Technical BL Coil Investigation and Solution
- Thread starter fmorelli
- Start date
As modified in the DIY, we took measurements so we know the electrode is fully seated. If you go back and look, you'll see how we determined the fit. This was a big issue with everything that was done prior, as I don't believe anyone actually measured the distances and determined a full seating inside the shaft. Hope this helps.
Filippo
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My hands, and thumbs especially, are shit. Yet I know if I said I used a rubber mallet to help me, tool bags on the internet would be ready to show how cool they are.
Mine go on easier than the Bosch ones that are factory. Can you take a picture of how your coils are seated too? Mine went on fine.
Jim, if you modded the coils per the thread, it should not take much pressure to install them. Palm of the hand pressure. Of course a light tap with a rubber mallet will do it too. The trick is to use the index marker against the shaft as the DIY states, since that tells you if the coil is down on the electrode or not.
Filippo
I don't know if bimmerlife is still selling them. Why would one want to buy them? Expensive with a lot of modifications required. And this thread doesn't even get into the harness issues which need to be addressed. Precision Raceworks is what I'd be ordering.
Filippo
In my testing the R8 coils and PR coils were both significantly better than factory, PR took more abuse but R8 can be easily replaced if (and when) they burn out.
PR used a depin/heatshrink initially instead of plug-and-play with 3D printing, for reasons apparently nobody here believed me about lol. Now that the ignition coil design has proven itself Robert invested in quality injection molded PnP connectors anyway. Since PR design uses all of your factory hardware you don't have the added electronics to melt on top of the motor either.
... and then we discovered that the R8 coils cannot be easily replaced so there goes the sole remaining benefit...
Filippo
How do you figure? They're extremely easy to replace. Just pull the metal housing and trim the tabs and throw a new one back in the hole.
I dont think the PR setup fits under the cover does it? For me that’s an issue. Can you purchase and run the PR harness with r8 coils ? I dont mind trimming to make them fit.
You should take a look at the PR coil group buy thread. Toward the end is some info about an option that allows the factory engine cover to be used.
It fits with no trimming, but has a slight bulge. It fits perfect by cutting the foam slightly and notching about a half inch by 1 inch from the rear passenger of the cover, near the screw nobody uses.
The adapters won't work without the electronics part to drive the smart coils, but it could be redesigned pretty easily.
I don't think heat was ever an issue, althought its always nice when electronics run cooler. What i find interesting is that BL coils have more power available since they don't rely on the DME for power delivery.
I bought these coils about 2 months ago and just did this mod. I never had a miss until yesterday. #6 had combustion misfire driving out of the house so I took it back opened the hood and thought about BL coils and pushed all the coils down and they all went down a bit. I started the car and the misfire was gone.
I wasn't believer of this mod until the misfires and even more so after I saw how different the coil looked after I cut the first one.
I will ad it took me 45 min start to finish using the pics on the page.
Be super careful unplugging and plugging up the coils. The plugs are crap and you can easily crack. If you break something on your wiring harness BL will ask you to mail them your harness and wait until they mail it back fixed instead of mailing you a new one with a core charge.
After doing 2 I found it to be a lot faster to cut the little rubber nipples at the bottom of the coil, then pry the clamp at the bottom apart, then pull and twist lightly to pull off the whole stainless cover. ITs a little taught get off but its worth it. It makes it easy to do the 3 cuts now, the red stops, the ears off the black insulation at the top and the bottom half of the stainless. You can then push it on easy after you line it up and you're done.
2-6 will not go in all the way until you turn them some to miss the harness.
Thanks to those that did the research and made this post. It has to be done.
I wasn't believer of this mod until the misfires and even more so after I saw how different the coil looked after I cut the first one.
I will ad it took me 45 min start to finish using the pics on the page.
Be super careful unplugging and plugging up the coils. The plugs are crap and you can easily crack. If you break something on your wiring harness BL will ask you to mail them your harness and wait until they mail it back fixed instead of mailing you a new one with a core charge.
After doing 2 I found it to be a lot faster to cut the little rubber nipples at the bottom of the coil, then pry the clamp at the bottom apart, then pull and twist lightly to pull off the whole stainless cover. ITs a little taught get off but its worth it. It makes it easy to do the 3 cuts now, the red stops, the ears off the black insulation at the top and the bottom half of the stainless. You can then push it on easy after you line it up and you're done.
2-6 will not go in all the way until you turn them some to miss the harness.
Thanks to those that did the research and made this post. It has to be done.
New plugs that don't disintegrate are supposedly in the new version of the BL harness. https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads/bimmerlife-fixed-coil-harnesses.3607/
Filippo
Filippo
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