LS Ignition Coil Upgrade
- Thread starter Gimpster
- Start date
Gimpster
New member
Alright folks, ...
1.) I have updated the parts section with the new gold plated pins. These did solve my intermittent connection issues. The gold plating just adds a bit more meat to them, and they match up perfectly to the stock coil pack pins now.
2.) I more/less completed the mounting solution today. It just needs a little grinding/wheeling and then it should be ready. I am leaning towards painting it vs. powder coating just in the name of saving some money. I have a bunch of rust bullet around too, so I can use that.
I didn't realize I was out of argon, so I had to use my MIG and.. well it could have turned out better, but it'll do. I'll copy/paste what I put into the guide below.
3.) I need to figure out plug wires now. The LS3 style truck wires I had laying around are too short by about 2". There are some longer OEM wires out there, I just need to swing by the parts store and see whats going to work. I think the Escalade wires should work, they are 10".. if not there are other options that are longer.
Too short:
EDIT UPDATE: I went to the parts store, and AC Delco 748HH will be perfect.
Anyway, its getting close...
---
This is one of those things you will have to do according to you skill, and what materials are available to you. I kinda whipped this up quick in a couple hours with hardware store steel and my MIG welder. I do not claim to be a master fabricator, so laugh away.
What I did was re-use the stock coil mounting bosses on the top of the cylinder head. As you can see, I just used some flat steel to hold my coil bracket. I then welded on a couple ears diagonally to ensure they would clear the nearby spark plug wells. Then to those ears, I welded on some tube steel to the length I wanted for the bolts to go through to the head.
At first, I was going to make some elaborate rear bracket to use the fuel rail mounting bolts. After looking at it more, this seemed really unnecessary. So I used some rubber standoffs and the weight of the coil brackets + coils allow it to sit firmly over the intake cam area of the cam cover. I tweaked the tubes+arms back a little to make it act like a spring, and its pretty rock solid.
The pictures kind of explain the rest, but I countersunk the coil bracket holes so the hardware wouldn't rub against the cam cover.
The way I made this, I should be able to utilize a couple commercially available covers (with modifications) and I think it'll look okay.
My plan is to either paint or powder coat my mount gloss black, I am not sure yet.
1.) I have updated the parts section with the new gold plated pins. These did solve my intermittent connection issues. The gold plating just adds a bit more meat to them, and they match up perfectly to the stock coil pack pins now.
2.) I more/less completed the mounting solution today. It just needs a little grinding/wheeling and then it should be ready. I am leaning towards painting it vs. powder coating just in the name of saving some money. I have a bunch of rust bullet around too, so I can use that.
I didn't realize I was out of argon, so I had to use my MIG and.. well it could have turned out better, but it'll do. I'll copy/paste what I put into the guide below.
3.) I need to figure out plug wires now. The LS3 style truck wires I had laying around are too short by about 2". There are some longer OEM wires out there, I just need to swing by the parts store and see whats going to work. I think the Escalade wires should work, they are 10".. if not there are other options that are longer.
Too short:
EDIT UPDATE: I went to the parts store, and AC Delco 748HH will be perfect.
Anyway, its getting close...
---
This is one of those things you will have to do according to you skill, and what materials are available to you. I kinda whipped this up quick in a couple hours with hardware store steel and my MIG welder. I do not claim to be a master fabricator, so laugh away.
What I did was re-use the stock coil mounting bosses on the top of the cylinder head. As you can see, I just used some flat steel to hold my coil bracket. I then welded on a couple ears diagonally to ensure they would clear the nearby spark plug wells. Then to those ears, I welded on some tube steel to the length I wanted for the bolts to go through to the head.
At first, I was going to make some elaborate rear bracket to use the fuel rail mounting bolts. After looking at it more, this seemed really unnecessary. So I used some rubber standoffs and the weight of the coil brackets + coils allow it to sit firmly over the intake cam area of the cam cover. I tweaked the tubes+arms back a little to make it act like a spring, and its pretty rock solid.
The pictures kind of explain the rest, but I countersunk the coil bracket holes so the hardware wouldn't rub against the cam cover.
The way I made this, I should be able to utilize a couple commercially available covers (with modifications) and I think it'll look okay.
My plan is to either paint or powder coat my mount gloss black, I am not sure yet.
Last edited:
Gimpster
New member
I officially put these on the car tonight and did some test driving. Wanted to do some shake down before I commit to painting/coating the mounting bracket.
My initial impression is my car runs smoother, it for SURE idles smoother. As I said early on, my car stumbled at idle pretty regularly. Especially on cold starts in the morning. The second odd thing, and please I need to put more miles/pulls on the car to validate this, but my little 1-2* phantom knock is gone. The car even feels cleaner to redline, like really crisp. If I've just been fighting a failing/weak coil pack for a month... thats annoying
I have kinda decided this will be my v1.0 setup, and at some point I'll make another mounting bracket at the minimum. I regret not having pushed back the coil bracket about 1.5-2", it would make the plug wires look a lot cleaner. The only thing I could really do on this setup is switch to some 90* boots at the coil.
Anyway, here it is on the car as it is now. Pardon the wiring adapter not being loomed for now, I didn't want to heat shrink it all up until I shake this down.
My initial impression is my car runs smoother, it for SURE idles smoother. As I said early on, my car stumbled at idle pretty regularly. Especially on cold starts in the morning. The second odd thing, and please I need to put more miles/pulls on the car to validate this, but my little 1-2* phantom knock is gone. The car even feels cleaner to redline, like really crisp. If I've just been fighting a failing/weak coil pack for a month... thats annoying
I have kinda decided this will be my v1.0 setup, and at some point I'll make another mounting bracket at the minimum. I regret not having pushed back the coil bracket about 1.5-2", it would make the plug wires look a lot cleaner. The only thing I could really do on this setup is switch to some 90* boots at the coil.
Anyway, here it is on the car as it is now. Pardon the wiring adapter not being loomed for now, I didn't want to heat shrink it all up until I shake this down.
Big Turbo Sonic
Member
Share the data from HPT please
Gimpster
New member
Check out post #3, I have attached the location in VCM Editor and an Excel file with the dwell settings exported you can copy/paste into HPT. So you should be good to go!
Share the data from HPT please
Gimpster
New member
I have that disabled
I actually finally got frustrated enough to make a post on HPT forum about it, we'll see if anyone has their ears on. I knocked the car back to 15psi tonight, and the f'ing thing is STILL pulling KR.
At this point it feels like something is mechanically wrong. I'm also going to swap plugs this weekend when I have time and re-torque the knock sensor to spec out of desperation.
I actually finally got frustrated enough to make a post on HPT forum about it, we'll see if anyone has their ears on. I knocked the car back to 15psi tonight, and the f'ing thing is STILL pulling KR.
At this point it feels like something is mechanically wrong. I'm also going to swap plugs this weekend when I have time and re-torque the knock sensor to spec out of desperation.
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Big Turbo Sonic
Member
Your not alone. I too get false knock.
Gimpster
New member
I should bump the tuning thread... but whatever.
Out of curiosity, have you toned down the IAT and AFR (it adds timing in PE mode) modifiers at all? The car is adding back in quite a bit of timing due to those I've noticed, and I might be chasing my tail a bit. As in, I keep yanking timing out of the high octane map only to have it re-added and then back on the same boat with KR. I used to disable almost all of those on my Cobalt's.
Toning down burst knock has for sure helped me a lot, and also being careful with how hard I ramp up boost as well.
This engine is really touchy... small bore ftl.
Out of curiosity, have you toned down the IAT and AFR (it adds timing in PE mode) modifiers at all? The car is adding back in quite a bit of timing due to those I've noticed, and I might be chasing my tail a bit. As in, I keep yanking timing out of the high octane map only to have it re-added and then back on the same boat with KR. I used to disable almost all of those on my Cobalt's.
Toning down burst knock has for sure helped me a lot, and also being careful with how hard I ramp up boost as well.
This engine is really touchy... small bore ftl.
Italianjoe1
Member
I did basically the same with the sonic as I've done on LNF cobalts, pulled the adder tables way down so the car would run my actual commanded timing. I had the same issue, car was running way more than the basic map until I got all the adders in check.
I normally leave the PE adder intact, just modified. It's doing it's job, to an extent, by keeping timing reasonable if you are lean at high rpms for whatever reason, I tune my sonic to be safe for the wife to drive, she's not thinking like a tuner lol. I did re-work the desired demand table quite a bit, and she is much happier with the way the car drives now.
Pirate Luke
Member
Any long term update on this? Still using your setup? Any issues? About to do something similar to my car.
JTee2017
Well-known member
Hasn't been around since October 2018. . .
The post below explains he sold the Sonic - - -
Pirate Luke
Member
Hasn't been around since October 2018. . .
The post below explains he sold the Sonic - - -
Thanks. I do remember reading that now that you mention it, didn't realize it was this same member. Anyhow, maybe anyone else who's done this modification can comment on its reliability?
i really liked this DIY but i didnt like the the ******* of the LS harness. i think having it "parking lot" replaceable is a huge plus.
i made an adapter that goes from the factory LS harness to the 1.4 harness.
i made an adapter that goes from the factory LS harness to the 1.4 harness.
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