Coil boiling??

[jesserose17]

After driving home for lunch and just before heading back to work, I noticed a 4" puddle of oil under the engine. I popped the hood and looked around - found that oil was coming from the Flamethrower II coil!! It was coming up through the coil output (where you plug the Distributor-coil wire). I have had it for about 5 months. I just noticed little oil coming out about a week ago, but didn't affect the performance.

Do you have any ideas why this is happening? I have the Pertronix II. I don't know if it makes any difference, the coil was mounted in front of the heads on driver's side.

 

[crushnut]

Sounds like it is getting too hot, or being overworked. What are you plug gaps set at? It could just be a faulty part

 

[jesserose17]

The plugs were gapped around .040-.045.

 

[crushnut]

That sounds reasonable, but overgapping the plugs is hard on a coil. I would see what kind of warranty it has, and try to get a replacement or refund.

 

[jesserose17]

Perhaps for a stock coil... however, this flamethrower II is a 45,000 volt coil - should have been able to handle .040-.045 gap with no problem, right?

 

[1969mach1351]

I've got a Blaster II and mine was dripping oil after a few thousand miles. I contacted MSD and I was told that mounting on its side (it's not supposed to be) is the number one reason for it leaking. Mine is vertical and the only problem was the screw on top was not tight. Not much oil came out of mine and I think it is still safe to use. Yours probably needs to be replaced due to the amount of oil loss. If you continue to use it check to see if it gets too hot. The oil is what keeps it from overheating.

 

[jesserose17]

Thanks for the tip, everyone. I don't run the ballast resistance to the coil... but after this, I may consider this.

 

[Sicarius428]

Damnit... now i got to move my coil upright and get a cable long enough to the firewall... Thanks for the info. Hasnt leaked yet but ill avoid any problems
Kevin

 

[jesserose17]

Looks like I was wrong about ballast resistance - I assumed I didn't have it by measuring the voltage at the coil input with wires running to distributor, but I discovered that's not how it's done. You are supposed to take the distributor wire off from the negative (dist) post of the coil and ground it by running the wire from it to engine ground. Then turn ingition key to on and measure voltage at input post - mine was at 6.6 Volts. With the ballast resistance, it will read 6-9 volts. Without it, it would have read 12V. So I can only guess mounting the coil upright on the head is probably too hot for it or just faulty unit.

 

[Ozsum67]

Looks like I was wrong about ballast resistance - I assumed I didn't have it by measuring the voltage at the coil input with wires running to distributor, but I discovered that's not how it's done. You are supposed to take the distributor wire off from the negative (dist) post of the coil and ground it by running the wire from it to engine ground. Then turn ingition key to on and measure voltage at input post - mine was at 6.6 Volts. With the ballast resistance, it will read 6-9 volts. Without it, it would have read 12V. So I can only guess mounting the coil upright on the head is probably too hot for it or just faulty unit.

Mine is mounted on the head in an upright position on the passenger side.

 

[mfp4073]

I had a flamethrower coil that was mounted vertically and did just that. It was only about 2 years old. Replaced it with a blaster coil and no problems. I dont really trust the flamethowers as I have heard this several times now.