Ignition Coils Help (BHR Ignition Upgrade)
 

So, I was looking around and couldn't find it but it's probably somewhere around here and I can't find it.

Alright so from some 8 Owners they said an upgrade to the BHR Ignition Coils are wayyyy better than OEM's.

Now, they say that they will last longer and will work without a doubt other than the OEM where you have like a 50/50 chance of them being good. But what's so special about BHR? I mean I hear that they are good but why? I want to know why they are a better product.

Any info that isn't already mentioned at their site would be great.

why don't you shoot charles a PM and he'll explain it to you

Maybe the flip side of this is: why are the stock coils so bad?

what's good about them? at best, they are barely adequate off the factory floor. and with a history of being shot after such short periods...

Well, if you want to hear electrical characteristics then Ray, and perhaps others at BHR, can talk to you till you're lost about it. But in general terms, those coils provide more than enough spark energy for stock applications as well as much higher power applications(350whp+) [the more air/fuel you force into the combustion chamber to make power, the denser that mix becomes. denser means more difficult for spark to jump the gap on the plug, meaning you need more energy(more or less roughly accurate)]. Those coils also have a history behind them prior to their adaptation to the RX-8, and that history gives them a substantially better track record for life expectancy than the OEM coils have.

The BHR upgrade kit's coils are GMC Yukon and therefore as you would expect have a far stronger output then our OEM coils. They also enjoy greater reliability and longevity. Coupled with the uprated MSD cables it's an excellent product.

Mazda did a very good job in many areas of the RX-8 design but most agree fell short in the ignition department.

and yet someone goes out and makes 333whp on the stock coils ... :dunno:

My feeling is not much , if ignition was an issue I would not have made what I did in the first place .
But I have no idea really .

They are an upgrade over stock in many situations.
As stated, they last longer. They also ignite fuel better, thus increasing power in some tuned applications (like high power turbo set-ups, highly modded na cars etc).
I found that they keep the stock plugs from wearing out too quickly as well. First i changed my plugs after every couple of track days, now i do it every year or so.
If you want to tune your car they also add some tuning latitude, especially if you set the dwell time in the right way.

I think, may haps, you misunderstood me. I don't have stock coils in my car either. I don't consider the LS2 coils truly superior coils in the world of all coils. They are just coils that were actually designed and are capable of delivering solid performance in higher hp applications. The mazda coils should have been pretty beefy considering the rate of fire they would be expected to sustain. However, they aren't up to the task.

Brettus - As for making big power on stock coils - others have made north of 320 whp on stock coils. If they hold, they hold. It's not like you had some magic genius touch that made the coils better.

We have recently changed coils on two separate 2007 GT's, both with under 30,000 miles. On both cars there were huge white spots on some of the coils. Both guys cars were brought back to life. It's like slowly overtime you don't notice the slight loss of power and then it gets worse and worse.

you have not seen my magic wand then ? :bootyshak

I don't want to!
Anyway, Charles asked if you thought you could make more power with non-stock coils... i add: do you think that your coils will last a long time in that power range while driving the car hard?
I ask because my car is still NA (all motor\drivetrain, stripped whatsoever but still na) and during summer track use BHR coils really made a night\day difference. It was not clear from the beginning of the day but they kept to the same lap times during the whole day, something that didn't happen with the stock coils that started to suffer after a while.

Really? When mine stock ones were toast the first time (car would stutter upon acceleration) all of them had huge white spots and then when I put new stock ones back in it was fixed immediately. I wonder what the white spots are then.

Probably not . I have yet to test my setup at the track and do have reservations about how the coils would handle that .
However , it's been 20000 kms now which has included numerous bouts of hard acceleration at over 300whp and the stockers are holding up fine .
I should add that I have upgraded leads which i'm sure do help , and at 320whp I had to adjust the dwell to get rid of a slight misfire that developed on old worn out plugs ....

Ok, so at least we can say that probably, even if the stock coils hold up just fine to good power levels, they won't last as much as the upgraded ones, right?
I know that my coils started to misfire during hot summer track days at the end of the day, and that i had to change plugs more often the car had 22000kms at the time.
This never happened with the yukon ones so that's why i was asking!

probably , yes .

My stock coils were and are fine. And they will continue to be fine sitting in the trunk of my car or perhaps, someday, my closet. Post turbo, my car had ignition issues above 6k. You could hear it on the dyno and you could see it in the torque curve. Change the coils and, while I haven't done a good dyno since (I did a quick run on KDR with toasted spark plugs and Dave told me as much) but I must say the car has that zing once again. I'll probably stick to aftermarket coils of one variant or another for the duration of my ownership. I don't trust the stock coils.

which aftermarket coils are you considering using and why?
(out of curiosity)

I wish I could upgrade to the yukons--but i have no easy way to increase the dwell setting that would be needed for the upgrade --I am FI for those of you that dont know. NA guys dont need that.
The oems are working ok for me but i have lowered my redline and have increased the quality of the coils grounds. Xfingers.
I am actually thinking of going with the LS 1 because of their compatable dwells--so that means I have a set of yukons and ls2's that i am not using. Crap.
White spots are a mystery.
FOr na guys the bhr has never been marketed as increased performance over oem--just longetivity.
OD

AP or protuner in your xmas stocking ?

OD: you still using the Pettit Reflash?
time for a reflasher of some sort. We all know you've been naughty this year but LIE to Santa and tell him you were nice. :D:

Buy back??? You can have my BHR Ignition System when you pry it from my cold, dead, hands. ;)

I have had Masport coils in my car for about a year and 10k-12k miles.

/\ how ironic - those are the coils i have sitting in MY garage (and they will stay there) LOL

Indeed. I guess that exemplifies "ymmv." BHR wasn't done with their coils yet and I really wanted to be able to run my car to redline before the driving season ended.

Also, I think BHR is or was going to run red plug wires which was a no-no.