legacycentral bbs

My buddy's 1991 miata is frying coil packs. It has a turbo kit on it. It was running great and then it just died while driving it. We swapped in a used coil pack bought off ebay and it fired right up. When we went to rev it up a bit, it died again and didn't start back up. Is there anything that would make a car continually fry the coil pack?

I've been giving this problem some more thought and have come up with a few things. The coil pack on my buddy's miata actually has 2 coil packs. One for cylinders 1&2 and one for cylinders 3&4. Since neither of them are firing, I'm thinking that the problem isn't with the coil packs, but that the coil packs are not getting the signal to fire. I know that the coils are getting power because I tested the wires going to it and it lit the test light. My thought is that whatever tells the the coil pack to fire isn't working. What is my next step in fixing this problem?

So how about a little more history? Did the car run fine before the turbo kit was installed? Has it been running fine with the turbo kit until now?

What modifications were made to the ignition system when installing the turbo kit?

Oh and what makes you think its the coil pack? Are your plug wires on correctly?

The car ran fine with the turbo kit. Then it cracked a head. I swapped on a rebuilt head and it ran great again. Then it just died one day while on the road. We changed the coil pack and it fired right up. Then when I hit the gas a little bit, it died and wouldn't start again.

It has a an ingnition module... not sure what it's called. It's to advance the timing to compensate for the turbo. It appears to be working fine. Other than that, the ignition system is stock. The plug wires are on correctly. I think it's the coil pack or the cam position sensor because the coils are getting power but they are not firing.

Well first off he should call up whatever business he bought the turbo kit from and tell them whats going on.

Also, the coil may be getting power but if they aren't getting grounded by the computer then there will be no spark and no ignition.

I'm thinking that making a ground directly from the coils to the body of the car would answer that question but then again I'm not sure if they are triggered by being grounded or if they should always be grounded.

Don't make a ground directly from the coil, you will probably F something up. If its like the subaru wasted spark system then it will be firing all plugs all the time.

A functioning system doesn't just start frying coil packs, there must be some sort of short or something.

miataturbo.net its a very good site im on there i have an 03 miata wich is turbocharged.. wht are you using to control the ignition ?? i know that a couple of the 323 guys have had issues with using the msd boxes and frying ignition componets.. check the cam sensor on the back of the head and see if it is geting a signal