Upgrading the Ignition Coil
 

I was wondering how many people have uprgaded their Ignition Coils? ON my last truck I upgraded to the MSD High Vib coil, Splitfire wires and electronic ignition. I was not sure if there was an MSD Coli that you could put on the stock N/A Porsche. Is it worth it? and what MSD Coil would be good, had MSD on my last car and was happy, so I guess you could say I am fan. Thanks Mike

MSD does make great performance parts. I've used them a lot but not on my 944. There are many members here that do run on their 944 though and there have been many posts and discussions about them. Some say it needs a resistor to go with it, others say it doesn't. You can talk to tech support at MSD to know for sure, but the ones I know run with the resistor and it seems to work well.

Hermes, what was the advantage you saw with the MSD? I don't really know much about different ignition coils and would like to know what to expect. I saw someone mention better gas mileage and someone else mention better response. What did you find?

Be careful upgrading your ignition coil... my car died on my one night in a less than optimal location (NY Ave. in DC if you really must know) and the culprit turned out to be a (still functional) factory coil that had a low primary resistance and therefore overheated a solder joint in the output section of the DME. Whacking the floor got the car to the shop; after that it didn't run again until the DME was disassembled and resoldered.

nate

I think that's what the MSD add on resistor is probably for.
One advantage I'm sure of is they're cheaper than an OE Bosch coil and are very high quality parts if you need to replace the coil.

Thanks for the Help guys. My last truck that I upgraded the Ignition with, I had to buy the 8ohm resistor. Never had a problem with it. Had the MDS High Vibe Coil, petronix Electronic ignition upgrade, Splitfire Plug wires and Split fire plugs. Could not tell you if it was better than the old due to rebuild the motor from the ground up. I never had any problems with the ignition. When I get some of my stuff paid off, going to upgrade to MSD Coil and Plug wires. Thanks for the help everyone!

I am running the MDS Blaster coil with no resistor and no trouble.

Speedy:)

I'm running the MSD Blaster 2 coil with the resistor that came with it. Runs great, but I didn't notice any huge improvements over stock.

I have been down that road...
 

I explain the whole MSD resistor issue here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-924-944-968-technical-forum/354156-944-turbo-msd-ballast-resitr.html?highlight=msd

PS: Speedy, ask Shikachaser what happens when you don't use the resistor.

Stock Ignition + MSD Blaster - 0.8 ohm resistor = bad

Stock Ignition + MSD Blaster + 0.8 ohm resistor = good

MSD Ignition + MSD Blaster = better, car is peppier and smoother throughout RPM range, resistor not needed as it is built into the MSD Ignition box.

Well, Installed a NEW Rotor, Cap and replaced with the MSD P/N:8203 installed with the resistor. Thanks for the help. Funny how the Porsche one NEW is over 100 bucks and the MSD is 1/2 the price, and possibly better. Will know for sure with a coupl of days of driving. Thanks Mike

MSD as in Multiple Spark Discharge or as in the company? Are you talking about changing over the ignition from the stock CDI to an MSD system (Multi yadda yadda). Keep in mind there is a company named MSD who sells an MSD unit (analog, decent) and another company named Mallory that sells an MSD unit (digital, much better).

UPDATE, Everything is running real good. Have not had any more issues. Changed everythign out except the wires. Looking at doing that in a few months. It was worth the time to change out and like I said runs better, but I think my old coil was not 100%. Mike

I have a jacobs coil that I have run 1.5 years with no problems on my 951 and 2 years on my old 83 NA. I'm thinking about a MSD 2 with resistor just in case.