US Made Ignition Coils?
 

My 20 year old MSD Blaster coil looks to have given up the ghost. Looks like these have been moved across the pond now. Anyone else making a decent coil here in the states? If not, what’s my best bet for a offshore unit? I see where some have had decent luck with the Oreilly master pro coils. This is going in my 65.

I bought an MSD once;
never again.

I was super poor, and almost immediately observed an intermittant spark problem - which was traced to a faulty coil... which had zero warranty through the retailer - which was a local speed shop with a great reputation...
great.

never again will I buy an msd coil;
and after my dealing with that retailer, I vowed to never go back.

I have no idea if this information is accurate as its just some posts on another message board, but he sure talks like he knows what he is talking about.

https://www.chevelles.com/forums/13-...tion-coil.html

Long story short, it looks like you might not find a USA made one, so pick the best Chinese made one, or better yet the one that was at least assembled here so it created a few jobs.

Give it another year or two, that will change. ;)

I doubt it, I would take your action against it.

I think its possible a small company would do it, and within reason they would get my business. But I doubt a big company like MSD does, especially if its not just a money problem but a nasty chemical one. A safety issue that American workers just wouldn't want to deal with.

Dave Ray is a pretty well respected guy when it comes to ignitions(he was the small body HEI guy). That same link is where I came up with the Master Pro unit. They’re only $20. Guess I’ll give it a shot.

Good to know. He mentions mounting the oil filled coils up and down. I wonder how much truth there is to that. Don't a lot of factory installs have them horizontal?

Ran into this about 10 years ago & I honestly believe that people are better off with an old coil from a swap meet. My solution then was to buy a German made Bosch- can't tell you if they are still available.

Chrysler mounted many of their oil filled coils horizontal and did have some issues. I would mount it in the normal vertical position. Coils worked in that position for 20-30 years at a time on GM vehicles. MSD high production items like the 6 boxes and coils like you mentioned are now made in China. Like others, I don't know of any specific coil US made. I have had good luck over the years with Echlin parts and they have a strong warranty. But their parts are made all over the world now. If using an MSD box, make sure the replacement coil has the correct primary and secondary resistance.

I've used Bosch coils for years on our air cooled VW's without issues, bouncing them off road and what not. They are primarily mounted upside down on these applications too (mine are)

What about ICE ignition? I believe Tony Bischoff told my father they were manufactured in Australia. It's been his "go to" ignition for years and has been on all his winning EMC engines. Not cheap, but if quality is an issue, it's better than some of this Chinese stuff.

after having 3 msd blue HVC coils fail, one dead out of the box, and over $200 a pop. my next coil will be an ice ignition unit.
I believe they are manufactured here in Australia.

I did a quick little bit of looking on the Bosch coil thing. Lots of the ones for old porches and whatnot are 6V. I like the idea though, I would be curious if someone knows a couple model numbers that would retrofit to classic American V8s.

I'm not as hardline on chinesium as some. I prefer to buy American but I pick and choose my battles on where I think things are important to be American made when there is a large price or availability difference. I'm not going to fight hard for window crank handles for example.

But for things where quality is a big concern because it could strand you or worse, I would like to have options.


Also this has made me notice that I'm running my Ignitor 1 on my Galaxie without the ballast resistor and I probably shouldn't. So I guess that's a good catch before I burnt it up.

The bosch coils on my VW's are the 12 volt blue coils here.....

https://vwparts.aircooled.net/12V-Bo...p/00-012us.htm

I've been using the Summit E-core coils lately after I went thru a bunch of failures, have been serving me well.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-850500/overview/

The one on the 442 is used with a MSD 6AL-2, and a Holley HP type ECU, controlling timing. The coil has been failure free for over 30k miles. The specs of the coil meet the MSD 6AL-2 requirements.

Ran the same coil on the LeMans, with a Accel Street billet, (same as RTR), got many miles out of it, over 80k, no failures. The specs of the coil meet the Accel Street Billet requirements.

At $35 each, buy a couple, can even toss one in the trunk. They are black, no-name, small, and fit easily with a multitude of applications.

If you run a box or any ready to run distributors, check the docs for coil compatibility.

All the new cars run epoxy filled E-core or some even U-core coils, they get 100k+ miles in most cases. E-core are fairly backwards compatible, U-cores not so much, so check. Most ignition boxes and ready to run distributors have a value for coils for primary resistance, to be less than X.

.

Fresh out of old clean HEI coils. Time for U Pull it again.

my impression of that article:
- starts out as a fluff piece;
- then seems t get meaty and unbiased;
- then the bias towards MSD products becomes clear...

Another vote for ICE Ignitions. They are good blokes and built their business over a number of years with much experience in racing. Large percentage of Aussie drag racers use their products.

The oil-filled coils won't leak out as fast when the seal fails, if they are mounted vertically.

I forget his name at the moment, but 2 years ago I was talking to one of the CompCam/FAST guys. He had been at MSD for a long time, but jumped over to FAST after MSD got bought out and started shifting production out of El Paso. He told me the oil used in coils had been deemed to be carcinogenic, making it economically unfeasible for U.S. companies to continue making oil-filled coils (insurance, permits, special storage, etc costs).

Look at the Pertronix and Vertex epoxy-filled canister coils (if you want to keep a stock appearance).