see if there really is a difference or if something else is contributing to the poor fuel economy, however I dont have my old plug wires anymore. Anyone want to send me a set when you switch to bhr coils?

clear the ecu, it'll make the car relearn the fuel trims.

What plugs are you using and did you change brands when swapped out?

Macius doesn't have the complete BHR kit?

can't comment either way with mine... after the install my high flow cat officially shit the bed and then the weather got really cold so my gas mileage is going down like normal with the longer time to warm up

-shrug-

no pics?

i have seen it in person on huzer's car. it looks awesome

Thanks Huzer21 for that nice write up. If there is anything BHR can do for you please don't hesitate to ask.

We're here for our customers.:eyetwitch

I do have the complete kit. I replaced the pugs as well from ngk

that's odd..could be something else

to the original poster (Huzer21), thank you for sharing your experiences and data. i'll be looking for more of these threads about the BHR ignition because whenever i fix my car and can expect the stock coils to crap out again, that's what i plan to replace it with.

i'll be most interested in seeing what time shows about the BHR parts when compared to the stock fare.

I have the mazsport coils and i am curious about these... I get around 16 MPG in city but i dont drive conservative.. i drive like i stole my car....

my highway mileage the best ive gotten was only 24.9 MPG which is decent compared to when i was stock 21.2 MPG.. i have to get my data logs to jeff.. i let jon at ptp look at the 4th gear cruise speed of the log i did and he said the car is running rich and that there was no need to. soo im hoping once jeff hooks me up with a newer map i can achieve slightly better highway gas mileage.

how do these differ than the mazsport ones? i mean i have nothing but great things to say about mazsport coild except the long wait.

Id love to see some pictures of these bad boys!!!

Keep up the good work BHR! and that turbo kit.. if you ever get to it.. id like to place a order once the wait has come down hahah here in a two months or so...

for sure.

Well, here is one quick pic...one prior to install. Granted I'm not the best at high quality photos. Haha. I'll be getting back in there tonight, as I received the new and improved plug wires this weekend. I'll snap some updated pics then.

I know Juice has MUCH better pics in the "offerings" thread.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...iF1/coils1.jpg

Those look awfully familiar to me. I've seen them somewhere before.

Let us know how the install goes. And thanks for posting a pic.

sweet pic. thx for sharing.

ah I want this! and some new plugs too...

Install is said and done (back in October). Tonight will just be swapping the plug wires out with the new. I'll snap a cleaned up shot tonight. Here's an "in progress" install pic from October:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...iF1/coils5.jpg

cant wait for mine to show up at the mail room.

You can count me as a +1 for satisified customers with this kit.

Installed mine today, here are my impressions,points whatever:

- install was pretty easy, hardest part was getting to the plugs and fitting the new coils, both Mazda's fault, not BHR's.

- instructions easy to follow

My car was exhibiting some symptoms prior to the install that are now no longer present, it runs much better post upgrade. Prior to today I had problems under acceleration, idle was garbage, from time to time I'd experience sputtering or lack of power etc. I was probably overdue for plugs, but I don't think replacing just the plugs would have fixed a lot of what I was seeing beforehand. When I first fired up the car after installing everything I did have some problems and it actually died on me, so what I did was reset the computer using the trip button/brake pedal method and after doing so it seemed okay, I think the computer got wacked out initially. I might recommend possibly disconnecting the battery before installing everything, and then reconnectiing once you're done but maybe I'm an isolated case. (?) Whatever the case, car is definitely pulling a tad harder and running much smoother and I'd recommend this upgrade to anyone considering it, for what you pay you cannot find a better solution out there in my opinion so kudos to the BHR posse and everyone who developed this as it's awesome. :D:

It has been a long wait.
I think I am one of the 19 kits being sent out.
I might offer the kit to my neigbour as he need it more that me and order another one. As long as I get it before the spring driving events I will be happy.

Great writeups from everyone! It's great to see people are really happy with this kit.

I don't remeber how long ago I sent you a PM to add my to the list but it was worth the wait IMO.

I wish I could do a review of these coils myself but since my turbo is leaking oil I wont get the chance.

I will say it was worth the wait for me, my car is the 4 port auto and between replacing the plugs and having stronger coils it has regained the fun factor for me, I'd pondered trading it as it was running like crap but after last night I'm totally stoked on my car again. I purposely put off new plugs and oem wires/coils just so that when I did go to replace everything I would have something better, and after yesterday and last night's drive home I couldn't stop thinking to myself that it was money well spent and definitely worth the wait.
I did notice one more thing yesterday that was annoying, again I don't blame the kit but awkward engineering (thanks Mazda!), the 10mm bolts that mount the kit are ridiculously hard to get too, are other people just using a "wobble" to get at them or? I ended up tightening by hand and then trying to squeeze the smallest bit I could find in there but I swear that probably added about an extra 30-45 minutes to something that could easily be done in about 1-2 hours.

It's nice to here this kind of feedback form our friends who have bought the kit. We're trying to get them out as fast as possible. But as the suppliers of the parts don't always come through in a timely fashion, extra time is unavoidable sometimes. Just try and be patient people. :eyetwitch

As for the install I would recommend a 10mm socket on a swivel on a 6 inch extension. 1/4 inch drive works the best.

The wait was a bit long for those of us in the first batch but you have to take under consideration that BHR was at the mercy of the parts suppliers. It wasn't his/their fault. Was the wait worth it for me? HELL YEAH! The customers should be receiving the coils a lot quicker now that they have the parts in hand.:)

My biggest gripe with the Mazsport kit (apart from the latter noise about it) was that it seemingly used some non-standard parts. Is it the same with this kit, if something breaks, am I dependant on BHR to get it fixed? That's a dealbreaker overseas :) I don't think I've got any ignition issues yet, but it would be a nice kit to get if I wanted to have something "ready".

what could break? if a coil dies, just order another yukon coil

I'm pretty sure mine are on the way... at least the check cleared :)

To be honest neXib, there are lots of RX8 products that are vendor specific and use specialized parts so BHR's kit isn't alone in that respect. The brackets are very durable and have survived harsh testing. We ran this kit in it's development phase during 2 Phoenix track events when it was 105 degrees outside and probably over 140 degrees on the track.

The coils are GM Yukon coils and can be purchased from various sources. The advantage BHR gives you is we have been able to obtain them at a great price and pass that savings onto you.

Bottom line is the kit comes with a lifetime warranty through BHR and utilizes all stock connectors. If you are seriously worried about replacements I'd suggest keeping your OEM coils and plug wires should something happen.

We're more than capable of handling international shipping to get replacement parts to you. In fact, if you do manage to break the kit we'd love it if you could let us know how you did it.

geez... how the hell anyone could complain about a lifetime warranty on coils for an RX8 is completely fuggin' beyond me.

Can't wait until I need these.

I wonder if this raises temperatures in the cat?

There's in fact a world outside the part of the map that says America. If I bought the BHR coils and they were to fail (even if it was highly unlikely), I may have wanted to see if I could get a replacement coil before they could ship it to me if I needed the car. Excuse me for asking since it obviously was a huge load to you :P

Flashwing: Yeah that's reasonable, thanks for answering.

neXib we're going to receive some kits soon in italy, if you want any direct info just ask.
Knowing how BHR deals with his customers and how they build their products i feel inclined to say that you don't have to worry. I would actually rely more on their coils than the stock ones, it's one of the few cases where an aftermarket part exceeds oem standards.

Either way, I would encourage anyone who is worried to simply hold onto your OEM parts. However, I have no doubt should a failure occur that we'd be able to get replacement parts to you quickly.

If I have to take the coils out of my own car to send them out I would.

Forgive me, allow me to reiterate from a global perspective :) :

how in the world anyone could complain about a lifetime warranty on coils for an RX8 is completely fuggin' beyond me.

Same here, and i live much closer :)
It is a pleasure to help a mate in need.

If coil failure is a concern of yours, order an extra one. The price (at least here) should be similar to a OEM Mazda part.

The attitude of some people in here is unbelievable. Is it so unlikely that I wouldn't be able to get a replacement from BHR? What if they took the Mazsport route and disappeared? I was only wondering if I could get a coil from another place in that case and didn't have to junk the entire kit and go back to stock.

I got a very good answer from a couple of people, and have no concerns anymore. Might still order the kit later, no thanks to some peoples attitude here (luckily none involved with BHR). I apologize for stupid questions, but that's the only way to learn, and I want to learn everything about everything I care about :)

That is a possibility with ANY company.
But here at BHR we're in it for the long haul. And the rest of the crew feel the same way.
If a coil should fail we will take care of it. As far as going to the GMC dealer you could do that in a pinch. Or you could just keep a set of stock coils around just in case.
I personally have been using these coils for about 8000 miles now. With numerous track days and of course daily driving.
The reason this particular coil was picked was due to the durability and longevity factors surrounding it. It's a tough coil.

I don't want anybody to have doubts about quality, durability workmanship and customer support.

LOL. Great. I'm sure the money will come as long as the support is good ;)

These are beyond superior to oem, the stock ignition system in this car is a joke if you ask me, at least it has been with my particular car. If you live overseas and experience some bizarre problem with them but can afford to wait a small amount of time or do not have access to GMC parts etc. I wouldn't hesistate to get these. If you're the type who needs their car running 24/7 like me, you're probably safer keeping with the oem as far as ease of parts availability, but then you're more subject to oem parts failures. I've been plagued with ignition problems on this car since about 2 years ago, stealership replaced the whole system at least 3 times under warranty to no avail, replaced the engine during that time, still had the same issues. I've even had the tranny replaced to try and cure my poor car's drivability issues and while that helped, there was still a weak link somewhere. This past weekend I put this system in and I don't have problems anymore, car feels like it is finally getting what it needs for spark and ignition and it drives like it's supposed too, so keep that in mind as well, it might be worth the extra little hassle just to have a superior part on your car. (or might not, just throwin' that out there, hope it helps)