car keeps eating COIL PACKS????

[1985GN]

hey guys i have a prob i keep running into all of a sudden seems my car likes to go thorugh coil packs every couple weeks. ok heres how it started the first pack i have had on the car for about 2 years with no probs. i put my motor back together got it all running with no probs and everything was fine. about a month into it all the car started breaking up in third gear. noticed the terminals on the coil pack were nasty so i cleaned them up and tried it out and it ws all better. a week later it happened again so i bought a known good one from a relaible source on here and that one ended up going bad a week later. borrowed a known good one of a buddy while i waited for my other one to come. after about 2 weeks my buddies coil pack starts to go bad and the car is popping all over upnder boost. swapped on my next known good one and the car ran fine while making full runs. about 2 weeks later this one is know breaking up in 3rd gear. new plugs, wires, good gap, nothing major wrong. why is it all of a sudden i cant get a coil pack to seem to work. should i just cough up some cash and buy a NEW one or an aftermarket one?? any help would be great this is driving me nuts

 

[turbofrank]

I just went thru same thing with know good coil packs (3). Bite the bullet buy new. I Bought from Advance Auto with 1yr warranty. After installing coilpack 80% of miss disappeared replaced mod and car ran fine. Try to find someone with coil/mod tester definity a plus. Mine went bad.

 

[TurboJim]

Do you have any type of CD unit (Capacative discharge) on the car? ie: MSD, Jacobs etc?

 

[1985GN]

nope no kind of stuff like msd or jacobs the whole ignition system is stock this just started to happen all of a sudden. im thinking about trying to buy a new one from advanced and seeing what happens. any other ideas before i blow money away, thanks

 

[MaxVO2]

Make sure your grounds are good (esp ones on passenger side cyl head), as well as the one on the front by the turbo bracket which gets covered in crud.

Also, check that you don't have a short in one or more of the plug wires, and that they snap on to every coil tower prong nicely. If any seem loose or they seem worn, fix it. Use a multimeter and check resistance on each of them. Also, clean off the connectors that plug into the module/coil itself and make sure none of the pins are bent or damaged.

Hope this helps

Billy

 

[bruce]

Originally posted by 1985GN
hey guys i have a prob i keep running into all of a sudden seems my car likes to go thorugh coil packs every couple weeks. ok heres how it started the first pack i have had on the car for about 2 years with no probs. i put my motor back together got it all running with no probs and everything was fine.

Is there a little ground strap from the coil mounting stud that's grounded to the firewall?.

There some 87 FWD cars that use the same module, a used junkyard one, is better then any aftermarket one, IMO.

 

[1985GN]

well i went ahead and picked up a new GM coil pack from the GM dealer i work at and installed it today. well i went out for a pass and the damn thing still have a miss you can hear but not really feel its more a slight hesitation. i have new plugs gapped to .30 in there, new wires, new coil pack and module, translator and lt1 MAF, no boost leaks, and it sounds like the noise when it misses is coming from the passenger side of the engine bay. what else can i look at here to find this slight hesitation its driving me nuts. it only does it under boost and high in the rpm,s. any idea to look would be great this is a stumper for me

 

[83ttypecooled]

misfire

Hi!
I chased a similar misfire until I had just about crossed all the bridges, and guess what? I had a fuel starvation problem! I changed the pump to a Walbro 340, no more misfire!Pulled out some large diameter monster that was not doing the job, don't know who made it. Anyway, this could be your trouble.
Dale

 

[LV GN]

also make sure all bolts holding the coilpak brakets are tight. i had one with lose bolts that did the same thing.

 

[1985GN]

well guys i think i may have figured the problem out but wont know till the roads dry by me. as i was thinking about it that noise coming from the passenger side got me to looking over there. as i was over there i remembered that the negative battery cable is going to one of the bolts in the turbo flange. i checked out the cable and the bolt was loose as hell and cable was not touching that great. tightend all the bolts and grounded a wire to the coil pack bracket and alternator case. started car up and noticed i had a reading of a full 14 volts on the scan tool at idle which is something i have not had lately. hopefully when i can take this out it will all be fixed, ill let you know

 

[Quick6'n'-K.C.]

i breifly read the thread-

did you swap the coil AND module?

you keep mentioning that it eats coils, is it the same coil that burns out?

a bad module will eat a coil, i wonder if its just the module and not the coils you keep burning up?

BW

 

[1985GN]

i have swapped both module and coils. here is what i come up with after all this. i took my engine builder for a ride you cna hear what sounds like a miss or exhaust leak or some intermittent noise coming form the passenger side of the engine. it only does it in high rpm's and under load. the engine itself is not missing anymore but that noise is there and its driving me nuts. any ideas?

 

[Quick6'n'-K.C.]

exhaust leak?

does the car nose over at WOT? as in does it fall on its face when the problem exists?

BW

 

[GNVAIR]

If it isnt an exhaust leak then I would start checking for a head gasket that only leaks while under boost. I have seen this before on one of my own cars. Car would idle and drive fine. Under boost it didnt pop or sputter but had a noise which was the head gasket blown towards to outside of the block. It wasnt blown to the point where the fire ring blew out either. Just the graphite section was blown out.

 

[1985GN]

i was just about to post my findings when i see that GNVAIR git it on the nose. i took a peak under the car to see what hte gaskets looked like and its leaking out of hte head gasket on the p/s of the motor. i have the steel shims so im gonna try to retourqe them for the time being, thanks to everyone that helped me out on this one.