I have a MSD StreetFire HEI distributer in my car and all of a sudden my car died on me and would only idle, if you would give it any more gas than idle it would die. i then found i had little to no spark. so i pulled the coil out and saw that it was pushed out on the end and the plastic was all cracked. i also pulled the control modual and it had fried. i went to the parts store and bought another MSD coil and modual. this coil did nothing at all! i checked all my wires to confirm they were right and it still did nothing. i also noticed that the new coil felt like something was moving side to side on the inside of it. i swapped the two coils and the orginal cracked one started and idled the car as it did before. so i killed the car and pulled the coil, not wanting to burn up another modual. now i am confused, i bought a Accell Super Coil and i am going to try it tomorrow, but i want to know what you guys think. i have check the voltage and i am getting a steady 12.2Volts at idle and not noticing a spike when i rev the engine before it kills on me.

My friend Dave Ray (IgnitionMan) just goes ballistic on HEI coils. He has seen so many coil in cap HEI modules get fried, some as quick as 30 seconds, from the coil in cap HEI coils. He suggests for every HEI that has its coil in the cap, use the MSD coil adapter that allows the coil to come out of the cap, p/n 8401, and a round oil filled coil mounted off the cap (ONLY MSD coil he recommends is the chrome Blaster II, not the red ones).

He also always tells me to look at the carbon post under the coil. People put them in after the rubber insulator, and that just helps kill the coils even faster. The sequence is, cap, carbon post with wire up, then, rubber insulator, coil. If the carbon post is put in the wrong place, the coil gets too much resistance and fails, taking the module with it.

The coil in cap HEI coils have a small wire with a ring terminal on it, that is the coil ground. It has to be under one of the coil hold down screws, and under the coil, there must be a ground bar that goes to the center slot in the cap. If the ground isn't there, the ignition won't make spark. Dave also says the specialty modules just aren't worth the money, and recommends NAPA TP45, Wells D100 modules (the Wells is the same module as the OEM GM 990 module, but has a lifetime warrantee).

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Milton