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If you’re rolling around in a late-model Mustang sporting a Modular-style 4.6L Two-, Three-, or Four-Valve engine, or even the newer 5.0L Coyote powerplant, you’ve likely realized that it doesn’t have a distributor to provide an ignition source. Most late model engines have eight individual coil-near-plug units that get there power from an engine harness.
The eight-pack of coils show up complete with the silicone boots; all you need to get them installed is a basic mechanic’s tool set with metric sockets and a swivel.
In fact, you may have even had one or more of these fail over the years, as corrosion and underhood heat can be fatal to the sensitive electronic components. Thankfully, ACCEL Ignition has developed a set of replacements that are designed to withstand the tough conditions under the hood. Their eight-pack of Super Coils for two-valve modular powered Mustangs, provides an all-in-one pack of coils that are direct replacements for the OEM units and they are available for all of the engine platforms listed above.
If you’ve ever changed a set of ignition wires, then you can change out modular coil-packs – it’s as simple as removing one bolt for each coil, pulling the old one out, and if you’re replacing the spark plutg at the same time you can do that along with this job. Installation is simple as well – a small dab of dielectric grease inside the coil’s boot end to to prevent corrosion around the plug top, and replacing the bolt before plugging the connector back in.
Our test subject is this 2004 Mustang GT with typical bolt-on parts.
But the question in your mind becomes – “Why do I need these?” Well, we’re here to tell you why! ACCEL’s Super Coils have special silicone magnetic steel cores, an optimized winding method, and better-than-factory resistance and turn ratios. What does this mean to you? In short, they are capable of providing ten to fifteen percent more spark energy to the plug than an OEM coil pack – improved ignition energy helps to complete the fuel burn in the combustion chamber.
The first step in replacement is to disconnect the old coil pack from the harness. Make sure the engine is off when you are doing so – these things pack a punch!
They are available for all of the Ford modular engine designs; the Two-Valve [PN 140032-8], Three-Valve [PN 140033-8], and Four-Valve [PN 140034-8] are all well-represented in the product line. In addition, they are even producing Super Coils for the 5.0L Coyote engine [PN 140060-8]. The housings feature high temperature epoxy that is designed to resist shock and vibration as well as chemicals, all of which are present in the engine bay environment. In short, the ACCEL team realized that there were shortcomings to the OEM equipment and worked to eliminate them in their Super Coil lineup.
The stocker on the bottom versus our new ACCEL Super Coil on top. As you can see, external dimensions are virtually identical, but inside the Super Coils have more spark energy thanks to more efficient internals.
We wanted to test a set out to see what kind of gains a typical replacement would net, so to that end we picked out this automatic transmission-equipped 2004 40th Anniversary Mustang GT for a testbed. The car has basic bolt-ons, including a K&N cold-air intake, BBK Upper Plenum, a BBK throttle-body upgrade, and a set of headers to go with a cat-back exhaust; typical of what you might see at any local cruise night.
Our baseline dyno test netted 236.9 hp and 273.0 ft-lbs of torque on the Power Automedia in-house Dynojet chassis dynamometer, which are numbers to expect with this level of modification. We then put a set of 140032-8 Super Coils into a new home under the hood of our Mustang and ran the car on the dyno again.
A quick trip to the Power Automedia Dynojet netted us seven horses and seven foot-pounds of torque at the wheels. This tool has proven invaluable in the short time it’s been installed under the floor of the shop.
This time around, we spun the roller to 243.6 hp and 280.0 ft-lbs of torque, a solid gain of 6.7 hp and 7.0 ft-lbs. As you can see from the dyno graph, the gains were realized all the way across the board and provided us with a noticeable seat-of-the-pants change.
We chose to replace our coil packs as a complete set of eight - this way you minimize the chance of replacing one coil only to find out that there is another one causing an issue as well. In our experience the stockers are good for around 70,000 miles; after that you're tempting fate. You'll know when one fails, as the car will have a noticeable miss. A quarter-inch-drive ratchet, 7mm socket and a little bit of patience and you'll be back in business. Expect the swap to take somewhere around an hour.
ACCEL recommends that you change these in sets, and don’t mix one or two replacement coils in with an OEM group. Not only do you save a couple of bucks over purchasing them individually when you buy as a set, but you only have to mess around with changing them once.
The internal testing that ACCEL has done backs up the performance increase we were able to show on the dyno, and you might see even more of a gain on a supercharged or turbocharged vehicle. Check out the video!
