IG COIL RX L series specific

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:46 pm

Suspecting I have a dud coil in my turbo L series went to find a new one , the only listing is in a Champion catalogue CC298 . Their NSW based wholesaler does not have in stock!! The coil is specific to the turbo , different to the mpfi or carby coil CC299. The bosch catalogue dated 2007 had stuff all for Subies at all, had no listing. ACA brand no coil listings

Any of you L series turbo guys like SWK and RXTREME know of good reliable source of coils for these babies? Dunno what the difference is but I guess it is internal resistances and this is the Hitachi coil C1T 117 for my 3 plug ECU set up

ta heaps

yet to try Subaru

SYMPTOMS

On straight LPG, did a roundabout in fourth went to torque out and things felt 'flat', no torque at that point of revs and foot placement on loud pedal so backed off, continued driving gently not boosting and then when I did call on the turbo felt same flat spot, just dead power no BACKFIRE thank Murphy, no miss or splutter. Got home went to be. Next day found on a drive it would sort of hiccu not backfire on load 3000 to 4000 tach would go a bit rough. Not wanting to blame fuel as you don't with LPG, but found my converter diapragm oil contaminated and deteriorating. Fitted a silicon diapragm instead of the hydrin one and got same drive. So fitted up my petrol system AFM and connected the ECU back up to drive injectors and fuel pump who thought it'd gone on holidays even though new. Got it running on petrol with fuel cleaner (Proma) same deal, fitted up petrol gapped resistor plugs and felt like it got worse with the bigger gap, so started checking out coil specs....

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:34 pm

What about just a Bosch universal or similar
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bosch-GT40R-Ignition-Coil

or http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bosch-Coil-Ignition

The differences are probably minimal and will never be noticed. I ran a MSD on mine for ages with no ill effects

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:45 pm

this is what i are runing on my ea82
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bosch-Coil-Ignit ... 3:1|294:50

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:56 pm

Hmmm.... sort of don't like stuffing around with this sort of thing with little electrical knowledge.

C1T 117 has 0.93- 1.02 ohms for primary and 8000 - 12000 ohms for secondary where the others are 1.2015 - 1.485 and 8.670 - 11.730,
1.035 - 1.265 and 7.098 - 6.603
1.332 - 1.628 and 10.710 - 14.400

Interesting to see you guys have just used the universal Bosch units. Just don't wanna fry my module !!

with or without ballast resistor has got me - that is the coil in a ceramic thing ain't it? Never really understood these other than I had a Mazda that kept ashing the points in a yellow powder, fitting one then a second in series fixed it. Found a listing in US for accel part # A358140 or MFR# 8140 at autopartswarehouse stating its resistance values as 1.4 ohms primary and 9200 secondary says suits 1987 RX turbo but US may have got different dizzy and not Hitachi ??

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:52 am

Thanks to a website I can no longer recall.....

A standard car’s distributor ignition coil can be tested by checking the ohms reading. Ohms can be read on a volt/ohms meter. Ohms is a unit of measure for the resistance that a wire or coil has. Ignition coils should be measured on the primary coil between batt and tach terminals. The batt is the coil ground. To check the secondary coil, check the ohms between the batt terminal and where the coil output wire plugs into. If the ohms read zero the coil connection is broken and the coil is no good. An open coil reading zero is the usual culprit of coils. Don’t test through the output wire though. The primary coil should read between .7 ohms and 1.7 ohms, if outside this range replace it. The secondary coil should generally read between 7.5K ohms and 10.5K ohms. If the ohms are not within the specified range for that paticular car, replace the coil. Coil resistance will also change and vary if the coil is hot or cold. This a generalized ohms range that fits most distributor coils. Another thing to remember is that sometimes a coil will only read bad after it gets hot. It may work intermittently after it gets hot also. Coil packs will generally read around .3 to 1.5 ohms on the primary side and 12.5K to 13.5K ohms on the secondary side. These figures will get you reasonably close to where the coil’s ohms need to be to work properly.

Following these instructions I now test the PRIMARY side coil resistance in Ohms

I am measuring with multimeter now.... on the 2K scale, red lead on the pos terminal of disconnected coil, black on neg terminal...reads as high as .517 then quickly proceeds to drop to .001 then .000

Not from any experience in testing cols (never had the proper written instructions or specs like I do now

) I'd say this looks to be my problem. It is a wonder it even works!

Now test the SECONDARY col resistance in Ohms

then red lead stays on pos coil terminal and black to coil output tower and multimeter on 20K scale reads and stays at 9.55

I gues 9.55 on the 20K Ohms scale fals within the 8,000 to 12,000 scale so satisfactory

Might test my standard L series carby coil I have as a spare to see its readings and maybe risk component failure and see how it runs !!

STILL looking for more experience with the 3 plug ECU coil replacements used successfully in the Turbo EA82's

I found a US reference to the L series RX turbo coil for Accel brand but wondering if it is suitable for our Hitachi 3 plugger as its primary resistance is not as low as this specific coil

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:18 am

just wondering if the 2K scale is too big to measure the smaller 0.93 to 1.02 ohms. It is the smallest scale I have at the moment. Don't want it to send me barking up wrong tree. Genuine say it is ex Japan $110 and two weeks wait to see if it is still available

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:26 pm

a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous sometimes.....

borrowed a few DMM that have a 200R scale same as 200 Ohms so better suited to measure 0.93 to 1.02 of an Ohm. Bought a cheapy too (stuffed if I can find my other one!) coil looks to have the very low reading to be acceptable - so ruling out the coil at this time.

Measured coil lead at 400 Ohms , specs say 2300 to 5000. Found a spare genuine measured at 4000 Ohms. Tried that. No go, no better, then recalled my new leads are low resistance leads (dummy) Eagle Eliminator black with gold print good for performance and LPG. A quick call to the 047 std area (thanks that they were not made in china!) to find the resistance for my leads is 1300 Ohms per metre - so the coil lead is fine according to their specs.

I must admit I have NOT pulled the dizzy cap of to look inside yet as it is only weeks since I was in there last !!

think I know why Fatz is selling his fleet

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:33 pm

Have run previously an Accel coil and an MSD coil on the EA Turbo. On a 3 plug to stop spark its either the module in the dizzy or the coil its self. On Dads Rx he has a Bosch GT40 on there for some time now not the R with the electronic ignition you shouldnt be using a dropping resistor for the coil.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:17 am

Thanks fer the input SWK

I gt a reply from Steve rising sun to say he has had good results using Bosch MEC 717, which makes good sense according to what I am relearning with 'universal' replacement coils.

Orange label oil filled or orange plastic epoxy filled coils known as GT40 and GT40R are generally meant for points ignitions, though I fitted a Bosch electronic kit to my 250 Ford and was meant to retain the points style dizzy coil, the orange epoxy filled one. Some of these orange epoxy coils had problems burning out or something due to a metalic style sticker on the body and took some time for them to work out what it was caused by. Advertising execs!

FOLLOWING IS FORUM SOURCED" so not gospel

As far as points dizzys and GT40 or GT40R selection depends on what voltage is factory supplied to the original coil, coil needs to be connected up to measure properly in each case, just ignition on I believe. If it is 12V use GT40 if it is 8 to 9V use GT40R and use a resistor in its ceramic heatsink thingy to reduce the supply voltage from ignition to the coil positive otherwise points burn out faster as condensor cannot cope. WARNING IS FORUM SOURCED

The black epoxy filled coils are meant to be electronic ignition replacements and MEC717 is the one with a female coil tower as opposed to the male tower that looks like a spark plug top for output lead to connect.

The new style Bosch coil is made in china and some bright spark must have felt it not necessary to identify which terminal is POS and which is NEG so comes with a diagram. A multimeter may also help identify polarity - otherwise you kill it.

Will advise of result.

Another thought on 3 plug ECU is the knock sensor control box it has some control over spark but only so much, wondering if it can do half a job and forget to send signal back?

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:02 pm

For the knock unit to be faulty you have to really open it up or leave it in the open for a while, you are not getting any knock adjustment in the igniton timing then the knock unit will be faulty or you have busted wires (more likely).

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:21 pm

Steptoe I asked Steve and his thoughts sound logical to me .

Assumes we are talking about the later four plug MPFI system with the transistor switched coil .

Nissan and Subaru shared technology in the mid late 80's and some Nissans used the optical CAS type distributor/transistor switched single coil ignition system .

One of the more obvious ones would be RB30E Nissan powered VL Commodores and six cylinder R31 Skylines . The coils packaging may be a little different but electrically they are possibly similar/same .

Cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:37 pm

OK. got my act together and just shoved the chinese made Bosch after market universal electronic ignition non high energy (HEC) coil replacement MEC 717 in my 3/87 3 plug flapper style afm L Series EA82Turbo.

SUCCESS!! I no longer have the missing/cutting out between 3000 and 4000rpm and could not get it above 4000rpm either. Performance is a bit poey lower down the load spectrum most likely due to the mpfi system and its injectors not been in use for a long time and also popped in Thomas Lturbo's interesting selection of mismatched spark plugs

Laid up for ten days while I stuff around as to what the problem is, what alternative to use as the only listing was not available after market and genuine was two week wait ex Japan. First thought coil but due to not getting any backfire with the LPG when coil cut back in went loking elsewhere.

Thanks for all the input fellas

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:07 pm

I took the beast up "dyno mountain" and uh oh, fudge and friggin' fiddle sticks engine cut out under load, up mountain with a bit of boost, back off and it has been fine since on normal roads. So it may be time to chase a new genuine or Champion coil if either still available.

dyno mountain is where a failed headgasket or cracked head has reared its ugly head in recent times on EA82T#2, also on another EA82T#3 where the blow by, by 60psi in one pot, causing sump oil to spew out rear PCV breather.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:15 am

found out that my 3/87 compliance plate date model is actually a 1986 model due to its BROB vin. The first B means 86, second B means turBo. I very nearly ordered a new coil from Subaru for a 1987 model which is same as through to 1989. Knowing mine was the earlier one and a bit of cross referencing then correct identification via the vin. 85 and 86 turbo coil is different to the later turbo L series coils. These later turbo coils are the same as NA mpfi L series according to the parts manuals.

The genuine coils are double the price of the aftermarket Bosch coil MEC717. The only aftermarket listing I could find was Champion who my supplier initially said nil stock. My investigations found there was actually 4 in stock and DDOOUUBBLLEE the price of genuine!
I am waiting for genuine to establish whether still available ex Japan. 2 weeks.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri May 18, 2012 7:59 pm

So Mr Steptoe , did you think the Bosch MEC 717 was a success ?

A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:16 pm

nah, it sheet itself in less than the warranty expected life of 12 months, not entirely crippled me, but nearly , by this time I was sitting on ex Japan coil care of Subaru as a spare - sorted me, confirmed me as a genuine spares guy for many things Subie!! ~ $120 ? and ten days if not in stock in Aus

The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

IG COIL RX L series specific

IG COIL RX L series specific

Problem cured !

well maybe not entirely fixed...

factory coil selections