Splitfire V's Superspark Coils

[Guest Sinon]

One of the ignition coils have started to die on my 32 GTR (only cut's out when very hot)

So I'm looking to replace them. My issuse is I've always said that once they started to go,I'd be getting a set of Splitfire's, As I've been looking around I've run into these Superspark coil's and now can't make my mind up over which to go for.

The splitfire's have been around for ever and have been tested and tried in every imaginable situation and have stood up to everything, they are also avaliable for $489 inc delivery here on Skyline Australia.

The Superspark's are relitiverly new to the market and clam to be 10% better then stock. Some test have been done at Merqury motorsport and clamied result's were a 14% better performance across the rev range. These were also R&D'd right here in Australia. Price $499

I can't find a direct back to back comparasent betwee the too.

Anyone have any idea which one I should go for-The new and unknown or the tried and tested?

[made_guy]

splitfire's are basically an oem replacement, whereas, as you pointed out, the supersparks are claimed to give a better spark.

[Bunta]

splitfires claim 10% greater spark too

[85URK]

i would be interested in this aswell, as i have seen both and wondered the same thing myself.

[32JEZ]

ME TOO HAHA... I Would go with the aussie company and get the super sparks! red > blue anyday :DDDD

[Spook's_Skyline]

id just go with tried and proven (ie spitfires)

[ShanO`]

A friend of mine had a set put in his RB20 Silvia while it was being tuned, It made less power with them (superspark) than it did with the stock coilpacks. They were changed because the stock coilpacks were breaking down over a certain rpm...

[500hpskyline]

ive been referred to splitfires by my mechanic

[GTRgeoff]

I've only ever replaced mine with stock cheaply from the wreckers. Don't need anything special for 500hp in the GTR, so why spend money I don't have to?

[85URK]

yeah but if u buy a secondhand ones from wreckers, who knows how long till they get heat soak and start cracking aswell? or if they arent already got hirline cracks in them, but atleast if u buy new u will know what u got from the start. how much woudl they charge for a secondhand coil packs anyway?

[Bunta]

I've only ever replaced mine with stock cheaply from the wreckers. Don't need anything special for 500hp in the GTR, so why spend money I don't have to?

because they are cheap, they are new and most of us couldnt be bothered f**king around at the wreckers trying to find the 1 in 5 good ones for the sake of saving a few hundred bucks

[GTRgeoff]

You can treat them for external sealing. It's only electricity so basic laws of insulation apply. I have never needed to add insulation and don't believe I will ever buy the expensive stuff. If I had to I'd run wasted spark external coil packs. I suspect most cracking occurs from washing the engine down hot and getting water around them.

Last couple of coil packs were $15 each with a replacement guarantee for 30 days. Plenty of time to get her hot and run at night to look for shorts. But close inspection at purchase will weed out any problems.

It's a bit like the low impedance injector dropping resistors. You can buy a nice pretty factory GTR one for anywhere up to 250, or a set of 6 high wattage resistors from an electronics store for $10 and they work exactly the same.

[TTT]

apply this to your current stock coil packs.

http://www.qsradio.com/Electrical%20Tape%204%20Color.JPG

use the remaining $490 on other goods

[benm]

Might work for a week, a month or even 6mths but at the end of the day it's easier to just pay the money and never have to worry about the problem again.

[Revhead]

Yup, I went through 3 sets of coils in my 33 (mine plus two replacement sets), along with trying the taping/glue methods, including sealing with various goos. In the end I swapped them out for the purty blue Splitfires and all my spark problems went away and never returned, and I could even open my plug gaps back up a bit. I wasn't overly happy with taping and whatnot anyway, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and regardless of how well they might have been insulated, it just felt a bit dodgy. Besides, I always wondered if the second hand coils would perform at their best even if properly insulated, the windings could have been partially melted or in some other way degraded. I did look at Bosch external coils and leads, but it was going to cost very similar money to the Splitfires, but with more mucking around. Still wouldn't mind doing it if/when I build another RB but found it unnecessary at the time.

This is one of those situations where personally, I'd recommend buying new instead of using some DIY

[Col-GTSX]

I had and still have a similar opinion Marc...

I always thought its not worth blowing or damaging an engine cause i could not afford $899 (at the time) for a set of decent coil packs...

Matt Spry proved to me that a faulty coil pack can have devistating consiquences some times, and after the money I spent on my engine alone an extra $899 was a small price to pay to ensure safe results all day everyday...

[GTRgeoff]

Unfortunately the engineer in me, as well as the mechanic of 15 years says the glass is still half full, and I can always do it better and cheaper.

Now we can't all do the same thing, as then there would be no surprises and no novelty, plus these folks would either sell lots or nothing. I'm suggesting a solution that can be both easy and economical. Approaching things in a different way is what made me secure and retired at 39.

So it's not a matter of dollars, but ingenuity and ability. No product is perfect forever, and with electrical products there is a definite initial high failure rate and a high terminal failure rate toward the end of the life of product, so your expensive brand new bits could just as easily do damage early....even on the dyno, as the old factory items might. The fact remains it is extremely hard to destroy an engine through spark loss, while fuel system failure at the same power level is almost a guarantee of catastrophic failure. So how many have made their fuel system secure before the coilpacks were replaced ? I personally won't be satisfied until each high powered car I have has 3 pumps and a swirlpot. The coilpacks are far less of a concern to me.

[Revhead]

I like a good technical discussion

It's not just about dollars, though obviously they come into the equation. I weighed up the pros and cons, and for me new coils with new casings win over worn out old coils with sticky tape every time. The only way I could have been comfortable leaving the stock coils in there would be if I'd sent them off to be rewound and had the casings fixed/replaced properly. That'd probably cost a fair whack I imagine and would be a bit of extra time off the road, when you can just bung in a set of brand newies and be confident that it'll be all good. To me, trying to fix the stock coils was a waste of the ingenuity and ability you mention when there is an easier and arguably superior method that doesn't really cost that much. It's not almost free, but when people are spending $10k on a car at the very least, often much more just in mods, $500 is cheap.

As you mention, things will fail over time, and there will occasionally be faulty parts out of the box, but I'd hazard a guess at the odds being heavily in favour of new parts. It's also not just about failure, the old coils will probably have a weaker spark than when they were new. Choosing the easy, well-tested and almost guaranteed method isn't a cop-out IMHO, why make it harder than it needs to be? I'm all for DIY but in some cases it's wasted effort, particularly when we're not talking about an enormous outlay to do it "properly".

[Guest Sinon]

Seam's like their's a lot of strong emotions about coil pack's then.

I owned a gts32 for 3 years and have now had a gtr32 for the same amount of time. Back when I had the gts I went though 3-4 coils paying $50 up to $80ea. Yes i've tried the tape's, silicon's and glue.....all are just a patch job.

I've already changed 1 coil in the gtr about 6 months ago.

I decided that I'd rather spend the money once and have the peace of mind knowing that I wouldn't be looking for another one in 6 month's, and wondering if all the coils were working at their best.

It's understandable that forking out up to $1200 for coils back in the day would have put a lot of owner's off, but now that they can be brought for $499 I don't see why anyone wouldn't be getting brand new one's.

Just to let you all know I went with the splitfire's and yes I did notice a differeance. The car pick's up a lot better and run's smoother.

I'd like to compare on a dyno, Stock coil's Vs Splitfire's Vs Superspark's back to back and see which come's up best. Come to think of it why not do a test on all main stream coils been sold in Australia just to put a rest to all the big marketing claim's..........

[85URK]

yea, some workshop who has access to these coils, should do a test to compare, or maybe write into a magazine and get them to do a test, then when its published, get it up on here for all to see.