Best Coil Packs For The Money?

Mineral4.6 · Mar 21, 2015

So ive been having issues with my car, started out with horrible hesitation and jerkyness unless i was WOT. started with a bottle of Seafoam, and had the parts store read my codes. came up with a mass air sensor failed. replaced the sensor and plugs and car felt amazing... for about a week. now the hesitation is back followed by miss fireing on occasion (check engine light flashes) now im getting a o2 sensor code (bank 1 sensor 2) and a po430 code (which online states either exhaust leak or bad cat, fixed the collecter leak) just ordered two DENSO o2 sensors upstream. Because of the hesitation im leaning towards replacing the coil packs (130k on the car) AM has a set of MSD for $190 and a set of SR for $170. ive heard OEM is the best route but i refuse to pay $60-$100 a coil pack.

Any opinions?

vertigasen · Mar 21, 2015

First, follow the problem, and dont just throw money at it. See that the new O2 sensors do, then go from there.

I am on my 4th set of COPs over the years. I was stock, of course, at the beginning. When I did my Kenne Bell, I thought I needed more, so I got the Weapon X COPs. They were just as good as the stockers, and worked great for 4 years. When I did my big upgrade to the Whipple, the Weapon X cops were VERY hard to deal with because of the clearance to the new fuel rails I was using. They are Pencil type COPs, solid and straight, not like the stock type that has the flexible end. So, for me to remove the Weapon X COPs for anything, I had to remove the fuel rails and injectors just to get the COPs out. I switched to a set of Grantenelli Hot Street coils. They seemed to be fine at the beginning, but I started to get a little bucking cruising at low RPMs. It was fine above 2k RPMs, but would just give the occasional buck around 1500 RPMs (only at lower speeds 30 mph in 3rd gear...40 mph in th gear). I ditched those, and went back to stock. I got them for about $43 each from Summitt Racing.

I would say TRY go to Motorcraft ones....if not, from my experience, I would look at Weapon X. This is only my opinion and experiences with the above brands.

Mineral4.6 · Mar 21, 2015

Thanks for the reply. I'm definitely going to wait and see what happens with new o2's before spending any more money. Cleaning the IAC helped a bit. From other forums I've read the coil packs are either on or their off and hardly miss, and that's more then likely the boots go bad before the actual coil pack itself. If O2 doesn't clear up $40 for after market boots with lifetime warranty from autozone. If that doesn't work I'll return them for my $40 dollars and purchase new coil packs/boots.

wmburns · Mar 21, 2015

IMO the absolute best BANG for the buck is to replace just the COP insulator boots. A set of (8) cost less than cost of a single new COP. What many people don't realize is that if water/moisture gets inside the spark plug wells, this may make the spark arc out. This creates a misfire but more importantly it will ruin the insulator boot. Once the insulation is damaged, it will continue to misfire. Often the COP itself is just fine.

While you are there, clean out the spark plug wells with compressed air.

Here's an example of a Duralast 90003.

Duralast/Wireset 90003 at AutoZone.com

Mineral4.6 · Mar 22, 2015

Thanks for the reply! As I stated previously I'm on the same page with replacing just the boots now. If that doesn't clear up this miss I'll take them back to autozone and order my self a set of coil w/new boots.

Mineral4.6 · Mar 24, 2015

Replaced boots this morning and found two issues..

One COP bolt on the drivers side just spins.. Thread insert is broken and spinning with the bolt. On the passenger side one spark plug well had a puddle of antifreeze. Which is no doubt causing my miss fire.. Looks dry up top so not sure how the coolant got in there. I'm suspecting my intake manifold gasket has failed, or the intake is cracked..

I've read that 99-2000 had recalls for bad intakes, not sure if mine was ever replaced. It's plastic with aluminum cross over.

mransr · Mar 24, 2015

if you have the aluminum cross-over, you have a new manifold, the original had a plastic cross-over.

Mineral4.6 · Mar 24, 2015

Yeah that's what I have. I'm thinking maybe the gasket is leaking. When the car gets hot it doesn't over heat, but I can turn my heater vents on and smell coolant. And I can hear it dripping onto the headers but can't visually see it. Coolant level hasn't been very low always seems reasonable.

squeak93 · Mar 27, 2015

The aluminum ones can still leak. I've seen them fail, just not as often as the plastic ones. Check for seal issues as you've already stated.

1987stangman · Apr 10, 2015

What cylinder was the antifreeze in? That back heater hose port on the intake manifold can be pesky too.

1987stangman · Apr 10, 2015

Also don't waste your money on aftermarket coil packs. In my book the stock oe replacements work just fine.

Mineral4.6 · Apr 10, 2015

Coolant was in the #1? Furthest most cyclinder forward passenger side, by cross over.

So after looking over everything, I remember that I recently had to "attempt" a flush because previous owner ran dex cool... Orange coolant instead of green. I flushed for quite awhile BUT my water is still orange not green, the coolant I found in the plug well was bright green. I think coolant some how go into the plug well before I bought the car, and it just now affected the spark. Cleaned it out replaced boots and the car runs great.

I recently did the plugs, but car was up in the air enough to get under car for an oil change, so I wasn't able to look into the plug wells when I changed my plugs.

trombonedemon · Apr 12, 2015

Yea, I hope you understand that these coil on plugs are made by the same company. All you need is a brand name and some cash!!!

Three50won · Apr 13, 2015

Just adding my 2 cents in. I had a built short block with ported heads, stage 2 cams, and 15 psi through a Vortech S-Trim...along with headers, PP intake manifold, etc. I bought the Accel COPs and it did smooth out the engine. And it made for a bit more noticeable throttle response and it was a bit snappier it seemed. The problem was that after a two engine swaps they started making my engine run like crap. They didn't even have 5K miles on them. They ended up in the dumpster. If I had left them alone installed on one engine and never bothered them then perhaps they would have been fine. The only way I'd buy them again is if I built another engine and ran high boost again. Until then the stockers are more than fine.

Gearbanger 101 · Apr 13, 2015

trombonedemon said:
Yea, I hope you understand that these coil on plugs are made by the same company. All you need is a brand name and some cash!!!

That's not true.

About 2 1/2 years ago, I had one of my OE COP's go bad on my F150. It was about time the truck had a tune up anyway, so I decided to buy 8-new (EBay brand) COP's along with 8-new Motorcraft plugs. Within 20-months, each and every one of the 8 replacement COP's had failed.....usually within a few months of one and other.

The worst part was, that when I bought them, they were sold with Lifetime Warranty. Since though, the company has revised their policy and now only offer 1-year warranty. So when it came time for them to come good, they told me to go pound sand. Ebay washed their hands of it also, since the transaction was over a year old. NEVER AGAIN!!!

As each new coil went bad, I put my original OE COP's that I had kept for spares (just in case) in their place and purchased one new original Ford COP to replace the initial failed one and have not had an issue since.

I will never...EVER buy aftermarket COP's again and don't suggest anyone else buy them either. You truly get what you pay for.

rustange · May 11, 2015

I just installed the MSD coil packs you talked about from AM. Fixed my misfire code and the price was right. can't beat that In my opinion.

Best Coil Packs For The Money?

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