Just wondering if anybody might have an idea what caused a recent fire on one of my coil packs, it happened as i was starting it up, not when I was driving. I have not had a chance to look at everything yet, but any suggestions on where to look would be helpful, BTW 88 coupe, I4, 5 spd.
Eric

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88 Coupe, Stock

well, the coil packs by their nature have a lot of high voltage going on inside them...and then there is a brick of electronics beneath them too. So electrical failure is a possibility.
They are pretty exposed to road grime and grease, it's possible something arced and ignited oil/grease on the coil packs, especially if your plug wires aren't in too great of condition.
are you using the stock coils?

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88 4cyl 5spd & 88 Formula 5spd

That's kind of odd. I'd speak with Ogre, he seems to be a leading authority when it comes to the GM DIS setup.

In my un-edumacated opinion, I'm lead to believe there was high resistance caused by something going bad. Possibly a bad wire/plug/etc.

quote are you using the stock coils?

Yes i am using the stock coils, which have 124,xxx miles on them, and the plugs and wires were new as of about 8,000 miles ago, but i cant rule them out just yet. I will try to see if i can hunt down Ogre, and maybe he might have a few answers. Thanks though
Eric

If they are the "original" coils, one of them had a sudden internal short at start up amps and melted down. That is also in a clean and well maintained engine compartment.
If it was a dirty, grease covered, never been washed in it's lifetime kind of thing, that's a different story.
In both cases, insure that the area is clean and replace the whole she-bang as it doesn't react well with high heat. Also check the wiring for shorts or burns.

Yes, if the coil is covered in crap it can catch fire....

Otherwise....

The coils have a low primary resistance. Very low, like .5-1.5 ohms.

A coil short could heat them up real fast. I would also suspect the module is damaged if it wasn't killed outright.

Buy two new coils and a module. Use GM/ACDelco coils.

If you are tight on cash, grab a 2-3 used modules from a salvage yard. They don't fail very often so used ones are usually ok. There is a list of cars/trucks that use compaitble motors in my cave. (Link at top of page. Linked to DIS service and engine replacement articles.)

You can try used coils but they aren't very expensive and you are really better off with new.

You may as well install a new crank sensor and be done with that at the same time.

Plug gap on a DIS motor must be very exact. 0.060 for this motor. (That means ALL DIS, coil on plug, whatever. You will fry coils if the gap is too large. get other problems if it's too small.)

I would replace the wires and plugs again using AC or Autolite STANDARD resistor plugs. It's cheap insurance. (You don't need platinum on this motor and certain platinum plugs are not compatible.)

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RIP Crew of Columbia. 01-Feb-03

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 04-28-2003).]

Thanks Ogre, I went and looked at your page about DIS, [read the whole thing, its long, but very informative.] I replaced the PIM, and both coils [i wanted to cry after i paid for them], since the CKP looked fine, as well as the o-ring, i left that alone for now. The plugs and wires will get replaced as soon as i get a little bit more money. Its back on the road, and i just wanted to get some opinons on why it burnt up, hopfully it was just the module and the coil packs not getting along, although they were relativly clean, and i got away lucky because no other wires were burned up. Thanks for all the help.
Eric

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88 Coupe, Stock