marelli coils

does anyone know if the marelli coils are oil filled, silicone filled or tar filled? I changed out my coils to the crane coils and was advised by the tech at crane that their coils can not be mounted horizontally and if I mount them that way they would overheat since the oil wont flow properly. I'm going to send them back but would like a suitable replacement that can be mounted horizontally. I'm looking to the bosch blues that are tar filled...any problems there?

 

I noticed a sloshing sound when I was handling my old Marelli coils, so I suspect them to be oil-filled.

Many people have used the Bosch coils on their cars with success. Remember, you don't need to use the ballast resistors with these coils (resistance is built-in in the Bosch).

I have ordinary Niehoff coils on my car and it runs fine. "Ferrari Tuning Tips & Maintenance Techniques" by Roush/Apen claim an ordinary Delco coil as fitted to Chevy 6-cylinders (book written in the time of the V-12 Ferrari) will match the Marelli one. Coils seem to be mounted in all sorts of positions on Ferraris (both front and mid-engined), so I don't think it should be too big of a concern.

What Crane may be worried about is that if their coil pumps out more current (and thus produce more heat), it'll cause problems. If you're using their XR700's, it is a simple solid-state breaker system and really doesn't need a high-powered coil.

 

I put a black MSD coil on my Boxer and used correct Marelli lapels to make it look OEM...

 

I had the bosch blues in conjunction with a Crane Cams XR700 boxes...worked great.

 

Mounting orientation should not be an issue. The oil that bathes the coil serves two purposes; heat distribution (via convection) and dialetric insulation (to prevent arcing). The manufacturer assumes that the end-user will mount the coil based on mechanical-geometric constraints.

If orientation was an issue, there would be an arrow on the device and label defining "up," similar to the label on the Coca-cola bottles delivered to Capital Hill, which on the bottom has the glass imprinted with, "Open other end."

Jim S.