felrivad

I posted about it in my build thread, but figured its own thread might be suitable too.

im at the point now of upgrading my ignition set up for my turbo build, and had been planning for making my own ls2 coil kit for a few years. With more recent researching i’ve read those LS coils have become harder and more expensive to find. Seems like the new r8 coils are the more popular choice now? and they’re considerably cheaper to replace plus being a direct COP unlike the ls coils, but most of the threads ive found are from when they were still relatively new to the scene.

Anyone running R8 coils for a few years or seasons now and care to share how they've done after some abuse and time? anyone switch from LS to R8 for notable differences? or switch from R8 to LS?
I know some people like @curly were against them at the start but in a later forum mentioned having purchased the FlowForce kit

felrivad

speaking of, @nigelt i see the kit with a bracket for the 1.6 90' R8 coils is unavailable on your site, and the site still says the seals for the non-bracket version are still on backorder. is there an update on this? id like to mount the coils on a bracket

Diamond Dave

I'm looking at R35 coils
https://www.wiringspecialties.com/pr...ket-hw-stalks/

felrivad

​​​​​​​what are you searching for in these that you couldn't get from ls2 or r8 or toyota cops?

der_vierte

2 1/2 years now, two different ECU's, never had a problem

curly

iTrader: (25)

I was, and still am, a strong opponent against any and all VAG products. However, I'll admit these coils seem to be decent. I'd much rather have a set of these over LS coils. I did even have an early set, however my ECU at the time wasn't compatible (MS3 Basic). I'm now running a G4X, which should work. However at 315hp, I still haven't ran into drivability or tuneability issues with the stock VVT coils and NGK wires, plugs gapped to .025". Although I don't track my car anymore. I've tuned quite a few sets of these R8 coils with great success, but only on ~200-240hp or naturally aspirated setups. Mostly NB1s or NA8s trying to clean up the engine bay, or in the case of the NBs, get rid of the unreliable stock coil setup.

felrivad

if you’d much rather have these over LS coils, and those were known for a while to be the best coil for our cars in most applications, the R8 coils must be pretty good or you must not like LS coils much anymore

that’s good to hear. i’m only shooting for 225-240hp with a gt28r on a 1.6. nothing that is unheard of.


it doesn’t seem theres any current comparisons of quantitative substance between these coils like there was in the mega coilpack test and comparison thread or a few other threads that followed it from some years ago. so it looks like the group consensus is that these are the go-to coils now for most applications, at least if it’s based on price and ease of finding replacement coils.

Now i just need to get a hold of @nigelt to see when he plans on having coil brackets or the seals back in stock so i can place an order.

curly

iTrader: (25)

If you’re only shooting for 200-240, stick with stock coils. I don’t have a lot of experience with LS coils beyond a few sets that have worked well on ~300hp setups. But again, I’ve found that stock coils are fine there too. I’m a firm believer that 90% of the threads that say “ABC ignition products solved my misfires” were simply because new plugs and coils were installed.

if someone put a gun to my head and asked if I’d rather have a GM or VAG product on my car, I’d probably choose the gun. So you may be asking the wrong guy.

edit: my understanding is also that you’re more likely to get x4 good r8 coils over LS coils, so keep that in mind.

bmxfuel007

iTrader: (21)

obviously not LS coils or R8 coils, but another option are the R35 gtr ignition coils. OEM hitachi coils can be purchased from rockauto for $55.79 each and offer more spark than the R8 coil without having to worry about if your ecu can drive it or not. I've had them in for about 3 years without any problems, although I barely drive the car these days

AussieMSM

I'd love to run R35 coils so I can run a bigger spark gap and tidy up the engine bay (my ECU can't control the R8s). But the R35 coils/connectors don't seem to fit the narrower MSM valve cover from what I've searched and been told. I couldn't find a solution (didn't want the gawky LS coil setup) before I had a retune done (bigger injectors, bigger exhaust) but it's been perfectly fine on the stock coils. Previously I had little hiccups on cold mornings low rpm cruising which I thought was the narrow plug gap. That's completely gone post retune. So I'm with curly - 320hp on stock coils runs perfectly fine, and they're the original 2004 coils too.... I'll spend my money on other parts.

bmxfuel007

iTrader: (21)

You can run different boots with the R35 coils. NC miata spark plug boots apparently fit on to the R35 coils and fit pretty snug in the spark plug tubes including MSM valve covers. The stock R35 spark plug boot doesn't fit our spark plugs as it's narrower, but thankfully those boots are pretty cheap to replace and interchange. I'm using a hold down plate for my setup along with some nissan pathfinder plug boots

ed1380

My supercharged A6 uses the "R8" coils stock. Part# starts with 06e. First one went out at 160k. I've switched to the black ones that start with 07k. 40k later they're still holding up. I'd say they're reliable enough

just a heads up. 02-07ish vag coilpacks are different and less reliable. I don't know what their part# starts with