Ignition coil packs?

[Slingwing 317]

Do upgraded ignition coil packs really make a significant difference in performance?

"Shown to deliver up to 15 HP on naturally aspirated engines, and as much as 30 HP gains on supercharged or turbocharged (and nitrous) applications, these coil packs not only gain power, but also can add fuel mileage and improve cold start characteristics & driveability, but they're also far CHEAPER than a brand new set of those weak factory Ford coil packs!"
-Troyer Performance

I'm wanting to know if it's worth the investment prior to ordering a Gryphon or is it snake oil?

[ticopowell]

I don't have an answer for you, but thinking about it, what do coil packs do?
to the best of my knowledge, they are what create the power to make a spark at the tip of the spark plug, and if they don't make enough power, there will be a weak spark or no spark at all. If they make enough power, there will be enough spark to run efficiently. If they have more than enough power, there will be excess spark, and therefore extra heat to start the combustion process, which can make the gas combust faster, or maybe more efficiently than before.
So I could see them helping some, but i haven't heard of many people replacing them unless they are broken, and I would recommend the same. 15 hp seems to be a lot, and if the engineers at Ford figured that what you have now would last a couple hundred thousand miles without damaging anything, I would tend to agree with them. I would worry about the rest of the system being able to handle the extra power needed to run the "better" coil packs, if they draw more power, or create more power, then some wires will need to be upgraded to handle it, if not, they could, emphasis on could, heat up excessivly and burn themselves out.

Those are my thoughts and advice, but like I said, I've not heard much about upgraded coil packs so I could be completely wrong...

I hope that helps, but dont make any decisions based on what I say

[cleatus12r]

Smoke and mirrors.

Typical secondary ignition voltage required to "fire" the spark plug on most gasoline engines ranges from about 7K volts to 25K volts depending on load and fuel mixture.

Just because companies sell coils capable of 50K volts does not mean that you're getting 50K volts to the spark plug. If it only takes 15K to ionize the air in the plug gap, that's as much voltage as you're going to get....stock or aftermarket.

Now, if you're running super-high compression, forced induction, lean air/fuel ratios, or a really wide plug gap, your voltage requirements WILL increase. At this point, you may run into a voltage problem (MAY). On a stock truck, there's no sense wasting your money on something that will do nothing.

[Slingwing 317]

Thanks guys. I agree that a higher voltage spark could be beneficial to highly modified engine but in my case (Gotts mod w/ drop-in K&N, Magnaflow exhaust) and a Gryphon soon to be ordered, I'm sure the coil packs are not worth the hype. I've heard from a few shade tree motorheads that think it's the first step to an upgrade after intake & exhaust...but opinions are cheap. Thanks again for the input, no coil packs for me.

[Jackpine]

I'll just add that anything that delivers a "fatter, longer duration, hotter spark", as some plugs and coils claim to do are, in my opinion, snake oil too. Either the fuel/air mixture ignites or it doesn't. If it doesn't ignite, you don't run. If it ignites at all, anything more is total overkill, because once the flame front leaves the area of the spark, which happens almost instantaneously, there's nothing left behind to burn. And, once the mixture IS ignited, the burn is self-sustaining, it needs no spark to keep it going.

- Jack