Quality control Bosch red coil ?

[Stanley]

Red coil 00013 got here yesterday from amazon, had a small circle of brown stuff on the shiny part just below the cap. Guess I better sent it back. Don't know if I should get another one or try something else. Read that the Brazil import ones were OK, but maybe not.

[siteunseen]

Crane PS20 Fireball is what I bought after a lot of reading.  1.4 OHM for the ZX dizzy I put in my 240Z.  Amazon.com also.  I'd read some reviews where people were saying their's were oily upon unpacking and they sent them back.  My was bone dry and has been an excellent coil so far, 2 years.

[Chickenman]

Thumbs up on the Crane Ignition parts.  I've heard that Fast EFI has purchased all the stock and production rights from S&S Cycle. ( Crane went bankrupt after the 2008 crash ) . I wonder if Fast is getting new production made in the USA or out sourcing to China. Might be best to purchase NOS or used on Crane stuff till that question is answered. Summit and Jegs still have a fair bit of NOS Crane Fireball parts on hand.

I've used Crane ignition products since the mid 90's. Very high quality parts. Put MSD to shame when Crane came out with the HI-6 CD box. Cranes E-coils were also the bench mark when they came out. Still are. 

[siteunseen]

Mine is the e-core and made in the USA.  Arne reccomended it in an older thread I read and it has worked out good for me. The amazon reviews said if the packaging was oily that someone had returned it most likely and they resold it so if I got an oily coil to send it back immediately.  Fortunately mine as nice and dry.

Thank you Chickenman for your positive replay!  I'd hoped I made a good purchase. 8^)

[Stanley]

Crane spec. of PS20 has 1.4 ohm primary resistance, but no spec for the resistor. I've got PS20 on there now, but the ballast resister that came with it is shot.

If the coil tests OK I can keep it, but I don't know what size resistor to put. Trying to look up resistors, hard to find specs., but if I know the required resistance I can go to the (independent) parts store and they can get it.

The stock coil per 72&73 FSM's is 1.5 to 1.7 ohm and secondary 9.5 to 11.6 (K?) ohms, with a 1.6 ohm resistor. My very old, so maybe stock ballast resistor shows 1.7 ohm on the meter, FWIW. So that adds up to  3.1 to 3.2 ohm. Maybe the aftermarket setup needs to match that to save coil or points. 1.4+1.6 = 3, or 1.4 +1.8 = 3.2 ohm,  if it makes any difference.

[Chickenman]

You can safely use the Datsun factory resistor.  The reason for the ballast resister is to lower the amperage draw through the points. But there is some varience allowed. 

[Stanley]

I pulled the stock resistor too, the 1.8 ohm reading was "sometimes" and it still ran crappy with it.. Put in a new 1.6 ohm RU13 resistor, also a new distributor rotor. Have a new cap too but ran out of daylight and needed to make a run to Santa Monica. What happened blew my mind. Not only did it start and run way better, but the gas mileage was better, about double what it was. The mileage had gotten real bad recently, about  the same time it got hard to start. I was sure the bad mileage was fuel system related. I can't believe that cleaning the contacts and installing a couple of cheap electrical parts could make that much difference, but I like it. 

Still some corrosion in the system, getting about 0.5 ohm resistance from the wire that goes (I think, not betting money on it) from the ballast resistor to the tach and back to the negative side of the coil, maybe that's OK but I'm starting to suspect corrosion everywhere. I need to google how pros do crimp on connections because one I did couple years ago fell right off yesterday. Barely pulled it.

The new red Bosch coil has discoloration but not leaking. Need to contact Bosch for the spec, can't find spec. on any Bosch site, but found primary 1.3 ohm, secondary 5.5 k ohm listed for the 00013 at Summit. If that's correct it's way off. I tested it with 2 different meters and got 1.5 for the primary and 13.7 k ohm for the secondary, so maybe it's shot..Using PS20 anyway.

[Stanley]

Sending it back. Called Bosch today, tech support had to look it up in old catalog, nothing online (spec was online at Bosch site couple of years ago). Correct spec is 1.3 ohm primary, 6.5 K ohm secondary.

[SteveJ]

Go with the 3 Ohm Fireball, bypass the resistor and live a happy life.

[zKars]

More coil hints for the day. Any oil filled coil should be mounted vertically, not horizontally like the 240 coils. Read the instructions. If they need to be vertical, it will be stated as such.

The MSD instructions have this to say for the 8200 series street performance coils.

"The Blaster Coil is designed to mount in most factory canister coil mounts. MSD also offers a Chrome Coil Bracket, PN 8213. It is recommended to mount the PN 8202, PN 82023 and 8223 coils in an upright position. The High Vibration Coil, PN 8222, can be mounted in any position due to its epoxy potting compound. "

Putting them sideways likely exposes more of the windings out of the oil bath than when its vertical, making accelerated overheating deterioration an issue. This is a gues, but makes sense to me.

Edited February 13, 2017 by zKars

[siteunseen]

That makes great sense!  I'm a little slow when it comes to the "proper way".

I'll be remounting asap.

Are the OE coils oil less?

[Chickenman]

2 hours ago, siteunseen said:

That makes great sense!  I'm a little slow when it comes to the "proper way".

I'll be remounting asap.

Are the OE coils oil less?

Nope... filled with oil. Notice how the factory oil filled coils are mounted horizontally. Think about that.

Some coil manufacturers  ( MSD is one  ) save a few pennies by not filling the coils to full capacity, allowing air bubbles to form. Factory Nissan coils and other high quality coils ( Ahem Crane )  are filled to the proper amount of oil with just a very small space for expansion. They are not sensitive to mounting position. Doesn't hurt to mount them vertically though.

Many, Japanese cars have oil filled canister coils ( Hitachi, or Nippon Denso )  mounted horizontally. So do Mopars with stock coils. Chevies and Fords mount canister coils vertical. On vintage German cars I have always seen the coils ( predominately Bosch )  mounted vertically only.

Note to self: In fact, I have an MSD Blaster 2 mounted in the stock position on my 280Z ( Horizontal ) . Because it's MSD and those DO fail when mounted horizontally, I am going to change the mounting position. 

BTW, I just looked up the some Tech info in the Crane catalog, and all of Cranes canister style coils are oil filled. They are not E-cores. 

PS20 ( Black )  and PS40 ( Nickel plated Chrome ) have 1.4 ohm Primary. 5.2 Kohms Secondary, 7.5 mH Primary Inductance, 26 H Secondary Inductance, 60 to 1 Turns ratio . They are suitable for all points and OE Electronic ignitions. Crane HI-2000, HI-6500, XR700 and XR3000. C.A.R.B certified.

PS60  canister coil has ouput characteristics similar to Crane PS91 E-Core. It cannot be used with points ignition. Compatible with all OE Electronic ignitions and the Crane HI-2000, Hi-6500, XR3000, HI-6, and Hi6S. Can be used with  XR700 if an additional ballast resistor is installed.