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plug wire compatibility?

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:50 am
by mexicanzero
so if i wanted to upgrade my coil to an msd one, they only have male ends, not the female style the older legacy's have

could i use the newer legacy plug wires? because it is my understanding the 2.5L engines have coils with male ends.

if not what kind of wires could i use? can the stock ones be modified?

thanks
-Alex

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:02 pm
by internetautomart
the stock coil has a male end for the wires.

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:35 pm
by vrg3
No it doesn't.

Changing out the contacts and boots isn't a big deal if you have access to new contacts and a good crimping tool. You can slide the boots off and then uncrimp the contacts.

But, if I remember correctly, my friend's manual-transmission 97 Impreza Outback with the EJ22 had the same plug boots as our cars but had male coil towers.

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:14 pm
by mexicanzero
i guess i'll just have to go to a junk yard and see if i can find anything off a subaru with male coil ends.
thanks though, and i checked mine before starting the topic and they're female...
-Alex

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:53 am
by 93forestpearl
I'd like to know how that SRT-4 MSD coil compares resistance wise to the stock coil. I've thought about changing to it, but I don't want to fry my igniter once a month.

We'll see how these Magnecore wires and fresh(er) Diamond coil do. BTW, Magnecore wires are awesome. Fuji ends and all.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:31 am
by mexicanzero
i know a couple of people have done it before and i haven't heard anything about them frying the igniter
but thanks for bringing that to my attention because i had never thought of it.
how would i go about reading the resistance of the stock coil? theres three wires right? one lead of the ohm meter to the 12v+ and the other lead to any of the others or both and then added up or what?
thanks
-Alex

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:05 am
by mexicanzero
i went to the magnecor website and they list subaru 1.8L and 2.2L engines between 1995-1998 as having male or female ignition coil towers. The female style has the same part number for plug wires as 1990-1994 1.8L and 2.2L. So i am going to go ahead and assume that the male style is the exact same wire except for the part that goes into the coil.

so i am going to go see if my shop can get me some for cheap.
for anyone who may care the magnecor number for these wires that go into the coil with male ends is 45277 and the go for 110$ us which isn't bad at all. The ones for the female ended coil has the part number 45180 and they go for 106$ us.

hope this'll help someone out one day.

but if anyone can specify a way to measure the stock coil resistance or knows where i can find literature on it please let me know :)
i know the MSD coil has 0.051 ohms primary resistance and 12k ohms secondary resistance.

http://www.msdignition.com/coil_blaster ... 9_8239.htm

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:14 pm
by vrg3
I think the MSD guys may have put the decimal point in the wrong spot... The stock DSM coil has a primary resistance of about 0.51 ohms and a secondary resistance of about 12 kiloohms.

Our stock coil packs have a primary resistance between 0.6 and 0.8 ohms, and a secondary resitance between 10 and 25 ohms, depending on which type of pack it is. A DSM coil pack is close enough.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:15 pm
by vrg3
Oh, and 45277 seems to be the right part number for the aforementioned Impreza Outback, so it sounds right to me.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:01 am
by mexicanzero
awesome that makes me happy!
vrg3 you always come through for us!
i will most likely be putting the coil and wires in within a month or two, i'll most likely make a write up seeing as there isn't any on here
thanks a bunch
-Alex

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:18 am
by mexicanzero
jackpot! look at what i found...

http://sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?t=5 ... hlight=msd

i promise to out do this write up but for now it'll come in handy

-Alex

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:15 pm
by vrg3
Cool.

I really like the idea of having the coil-end connectors snap on instead of just being kind of shoved in there like our stock setup.

Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:25 am
by mexicanzero
yeah i know what you mean, i never really did understand how this style works but hey it does its job.

anyways wish me luck on my inter cooler and boost controller install tomorrow!

if that goes well i will look into getting me one of those coils with some nice wires to match
-Alex

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:28 pm
by internetautomart
vrg3 wrote:No it doesn't.

Changing out the contacts and boots isn't a big deal if you have access to new contacts and a good crimping tool. You can slide the boots off and then uncrimp the contacts.

But, if I remember correctly, my friend's manual-transmission 97 Impreza Outback with the EJ22 had the same plug boots as our cars but had male coil towers.
oops, guess I was thinking of the chry/ford coils. I haven't had to fix mine so I don't pay much attention to it.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:07 am
by mexicanzero
so i got my coil in the mail today!!!! 80 ish $

i was at a local junk yard yesterday and i got the plug that goes into the coil from a 1996 neon 2.0L (15$), it fits perfectly, they obviously are meant for each other

i'll be getting wires off a 1996 impreza (i already went to the dealer and looked at them to make sure the ends are right) hopefully tomorrow or maybe next week, the dealer quoted me 82$ for the set.

maybe some new plugs too...

i'll take pics and once i figure out how to post them i'll share them along with my experiences.