Fab9 LS Coil Conversion Kit - Market Study
06-25-2014, 07:52 PM
#1
Fab9 LS Coil Conversion Kit - Market Study
Hello all,
We've had tremendous success with our Pencil Coil Conversion Kit (300 kits shipped in 5 months) but it's not for everyone and has it's place.
A couple of examples of why we're began developing our LS kit a few months back:
Here is where the "market study" part comes in. Throughout testing we've eliminated a number of mounting locations. The rear of the engine becomes a bit difficult, specifically with the LS Truck Coils and we'd like to avoid it for a handful of reasons but the front has it's own set of manufacturing difficulties.
Questions we have for you:
All of the mounting components will be machined from aluminum to provide a visually appealing piece that will "hold up" to the abuse these kits will see.
All of the harnesses (just like our current kit) are assembled using marine quality shrink tubing and durable braided sheething to withstand more than your OE wiring.
We've had tremendous success with our Pencil Coil Conversion Kit (300 kits shipped in 5 months) but it's not for everyone and has it's place.
A couple of examples of why we're began developing our LS kit a few months back:
- I personally discovered the performance limitation of our kit on my NB. At about 27-28PSI we are getting intermittent break up. There is still a need for a good ignition system beyond these power levels.
- ECU compatibility - Since our Pencil Coil Kit works very well with the factory ECU most assume it's going to work just fine with any aftermarket system. This is unfortunately not the case - Our module requires a very strong ignition signal to trigger properly and some aftermarket units are unable to provide this.
- Because LS Truck coil. Call it a marketing gimmick but the truth is they work. They might be complete overkill but hey, who want's to worry about their ignition system? We have enough to worry about on our higher HP BP engines.
Here is where the "market study" part comes in. Throughout testing we've eliminated a number of mounting locations. The rear of the engine becomes a bit difficult, specifically with the LS Truck Coils and we'd like to avoid it for a handful of reasons but the front has it's own set of manufacturing difficulties.
Questions we have for you:
- Should we assume most customers interested in purchasing the kit have performed a coolant re-route and eliminated the upper coolant neck?
- If compatible with the coolant neck, do you foresee any other space limiting factors near the front of the valve cover? (re-route pipes...?)
- Is it safe to assume most customers who will be installing the kit can follow a simple pin-out to adapt it to their ECU of choice?
- What percentage of customers will actually utilize a sequential vs wasted spark configuration? As of now we've prepared to offer it pre-wired per order for either wasted spark or sequential, you'd simply choose during check-out.
All of the mounting components will be machined from aluminum to provide a visually appealing piece that will "hold up" to the abuse these kits will see.
All of the harnesses (just like our current kit) are assembled using marine quality shrink tubing and durable braided sheething to withstand more than your OE wiring.
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06-26-2014, 08:24 AM
#6
The way I see it you either need to undercut flyin miatas price or sell something really different, like a DIY kit thats just a bracket and plug wires since GM practically made the whole harness already. Undercutting FM is going to be hard if your kit includes new coils.
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06-26-2014, 12:32 PM
#8
mkturbo.com
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Charleston SC
Posts: 15,176
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Are you planning on using OEM coils, or after market? I know the FM kit is expensive because they use OEM coils. Their bracket alone is about $100, and the plug wires are about $100.
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06-26-2014, 12:39 PM
#10
The plug wires are like $100, but keith said the bracket is $(some price that is $10 less than the ebay bracket). Money is all in the coils, they retail for $135 each from GM, you can get them on GM parts direct for $72.01 but thats still a lot of money. Especially when you can get a rack of 4 of them with an almost completely made wiring harness for $50 from the junk yard.
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06-26-2014, 12:42 PM
#11
mkturbo.com
iTrader: (24)
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Charleston SC
Posts: 15,176
Total Cats: 1,680
The plug wires are like $100, but keith said the bracket is $(some price that is $10 less than the ebay bracket). Money is all in the coils, they retail for $135 each from GM, you can get them on GM parts direct for $72.01 but thats still a lot of money. Especially when you can get a rack of 4 of them with an almost completely made wiring harness for $50 from the junk yard.
I do agree with just running to the junkyard and grabbing a set of coils there with the wiring. It is where you save the bulk of the money.
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06-26-2014, 12:50 PM
#12
Aftermarket is not all created equally - the major difference between the OE and aftermarket options is a thermal protection circuit and I've made sure our choice in aftermarket coil is equipped with this feature. Other aftermarket LS coils cook themselves. None of the LS coils are smart coils so they rely on the ECU to regulate dwell with load, unfortunately most DIY guys will set a flat dwell number and leave it at that (exactly why I'd like to be prepared with a thermal protection circuit).
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06-26-2014, 12:56 PM
#14
I can offer it either way. I have a great connection for the OE parts. I've opted for aftermarket coils on the couple of demo kits I have out there.. The plan is to run them through their paces at a higher dwell tolerance to do some quality testing but otherwise I don't see a good reason to go with an OE branded part. Thermal failure is the enemy and an increased dwell will rapidly speed that process up.
Aftermarket is not all created equally - the major difference between the OE and aftermarket options is a thermal protection circuit and I've made sure our choice in aftermarket coil is equipped with this feature. Other aftermarket LS coils cook themselves. None of the LS coils are smart coils so they rely on the ECU to regulate dwell with load, unfortunately most DIY guys will set a flat dwell number and leave it at that (exactly why I'd like to be prepared with a thermal protection circuit).
Aftermarket is not all created equally - the major difference between the OE and aftermarket options is a thermal protection circuit and I've made sure our choice in aftermarket coil is equipped with this feature. Other aftermarket LS coils cook themselves. None of the LS coils are smart coils so they rely on the ECU to regulate dwell with load, unfortunately most DIY guys will set a flat dwell number and leave it at that (exactly why I'd like to be prepared with a thermal protection circuit).
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06-26-2014, 03:01 PM
#19
The mock up that was installed is made of aluminum stock that I welded up - We have yet to actually mount it with 3D printed brackets (Shown in RED in our previous post).
As far as mounting it will likely be 3 points and the bracket design is not final. We will incorporate something a little nicer looking with branding.
As far as mounting it will likely be 3 points and the bracket design is not final. We will incorporate something a little nicer looking with branding.
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