Technical BL Coil Investigation and Solution

Kommodore

Private
Nov 5, 2016
47
18
0
Cactus Farm
It's very sensitive. I found that if any of the connections were even slightly loose the cylinder wouldn't fire at all. No problems since I got the new harness. I was considering pulling off the big plastic connectors like you posted but not without adding some epoxy to make sure they don't come loose.
 

Rob09msport

Major
Oct 28, 2017
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Who doesnt like walking into glass doors repeatedly
Seriously though do you think it's the electronics I hate to think the worst but if we got shafted with low print res and fill percentage to save time not even money I am a little worried as to the quality of the electronics in harness I had a dead plug on arrival that I had to pin a new converter in that alex sent no prob but I really wish I could have more faith
 
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kayzrx82

Corporal
Apr 4, 2018
110
88
0
Ride
n54 335i
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
Sorry to hear that. I would bet the voltage regulator burned out in the harness. Do you know if the coil survived?
 

Maximum96

Private
Jul 21, 2017
31
18
0
I'm not going to mention now what happened with my original BL harness! Just pissed that I had to purchase the new harness with no reimbursements for us!
 

fmorelli

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Aug 11, 2017
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E89 Z4 35i, F10 535d
Sorry to hear that. I would bet the voltage regulator burned out in the harness. Do you know if the coil survived?
Yes the coil survived because when I swapped #2 was failing and the coil in its new location was just fine.

Filippo
 
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MoreBoost

Sergeant
Jul 27, 2017
356
143
0
Ride
335i
Failing harnesses. That's not good to hear.
I'll be running my kit pretty hard.

On stock coils with ngk plugs I ran typically 0.45mm (0.177") for 26 psi with GC turbos and port water meth injection.

What can I increase the gap to with the BL setup?
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
So I decided to go with this kit rather than the PR kit for various reasons despite some of the issues - primarily because I'm staying twins so I want all the help for reliable high-HP I can get, and the smart coils outshine the PR in certain departments I think are necessary - but I just ordered the harness and bought the following coils instead of the typical ones that come with the kit.

These are Bosch versions, a new revision of the R8 style coil and I believe they're actually even the OE coils for the 2012-ish gen R8 GT (V10 engine for those who don't know). What attracted me to them is not only the fact that they're a newer revision (item# ending in F instead of E like the ones that come with the kit), but also the lack of shielding.

However I wasn't sure if they were literally the same coil just stripped of the metal cover, luckily my local Advanced had a couple on hand. They also had some of the most recently updated genuine N54 coils on hand and the guy at the counter allowed me to use his personal micrometer calipers to measure the differences between the three coils (shielded R8, Bosch revised R8, and N54 Delphi), I don't have the exact measurements like @fmorelli was able to provide, however I was able to measure some key things that you should hopefully be able to tell from the pictures too:

1: the Bosch coil isn't quite as thin as the shielded R8 coils are when the shield is removed, and don't taper quite as much towards the tip, however they are close to the size of the Delphi coils (caliper fit over the thick part of the shaft of both about the same - the Delphi N54 shaft is slightly thicker) at their upper parts.
2: there are no extended nubs on the Bosch coils that would need to be trimmed, due to them not having full-length shielding.
3: the little plastic tabs up top on the Bosch R8 coils are about half the length of the rubber and plastic tabs on the red-top R8s, so there'd be no need to trim anything. Worst case scenario, they would be easy to entirely break off or cut half of them off.
4: Again, the Bosch R8 coil doesn't taper quite as much as the other coils. However, the caliper fit over the thickest part of the bottom of the Bosch shaft, BUT wouldn't fit over the bottom buldge of the Delphi coil. This leads me to believe there shouldn't be any clearance issue inside the plug's cylinder.
5: while I didn't have Morelli's measurements for depth, the length of both the Bosch coil and the Delphi were very very close as to where they would be fully seated. I'm thinking worst case scenario is the metal shielding at the tip of the Bosch would need trimmed halfway up or removed, although I think even that is unlikely. I think worst case scenario is I'll have to snip the tabs at the head of the coil, but we'll see.

Unfortunately I'm still waiting on my harness to get here, but I expect that BL will probably move to this coil (assuming it fits) if they want to stay with OE/genuine coils and as long as people are willing to give up the red top. If they aren't, well I think there's an red version too - OEM spec though instead of actually OE :p
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fmorelli

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Aug 11, 2017
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When you get them, please do take some measurements, since we have a published basis. Best of luck, I hope it works well. Just remember that you have to measure and prove that the coil is actually correctly seating on the plug, as firing up the car and saying it works ... doesn't mean anything :). Keep us in the loop, please!

Filippo
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
When you get them, please do take some measurements, since we have a published basis. Best of luck, I hope it works well. Just remember that you have to measure and prove that the coil is actually correctly seating on the plug, as firing up the car and saying it works ... doesn't mean anything :). Keep us in the loop, please!

Filippo
I definitely plan on keeping you guys in the loop! If it all works out like I think (or hope? lol) it will I might even reach out to @Alex@BimmerLifeTuning to let him know, although I've been having a hard time getting a hold of him regarding my order anyway so...

Fair warning though Morelli, I'm a simple car-enthusiast-cum-techguy, not an engineer of any kind so my measurements will almost certainly not be at your level :p I do plan on ordering a cheap micrometer from Amazon so I can double check this and other things but I have far less tools and tech experience than you.
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
I know I emailed about upgraded harness and got crickets
I just straight up placed an order for the harness cause I didn't previously have a kit because it said in stock, I'm not even trying to get a discounted "upgrade/replacement", I just want my product period so I can get started. I've emailed him once and sent two fb messages so far but no dice on a reply either unfortunately, really bumming me out tbh.

The fact that it was finally listed as in stock vs PR saying "next week" for the past month is what made me 100% confident in my decision to go this route, I just hope it doesn't bite me in the ass :/ Alex seems like a pretty stand up dude though so I'm not gonna start dissing.
 
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Rob09msport

Major
Oct 28, 2017
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Monroe CT
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09 335i msport le mans 18 x5
I just straight up placed an order for the harness cause I didn't previously have a kit because it said in stock, I'm not even trying to get a discounted "upgrade/replacement", I just want my product period so I can get started. I've emailed him once and sent two fb messages so far but no dice on a reply either unfortunately, really bumming me out tbh.

The fact that it was finally listed as in stock vs PR saying "next week" for the past month is what made me 100% confident in my decision to go this route, I just hope it doesn't bite me in the ass :/ Alex seems like a pretty stand up dude though so I'm not gonna start dissing.
He was when all was going good but a loyal wife isnt one that dont bang the milk man when your at work it's one that stays with you when you get a DUI on the way home from dinner with her and are gone for two years. I'm really hoping he proves me wrong as I liked him but he has not been handling this as good as he should have
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
He was when all was going good but a loyal wife isnt one that dont bang the milk man when your at work it's one that stays with you when you get a DUI on the way home from dinner with her and are gone for two years. I'm really hoping he proves me wrong as I liked him but he has not been handling this as good as he should have
I agree with your sentiment, but after posting in the FB groups today one of his friends or employees informed me Alex had a surprise delivery of his baby so I can understand why it happened. He actually reached out to me personally a minute ago and said he'll have my harness on its way tomorrow.
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
(Sorry about the double post if it's not allowed)

Got my harness in this morning, Amazon delivered my Chinese calipers (Sorry @fmorelli lol) just now apparently, and all my coils and new plugs have been patiently waiting. Unfortunately I'm working til 9 tonight so they probably won't go on until tomorrow or Monday along with a write-up and pictures, whether the process succeeds or fails lol.

I might have a chance to post up some measurements of the Bosch R8 coils tonight if anyone would like, but I don't have any spare N54 coils to compare them with and as I'm using Chinese calipers I don't know that I want to directly compare to morelli's. My thinking is if I use my calipers and just my measurements it'll be more accurate regarding the differences, akin to properly using a dyno vs. the usual use.
 

Rob09msport

Major
Oct 28, 2017
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09 335i msport le mans 18 x5
I think your calipers should do fine for these purposes. Not measuring lash or clearances were are taking mm level accuracy as plenty
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
I think your calipers should do fine for these purposes. Not measuring lash or clearances were are taking mm level accuracy as plenty
Yeah, I think they'll be fine for how I'm gonna use'em too - I just wanted to clarify for people that my measurements would probably differ from Morelli's if we were to compare the two, because his tools are likely much more precisely calibrated than mine, but that my measurements will be fine to compare against themselves.
Basically I didn't want a case of "well why do VRSF'S relocated inlets dyno higher peak HP than VTT's if they're the same ID and specs??? One must be better!" when the answer is because the starting point was different lol.


Gonna get underway with this project in a few hours here. I just have a couple things I want to knock out first like gapping my plugs before I get to the garage etc. Fwiw I think the quality of the harness is decent enough - maybe not OE level still but far from crappy and I've dealt with other aftermarket parts that were much worse quality yet got much higher praise.
 

Panzerfaust

Lieutenant
Jul 3, 2018
637
438
0
Chicago
Ride
E92 335i
Well, a couple things from my experiment.

Firstly: the new harness is excellent, no issues whatsoever for me there. Again, it's not as thick of plastic and say... our charge pipes? But it's comparable to several other OE clips and even things like our TMAP sensors, maybe a bit thinner. Definitely not at all disappointed there.

The good news, part A: my coils are clearly seated, you can feel when the rubber grabs onto the plug and there's a nice suction-y "pop!" when pulling them off the plug just like with our OE coils, and my measurements line up with that too (see attached pics)

The bad news: my tools for (accurately) cutting metal seem to have gotten "lost" when I moved a couple months back, so I couldn't just cut the shielding off the tip like I hoped. Unfortunately, much like you guys I ended up yanking the exterior off the damn coils after all.

Good news part B: according to my measurements, these things seat perfectly and would still fit properly with just the ~5/8" of metal cut off. Im gonna swing by the hardware store and buy another coil to double-prove this sometime soon cause I feel like a let down.

Uploaded in order of importance. I have lots more photos but I'm at work right now so uploading from a phone isn't fun. Forgive me for the shitty tools and if I measured anything weird, this was my first time using a caliper to this extent lol
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