Club-S12 Username: Dan0myte
Considering how old these cars are getting, and the random misfires I was having, I was starting to suspect the coil pack may be past due for a swap. Not to mention all the dirt, grime and rusted in screws that obviously aren't helping things. I picked up an MSD Blaster SS coil from Jegs.com for $35.99. Part number 121-8207. A quote from MSD:
The Blaster SS is an E-core style coil -- A very efficient design in producing high voltage and spark energy. The primary terminals are located at opposite ends of the tall spark tower so there is no chance of arcing. Supplied with anti-vibration mounts.
- Produces up to 300mA of spark current
- Special segmented bobbin improves the coil efficiency
- Brass primary terminals and tower ensure full voltage delivery
- 50-state legal via E.O. #D-40-27
Materials Needed:
- Phillips head screwdriver
- 10mm Socket
- 9mm Socket
- Drill with 5/16" bit
- Some type of marking fluid
- Pliers
- Vice Grips
- Wire strippers
- Short spark plug wire
- Optional: Liquid Wrench rust remover spray
- To start with, you're going to have to get things out of the way. The coil is buried deeply in wires and hoses and would take one heck of
a multi-angle extension to get at it normally. The first and most obvious thing to remove is the air filter box. Begin by removing the 4 bolts which hold the top half of the clam shell to the lower half. With these off, a quick tug of the cover towards the driver's side fender and it will pop right off. You can remove the air filter now (and chuck it if it's more than a year old). Next, remove the 4 bolts holding the lower half to the body of the car. Two will be in plain sight at the back, but the two at the front will be more difficult. Use a 10mm socket with a long extension to reach these. The trick here is that these bolts are not screwed into the brackets, but are screwed into rubber bushings. You will have to reach underneath with a pair of vice grips and hold that rubber bushing so that you can remove the bolt. If you don't, you'll be turning and turning that bolt forever and it will never come out. With the 4 bolts out, let's move onto the MAF connections. Using a flat-head screwdriver, loosen the clamp holding the intake tube to the MAF and disconnect the two pieces. Next is the MAF electrical connector - make sure you take a pair of scissors (or other small sharp object) and remove the small wire clip first. With that out, the connector will slip right off. Lastly, remove the brake booster hose from the bottom of the air box. The entire box will now lift right out of the engine bay. Make sure you plug the intake hose with a rag or something at this point to keep anything out.
- With all the intake parts out of the way, we can finally reach the stock coil. Here you will most likely find that the two screws that hold the coil down will be rusted solid. Here's where the optional Liquid Wrench comes in. Let some of that soak on the screws for a while and they should break loose. If you don't have any, take your pair of vice grips, get a really strong hold of the screw head, and then turn hard. It should crack the screw loose. Remove both screws, and then remove the electrical connector from the back of the coil. You should see a small transistor mounted to the coil's bracket by two tiny screws. Crack these loose and remove the transistor.
- The hard part is now over! So let's start mounting the new parts. The best place I could find for the coil was on the side of the shock tower. It provides the most room and a very short path to the distributor.
The Blaster coil should come with 3 rubber isolator screws. Screw these into the coil's mounting holes temporarily. Then, take whatever marking fluid you have (White Out works, I used some Anti-Seize lubricant) and put 3 dabs of it onto the bottom of the screws on the coil. Find the exact spot you want to mount the coil, then touch the coil to the shock tower. When you pull it away, you should have 3 nice neat dots marking the exact spots where you need to drill. Now pull out your drill with the 5/16" bit and drill 3 holes right where those marks are. Quick tip: make sure you take a paper towel and wipe off whatever fluid you used.
- Taking the 3 provided nuts and lock washers, reach into the fenderwell behind the wheel and tighten the coil down. The nuts provided are 9mm. The next bit of mounting you will have to do is for the transistor. Using the same technique as above, mark the location of the screws somewhere near the Blaster coil. I chose to mount it just above the coil. Drill two more holes here and again, fasten it from behind.
- Looking at the transistor, you will see that one side has 4 wires and the other has 2 wires. Grab the end that has two wires and snip the connector off, about an inch from the end. Use your wire stripper to strip the two ends. The Blue wire is positive and the Black/white wire is negative. Crimp the two provided ring terminals onto the two wires. Take the two provided brass screws and lock washers, then attach the wires to the Blaster coil. The left terminal is positive, right is negative.
- The next step is connect the coil to the distributor. The coil comes with an MSD wire connector and terminal. If you happen to have a bulk roll of MSD wire around (or any other wire for that matter), you can custom make a perfect connection wire. But as most people won't, you can use the stock coil wire, or use a single spark plug wire from a Chevy V8 (which has 90 degree boots on each end).
- The last step is to reinstall the air box (installation is the reverse of removal), and then start her up! If it doesn't go right away, go back and double check the two transistor wires, and the that the distributor wire was installed correctly.
Engine revs should feel much smoother now, and the plugs shouldn't foul ever again, as the spark plugs are seeing a whopping 40,000 volts of energy. This is a much needed mod in preparation for later on if you decide to increase compression or go with a forced induction setup.