That's great. The one we tried to remove initially, before anyone had done so, hung and would not come out. Glad to see people are able to pull the complete shield. Much cleaner.
Filippo
Filippo
Technical BL Coil Investigation and Solution
- Thread starter fmorelli
- Start date
Fillipo no homo love you my car starts like a new car using start stop at a light. Also if you look into your r8 coil if used you will see blue oxidation, i confirmed contact by seating spinning then pulling out and seeing metal. I only trimmed the two red tabs and the rubber piece at top of shield so it was a gasket sealing the plug hole but i didn't trim the three rubber pieces that hold the metal shield on. I also did mine without removing cowl or anything else my palm hurts but like fillipo said just push in and you will feel click into place.
Edit as v8bait said i could see where metal was burned on tip of some coils. Also i don't feel more power but on cold start my car used to jump then settle into idle within first 2 or 3 sec now you almost don't hear starter and settles instantly never has rpms fluctuate.
Edit as v8bait said i could see where metal was burned on tip of some coils. Also i don't feel more power but on cold start my car used to jump then settle into idle within first 2 or 3 sec now you almost don't hear starter and settles instantly never has rpms fluctuate.
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Got to give praise for this thread.
I've done all the mods on my coils now.
Also pulled off the metal shields. What a great time saver vs cutting.
Should be doing the install in next day or two.
The obvious down side to all these coil mods is that these coils are now worthless to anyone but an n54 owner. I hope they still work as well.
Thanks for the awesome explanations and detailed pics. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
I've done all the mods on my coils now.
Also pulled off the metal shields. What a great time saver vs cutting.
Should be doing the install in next day or two.
The obvious down side to all these coil mods is that these coils are now worthless to anyone but an n54 owner. I hope they still work as well.
Thanks for the awesome explanations and detailed pics. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
These coils are pretty inexpensive, purchased individually, so really no big concern on value. No reason they won't work just as well - the shield is simply in the shaft already and is unneeded on the coil.The obvious down side to all these coil mods is that these coils are now worthless to anyone but an n54 owner. I hope they still work as well.
Filippo
Well I just spent 2.5 to 3 hours fiddling trying to get these coils in.
You are right Filippo. Only facing the back or front do they sit on the actual top of the spark plug. The wire harness bit is blocking them from sitting in contact due to the shape of the head of the coil.
I managed, with the connectors in place before inserting the coil to get coils 1 and 2 connected. 1 is easy as it's got no harness in the way and inserts in any orientation. With 2 connected and inserted the wires from the connector were rammed right into coil 3 but it had seated. Annoyingly though i had to remove 2 to seat coil 3 and 3 to seat coil 4 etc. The factory wiring to the coils and injectors is all quite tight.
Problem was I couldn't get 5 to seat due to the weird orientation of 6. I can probably do it tomorrow in the light. It's after 10pm here now. Was working with a head torch at the end.
Such a fkin tedious, fiddly, annoying job. Like so many other things on N54s.
Bits of the connectors were breaking off the brittle plastic on this kit as well. I wonder does removing a bit of this help?
You are right Filippo. Only facing the back or front do they sit on the actual top of the spark plug. The wire harness bit is blocking them from sitting in contact due to the shape of the head of the coil.
I managed, with the connectors in place before inserting the coil to get coils 1 and 2 connected. 1 is easy as it's got no harness in the way and inserts in any orientation. With 2 connected and inserted the wires from the connector were rammed right into coil 3 but it had seated. Annoyingly though i had to remove 2 to seat coil 3 and 3 to seat coil 4 etc. The factory wiring to the coils and injectors is all quite tight.
Problem was I couldn't get 5 to seat due to the weird orientation of 6. I can probably do it tomorrow in the light. It's after 10pm here now. Was working with a head torch at the end.
Such a fkin tedious, fiddly, annoying job. Like so many other things on N54s.
Bits of the connectors were breaking off the brittle plastic on this kit as well. I wonder does removing a bit of this help?
Yes. Clip that small bit of black plastic which looks like shielding but doesn't really do much. It will free up the two cables to easily go around the next coil. On #6, given the cam cover ledge, it needs to be installed slightly off pointing to the rear. If rear is 12 o'clock, turned slightly to the right at 1 o'clock.
Filippo
Filippo
You can take that shrink wrap off and remove those two halves that fit together that make like little grommets when put together it can be done without doing this at like 15 degree angle towards driver side instead of straight back though
Oh thanks for the info.
It seemed like on my car the coils would only truly seat in the 12 to 1 oclock position.
At the angle you've got it felt like it was seated but if I rotated it more the coil would actually go a little lower and I could feel it bumping the spark plug. The rear of the coil was otherwise bumping the wiring area. It felt like it was seated but the difference is quite small.
Anyway. I took the backs off. The plastic is absolute garbage. I can't believe they hadn't already broken during my fiddling. It's like paper. Very poor quality. The fact that this went out to customers in this quality is a joke. A class action should be brought.
As the OEM wiring is quite tight it seemed like the coils sometimes worked loose and rose up. I've pushed them back down. I will be checking them again but as they are so much stronger they will obviously arc any gap. Only if misfire occur will it be problematic.
Had a drive in the car and it felt very strong. Seemed to be squirming on the tyres more than normal. That's a good indication.
As I use alot of water and methanol a stronger spark could really be helping. Especially under a strong flow at high boost.
Make
Make sure you route factory wires in front of the coil tube and seat the coil straight back then rotate until hits the wire cover so that you it's all way down and if anything will probably keep from moving also use half the rubber gasket to center the coil so doesn't move around and lift on own. I was thinking of making a bar slash bracket to hold coils down but don't feel it's necessary unless I notice them riding up off plugs
So what's the final word on these? I'm at the point where I should probably stop using stock coils and plugs (though the three prong Bosch's have held strong even on my E50 or E60 FBO tunes) and I don't know whether I go with BL or PR.
It looks like it keeps flip-flopping. First BL was the choice because of the whole smart coil thing + PR coils being proprietary so we weren't sure what would happen when a coil went bad. Then that was addressed and for the past year or so, PR seemed head over tails the better choice. Between the fact that the R8 coils didn't seat properly + the cheap harness always breaking and them being sold out for a decade, whereas PR was designed for the N54 and were easy to purchase. Now it seems the tables have turned again in a couple regards. I've been messaging PR on FB for over a month and a half with no secure ETA. Back in mid-July they said they'd have them for sure by the first Friday in August so I held off on pre-ordering to do some other things, and since the beginning of the first week of Aug all my messages have been answered with "we expect them by the end of next week", + now the talk of potential plug wire problems has me a little worried... even though I've been capable of working on 10-20 year old brittle plastic pieces in BMW engine bays without breaking them with 1.1 exceptions lol. And now BL is always in stock and has improved PnP harnesses lol.
I'm okay with a bit of DIYing to get the coils to seat, *if* they really seat properly, and/or if BL has any plans on releasing pre-modified coils that'll seat for sure. Or shit, even if there's a coil option already out there that'll fit with the BL harness and seat properly, I don't need the red top. What I do need is the coils to seat, some load taken off my MSD80, and better spark.
For what it's worth I've had excellent customer service results with PR despite not yet owning any of their products, to the point where they've told me a competitor's product may work better for me, and even offering to help me trouble-shoot with that other companies products if I wanted. It would almost hurt to abandon them after all that, but I have enough carrots on sticks in my life as it is and I don't want to be forced to pre-order to get a product, and then potentially have issues with their gen 1 of new plug wires. I always like beta testing software, I'm not sure if I want to beta test hardware that's part of the heart of my race car.
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Do I save the $215, buy the BL and spend some time snipping or do I keep chasing the carrot for the custom, application-specidic designed 100% PnP PR coils?
It looks like it keeps flip-flopping. First BL was the choice because of the whole smart coil thing + PR coils being proprietary so we weren't sure what would happen when a coil went bad. Then that was addressed and for the past year or so, PR seemed head over tails the better choice. Between the fact that the R8 coils didn't seat properly + the cheap harness always breaking and them being sold out for a decade, whereas PR was designed for the N54 and were easy to purchase. Now it seems the tables have turned again in a couple regards. I've been messaging PR on FB for over a month and a half with no secure ETA. Back in mid-July they said they'd have them for sure by the first Friday in August so I held off on pre-ordering to do some other things, and since the beginning of the first week of Aug all my messages have been answered with "we expect them by the end of next week", + now the talk of potential plug wire problems has me a little worried... even though I've been capable of working on 10-20 year old brittle plastic pieces in BMW engine bays without breaking them with 1.1 exceptions lol. And now BL is always in stock and has improved PnP harnesses lol.
I'm okay with a bit of DIYing to get the coils to seat, *if* they really seat properly, and/or if BL has any plans on releasing pre-modified coils that'll seat for sure. Or shit, even if there's a coil option already out there that'll fit with the BL harness and seat properly, I don't need the red top. What I do need is the coils to seat, some load taken off my MSD80, and better spark.
For what it's worth I've had excellent customer service results with PR despite not yet owning any of their products, to the point where they've told me a competitor's product may work better for me, and even offering to help me trouble-shoot with that other companies products if I wanted. It would almost hurt to abandon them after all that, but I have enough carrots on sticks in my life as it is and I don't want to be forced to pre-order to get a product, and then potentially have issues with their gen 1 of new plug wires. I always like beta testing software, I'm not sure if I want to beta test hardware that's part of the heart of my race car.
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Do I save the $215, buy the BL and spend some time snipping or do I keep chasing the carrot for the custom, application-specidic designed 100% PnP PR coils?
First off, how do you propose saving $215 with BL over PR?
Another way to look at it: what's your cars setup and what is causing you to change ignition system? Plenty of people seem to run the stock ignition system without issue. One step colder plugs for most. If your ignition system is working fine, you could be due for a plug change and you can just wait on the ignition system and see what happens.
From experience, I have to say that "upgrades" are not always upgrades. If unsure, waiting and doing a plug change may be a good answer for now.
Filippo
Another way to look at it: what's your cars setup and what is causing you to change ignition system? Plenty of people seem to run the stock ignition system without issue. One step colder plugs for most. If your ignition system is working fine, you could be due for a plug change and you can just wait on the ignition system and see what happens.
From experience, I have to say that "upgrades" are not always upgrades. If unsure, waiting and doing a plug change may be a good answer for now.
Filippo
Are you n55 or something where you need extra converter box? I would love to cheer lead my product and say go bl but honestly pr stands behind all their products they even step up and cover people that get screwed when it isn't on them "mmp" alex treated me well but he is in over his head where he doesnt have the capital to sustain a recall pr does. Bl coils do have a higher voltage but pr is plenty and probably are more robust and are not being used to full potential which leaves head room. I may be wrong but I belive they recently turned up dwell a little more or something along those lines to increase output and coils took like a champ plus v8bait has been torture testing his for 2 yrs over dwelling with multispark and hasn't had any failures dme or coil.
Because I had a few drinks and mistook the $300 for just the harness and the full kit
although I still think one could save $50 or so going this route if they bought the coils themselves. That way they could get the newer versions too, some of which appear to only have a half inch of shielding at the tip.The reason I'm looking at changing the ignition system is because of upgrading turbos, and from owning several BMWs I know it's a lot better to prevent things than to let them break and have to fix them. The colder plugs are a given and already ordered, I just want to knock out everything and hopefully make a "bulletproof" setup. Plus like @V8bait or @jyamona said in another thread, what's stopping anyone from swapping out the R8 coils for another set of smart coils? 10+ years from now, PR coils might not be available. But at least this BL harness will allow us to run upgraded coils one way or another considering it cuts the DME out of the equation.
Typicallly I actually *do* prefer for the DME to see everything going on in the car which is why I ditched my JB4 asap when MHD came out, why I would've gone BoostBox had I went single Turbo, and part of the reason I like the PR coils so much. But the more I think about it, the more I think the BL solution (at least the harness) might be better long term.
@Rob09msport , not sure where you got the "converter box" or N55 part from? But you shouldn't feel guilty repping your setup just cause its been known to cause issues for others. Sharing our experiences is what forums are for, and even if you and @fmorelli have different opinions on the same products I like hearing both, considering you two are some of the posters I hold in higher regards.
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I knew you were n54 but didnt know if you had another vehicle because you said the save money thing and I know pr has a converter box you buy in addition to kit for n55 was just me misunderstanding your misunderstanding lolBecause I had a few drinks and mistook the $300 for just the harness and the full kit
The reason I'm looking at changing the ignition system is because of upgrading turbos, and from owning several BMWs I know it's a lot better to prevent things than to let them break and have to fix them. The colder plugs are a given and already ordered, I just want to knock out everything and hopefully make a "bulletproof" setup. Plus like @V8bait or @jyamona said in another thread, what's stopping anyone from swapping out the R8 coils for another set of smart coils? 10+ years from now, PR coils might not be available. But at least this BL harness will allow us to run upgraded coils one way or another considering it cuts the DME out of the equation.
Typicallly I actually *do* prefer for the DME to see everything going on in the car which is why I ditched my JB4 asap when MHD came out, why I would've gone BoostBox had I went single Turbo, and part of the reason I like the PR coils so much. But the more I think about it, the more I think the BL solution (at least the harness) might be better long term.
@Rob09msport , not sure where you got the "converter box" or N55 part from? But you shouldn't feel guilty repping your setup just cause its been known to cause issues for others. Sharing our experiences is what forums are for, and even if you and @fmorelli have different opinions on the same products I like hearing both, considering you two are some of the posters I hold in higher regards.
So after a few spark plug gap adjustments, my BL harness failed. We don't know what happened, but my #2 cylinder wouldn't fire and ultimately we got some bizarre DME related electrical code. I swapped coils and plugs to no avail. Swapped Eldor coils back in and all is well. In other words, the BL harness failed.
That harness is all covered up, but I can't honestly trust its construction, either. I have a brand new harness, which BL sent me, the latest with the high quality triangle connectors. I honestly just don't trust this setup. I've had to do enough to get it to work that I sort of feel like the fool that says, "just one more thing and it will be ok."
Filippo
That harness is all covered up, but I can't honestly trust its construction, either. I have a brand new harness, which BL sent me, the latest with the high quality triangle connectors. I honestly just don't trust this setup. I've had to do enough to get it to work that I sort of feel like the fool that says, "just one more thing and it will be ok."
Filippo
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