New coilpacks Oem, Splitfires or Yellow jackets?

[lord_shadow_tck]

I'm planning to replace my coilpacks on my RB20det for brand new ones this fall and I would like to know what you think about it, (I want drop-in parts)

There are four options I'm thinking of :

Oem (Reliable I think)
R34 GT-R with ignitor removal mod
Splitfires
Yellow Jackets (cheaper but i've seen some people having to replace a faulty unit after 3-4 years)


Thanks for your advice!

[Bruizer]

I searched Google. Looks like oem is your best bet and r34 oem if you can get your hands on a harness. Cheers Google seach.

[99_SI]

I have splitfires four years strong! 12psi and running clean on rb25 with basic boltons .

[Shane_Sawatzki]

Ls2 truck coils.

[rvander1992]

Price/performance Guestimate by Me:

OEM Coilpacks
Perfectly fine when new however as they age they start to conduct through the rubber boot and wear out. This is why there is a general idea they suck, they're 25 years old people. Think they are 80-100$ each new? Or you can get a used set of 6 working ones for between 60-100$ if you don't mind them potentially wearing out soon. Look at it this way, not all of yours can be bad, just keep cycling!

Splitfires/yellowjackets
Cheaper than brand new oem at around 400$ for a set. Use oem harness and supposedly provide a 10HP boost(according to a splitfire ad I saw posted to this forum when I first started). Lots of people use them and they come with a decent warranty, pretty decent buy especially since they're plug and play.

R34 "upgrade"
I don't think this provides more power, and it costs around 600$, however it has the added bonus of individual ignitors on each coilpack. This gets rid of your 25 year old ignitor and poses 1 less point of failure. Rightdrive sells them and last I saw had some in stock.

Now into the DIY Solutions.

LS2 Coilpacks - 35$/set from wreckers, 60$ a piece new or 40$ a piece new from the states
Supposedly the highest power coilpacks available, and have the added bonus of bypassing your ignitor which is also 25 years old and probably about to fail. There was a thread on here a while back where people were seeing how big a plug gap they could get. I believe stock coilpacks is .08mm, someone managed 1.4mm at 16 psi in that thread with good results. This supposedly allows a cleaner burn of more stuff, which allows wider timing and therefore better low end/more top end.

Disclaimer: I am very uneducated on this and am kind of compiling reading from past research and could be misinformed.
They are very easy to wire up if you have some decent soldering skills. reds go together to either oem power source or the battery on a keyed relay. Blacks go to black oem relay(ecu) and the head(secondary ground). The last one is multi colored and goes to the factory ignitor plug. This is the hard part. you will need a 6 pin terminal for each side and have to crimp on to the engine harness as well as your DIY harness. These can be mounted coil on plug using a custom bracket and a shortened factory boot(your coilpacks are shot already anyways, may as well recycle), or remotely using plug wires.

Audi S4/R8 coilpacks:
These are easier than the ls2 coils, again get rid of your 25 year old ignitor, but put out a little less oomf. I believe this kit was found by Vlad and Slav at Eurocharged(credit where credits due). The coilpacks can be found as cheap as 25$ new which is nice, and can use pigtails harvested from random jetta's in a wreckers, or plugs can be bought new from volkswagen. Same as the ls2 coils you'll be making a custom harness, red to red, black to black, signal to signal with a custom 6 pin plug that gets crimped onto the factory harness. These are coil on plug pencil style and your coil cover ornament plate cannot be used with them. Good power for a total cost of 150$ which is nice.


I am personally running the ls2 coils. I went to a pick and pull, bought 16 coilpacks(2 vehicles) for 70$. They were both chevy 1500s or whatever with a vortec engine, which has the little heatsink ontop. I made custom plug wires using high quality taylor wires and made my own harness. Including buying 3 100ft spools of 14 gauge wire(this was a little heavy, maybe go 16 gauge), 2 6 pin terminals, and the coilpacks I spent about 200$. I then sold the second set of coilpacks for 100$ after sandblasting the mounting brackets and prepping them to be painted/powercoated. Total cost: 100$ and about 3 hours effort outside of picking everything up.

Edit: A little afterthought. You in no way need ls2 or audi coils. If you want to DIY they're nice because they're cheaper. Splitfires and yellow jackets have both been proven at 600-700hp applications, and oems have been known to make 600+ as well. It's all about how much you want to spend, and what kind of look you want. I went LS2 cause I was to broke for yellowjackets, and I was considering making a plug and play kit to sell so I wanted to try it on my car first. I never got my desired setup working(coil on plug) so I didn't put tons of effort into making kits. Maybe when I have more free time.