I haven't seen to many people talk about ignition upgrades for kseries. I know our stock sytems work really well but what about when we start pushing high psi to them? I'm wonering what people have tried or what would be good upgrades to do. Especially with sticking with kpro can we upgrade coils?what ignition amplifiers could we use?ignition boxes? just wanted to bring up a discussion we could talk about and see what different people thought.
I think you nailed it right on the head...our stock ignition system is pretty darn good apparently as I have not really noticed anyone upgrading this area like they did in the B-series days.That said if you really wanted to know you could ask anyone of the sponsers or ppl that have built K-series race cars about this type of upgrade.I say if it is'nt a bottleneck or slowing you down then don't bother with it.
Ive seen someone on here, i believe BlueHatch, was running msd external coils at one time. correct me if im wrong on that. ill try to dig up pics on here. I would actually like to see if theres any big advantages in doing this over stock just because i have wondered this myself.
Generally you will not see anything but OEM on most swaps because most people are using K-pro or AEM. Some of the higher end tuning and datalog systems use other ignition systems.
There is an avantage to having a more powerfull ignition system. While its not nessisary it does make a difference. The thing is with a stock ignition, there will be a load point where you'll have to start gapping your plugs down to get them to fire. While this works, you also reduce the initial spark kernel, affect total flame propagation, basically looseing power and effeciency. Granted the loss of power isn't huge, BUT there is a pretty noticable difference in how the car runs and responds with say a M&W ignition with a .026 plug gap, VS stock coils at a .016 plug gap. On our race car with the AEM, we had stock coils and switched to the M&W ProDrag 4 setup with the Mercury Magnetics coils and picked up over 50HP running stock gap on a BKR9EIX plug at the same boost. The car sounded noticably different. We have since ditched the AEM for a Motec M880 so we never track tested the M&W vs the Stock coil setup.
You can still wire any CDI style ignition box into the KPro as long as its got 4 individual channels like the ProDrag 4 .. You basically take the ignition outputs out from the ECU and wire them into the individual channels of the CDI. The nice thing about this is that the CDI now absorbs all the back EMF from the plugs so you can run non-resistor style plugs with the KPro without issues. This opens up the door for more plug choices.
Even though timing is relative when you tune, you do need to double check your timing sync when you do this and see if it has drifted any by adding the CDI. If it has drifted be sure to take this into account with your initial timing values in your tune.
Very very good info! How much does an upgrade like this cost if I want to keep k-pro? I think i may for sure benefit because Im down to 17 for high boost using the 8's.....
I've got a buddy with and EVO using GM truck coils, their better than the ls-1 coils. There probably one of the best OEM non CDI coils out there. I cant remember if their rising edge or falling edge coils. Whatever they are they have to be the same as K-pro or AEM to work.
Are you referring to TD's car? I know you are close with them but I thought they were running aftermarket coils? I agree though, if or until it becomes a problem, money can be spend else where.
I wouldn't waste your time with MSD (from experience on several non-k-series setups) .... M&W if you have to upgrade & spend lots of money. I saw okada coilpacks have some gains when tested on several FI s2000 setups. on a n/a there were little to no gains over stock
LS1 coils are great for ignition upgrades. I had my plugs gapped at like .032 and had no miss fires at over 550whp. Probably could have gapped it even more. The sparks coming out of the coils have got to be some of the strongest for the 150 dollars that ls1 coils cost.
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