Best kit for Coil-On-Plug (COP) conversion for 550

Thomas, it stands to reason that a brand new ignition system using contemporary technology is going to be more efficient at combustion than a 25 year old system, especially one which has the very old and lossy HT wires. On paper, more efficient combustion should also translate to more power & less emissions, but far be it from me to make claims like that, lol.

The MSW system still functions as a waste spark ignition, because that's a function of the Motronic 5.2 ECU, but I think it can be argued that the 12 MSW coils together have more copper and function more efficiently than the (2) OEM 6 tower coilpacks and lossy HT leads. Additionally, these pencil coils were designed for a very high performance motorcycle and will not run out of spark energy at very high RPM. The OEM Bosch system was most probably designed for Mercedes and other German luxury vehicles, and was simply adapted for the Ferrari so it works well under most operating conditions, but it might be lacking at high RPM or high power output. That's just conjecture on my part, however.

 

Hi John,

Add me to your backlog list. 456M. Thank you!

-stu

 

Stu you already have one of the most beautiful 456 and maybe the nicest interior I’ve seen…..

hope you have been well — Eric

 

Stu, you're already on the list; we corresponded last September and that's when I added you. So thanks for hanging in there!

 

I forgot...brain broken. The MSW steering ECU still doing the job!

 

Hi Eric,

Thank you.

I have been distracted and submarined below surface working on next AI startup with 6 other guys.

Maybe time for another Alice's drive this summer?

 

I hope so. ;-) you are on the list for sure

 

Resurrecting this thread. Has the COP kit for 456m been made avail by anyone? My left bank coil just threw up, and would rather upgrade to the COP. Thanks in advance for any guidance. Ed

 

Yes, John is selling them (Cribbj). If you need one sooner, you and I can swap slots since I will not be able to get it mounted until later summer at the earliest.

 

Have a note out to John and interested in anyway to make this better I’ll pay you for the bump Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat

 

No payment needed, just let me know how it goes!

 

Hi John, are these harnesses still available ? Coils are not needed. Thanks

 

PM'd you

 

Hi John,

I wish you had your COP Kit available for shipping last summer. For the first time since I purchased my 550 in 2007 I started to get CHECK ENGINE lights. At inspection, the code indicated "random cylinder misfires." The original ignition wire sets were 24 years old and were cracked in several places. I had no choice but to replace left and right sets which were routed through the original coverings. No more CHECK ENGINE lights and the car passed inspection.

I wish I could have added your MSW COP Kit to the other MSW upgrades I already have; the best being the one of ten original MSW Switchable FHP Steering ECU that Dave and you came up with 14 years ago.

Let us be around 24 years from now so I can do the COP conversion then.

Baz

 

It's a date Baz!

 

Yes.

 

Hello, may have missed it but what are the -shortest- coils you guys have found? Trying to find something that will fit under the original plug wire covers on an F355 but they are all too tall so far. Thanks.

 

Which coils have you tried so far? The original Hayabusa coils are the shortest I've found and their P/N is 129700-4400. There's an excellent thread on installing COP's for the F355 that was done back around 2010 and that owner was able to fit his coils under the covers. I recall that he also used MSD DIS-4 ignition module(s) for his setup.

 

Yes I tried those Hayabusa coils. I've seen that thread, I believe he made spacers to raise the plug wire covers above the valve cover.

Those were the shortest I've seen as well, thanks.

 

I seem to recall somewhere in that thread, either the OP or a contributor had found some coils that would allow the cover to fit?

 

Hey guys, here’s a dumb question for you. Which of the two coils in the pic below would you want in the COP system for your 456GT/M/550? The one on the left is a 10-15 year old used OEM coil that came out of a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle as a recycled part. The one on the right is a brand new aftermarket coil built to the same specs & standard as the Hayabusa coil and is interchangeable, and it’s only pennies more than the one on the left.

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Silly question right? You’d want the coil on the right, correct? Well, that’s what I thought too, so I purchased a set of them and put them through all my normal tests & QA and they passed with flying colors, so I started providing them with my COP kits.

But then I got a negative comment from someone about his car being hard to restart when hot. Initially I thought the problem was anything else but these coils, but then I started getting feedback from other owners with the same issue.

Enter Aerosurfer into that group and he & I resolved to find the problem. So I sent him a set of those nasty looking OEM coils, but only after I’d cleaned them up, tested them thoroughly & made them look worthy of going into a Ferrari engine, and voila! No more hot restart problems!

Frankly I’m embarrassed about this situation because one of the founding principles of MSW is that we solve Ferrari’s shortcomings and we do it better than they do. So having COP systems out there that are causing issues with hot restarts is just unacceptable to me and I’ll be replacing all the aftermarket coils with the OEM Denso coils at my cost. So those of you who have the “no name” coils on your setup, be looking for a CARE package in the mail soon. And henceforth, only the Denso coils will be shipped with future kits.

I can’t thank Aerosurfer enough for his tireless assistance & collaboration over the last month to help solve this issue. Obviously I couldn’t test the coils in situ as I no longer own a 550, so he & his 456GT had to be the test bed, and his feedback was invaluable in getting this issue resolved.

 

John,

Between you me and Dave I'm the only one left with a 550. If you need a beta tester 550 please let me know. Whatever it is I'm here to help.

 

Are you using used tested Hayabusa coil or new oem denso?

 

Thanks Carl, anything that comes out in the future that requires a 550, you'll be my "go to"

Used tested Hayabusa coils which are Denso P/N 129700-4400. New Denso's are NLA and I don't know if they're even available through the OEM motorcycle channel.

I really thought I'd thoroughly tested the Chinese aftermarket coils. I even baked a set of them in my BBQ pit for 30 minutes @ 275 degrees, while firing them at 8000 RPM but it still wasn't enough to replicate this hot restarting issue. For some testing, you really need a car, not just a simulator....

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I had an odd fitting issue with the no-name coils supplied in my kit but John has been impeccable and replaced them free of charge with a set of used Denso coils that work like a charm. After a long spirited drive including many full load accelerations up to 7500 rpm, I am beginning to think that John's COP set up performs better than the original set up. The car pulls like a train and the engine seems to sound even a little better, at least with my non-original exhaust set up.

Thank you John for not only providing a great COP set up but also putting up with unexpected issues. Hopefully this won't hold you back for possible future MSW products.