C. Ludwig

iTrader: (27)

I've had three customers recently make the same mistake and it resulted in two of them toasting a brand new ignition coil. One was lucky and caught the mistake quickly enough to avoid ruining a coil.

When you setup a Haltech for a stock FC ignition, you select distributor as your ignition mode. This allows proper control of the stock trailing coil. This coil requires a single ignition trigger and a toggle. The ignition trigger actually fires every 180* of crank rotation, even though each trail coil only fires every 360*. The toggle function directs the trigger to the proper coil. The toggles goes back and forth between front and rear coils. To do this, the output from the ECU goes high (12V+) and low (GND). High selects one coil, low selects the other.

Here's where you get in trouble. If you're swapping out the stock FC coils for any indiviudal coil arrangement that will be setup as direct-fire or wastespark, you need to change the spark mode before you connect the coils. What will happen if the spark mode is not changed is that the toggle output, if sitting on the positive side, will cause the new coil that you just wired in to charge...constantly, as long as the key is on, even when the engine is not running. A non-running engine is actually the worst case because the coils will simply sit there and cook itself. In short order, your new coil will be a lump of melted plastic.

It's always a good idea to have the spark setup correct before actually connecting the coils for any combination. However, this is a particularly easy mistake to make that quickly gets expensive.

Claudio RX-7

iTrader: (1)

It is also good to point out that this is specifically related to the OEM TRAILING coil found on the 2nd gen RX-7's, this does not apply to 1st or 3rd gen cars, or direct fire application.

Also, the if memory serves the trailing coil toggle works with 5v, not 12, but that not really important with the Platinum and E8/E11 series of ECUs as you connect the ignition outputs in the appropriate manner and the ECU takes care of the rest. You just need to make sure you've got the right outputs going to the right places. Here's a simple to follow guide:

For 2nd Gen STOCK coils, you wire it this way:

Ign1 to Leading coils
Ign2 to Trailing ignition wire
Ign3 to Toggle signal
Ign4 is NOT used

For Wasted spark setup (wasted spark leading, using 3 coils)

Ign1 to Leading coils
Ign2 is NOT used
Ign3 to Trailing 1
Ign4 to Trailing 2

Direct Fire applications are wired:

Ign1 to L1
Ign2 to L2
Ign3 to T1
Ign4 to T2

In the wiring diagrams found on the diagrams sticky its outlined just as you need to do it for all variations. If anybody needs me to repost the diagram links here please feel free to ask.

And just like Chris says, it is CRITICAL that you have the right ignition mode setup BEFORE you connect anything to the ECU, that also applies for pretty much ANY output on the ECU, its good practice to FIRST setup, THEN connect. A lot of people make the mistake of connecting everything first before setting the ECU up. If you absolutely NEED to connect everything first, then we suggest you unplug everything from the harness before hooking up and turning on the ECU, that way you wont damage anything.

bumpstart

its not always done under shady trees
.... i have caught out a shop with these same ig config /wiring setup errors too

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Warning!..can cause severe Stress!
...I had one go up in smoke!..
IF you happen to make this mistake it is Coil L2 that bites the dust...looked like someone squeezed white cheese out of it.
(ECU was the PS1000)

SirCygnus

iTrader: (1)

would there be any problems using the haltech coils in trailing and the stock coil pack in leading?
only problem i think would be dwell time, but i think they are pretty much the same right?

this is a wasted spark setup on a sport 2000, ffe trigger wheel.

JWteknix

iTrader: (2)

good information here thanks good thing i havent plugged my ecu in

bumpstart

OK

selecting wasted spark enables the same mode as FD rx7,, where trailing coils are separated as individual channels while the leading retains the shared wasted spark signal

dwell settings is usually limited to around 3.5 ms due to the nature of the wastedspark signal being restricted in avail dwell period upwards from 9000 rpms

haltech coils being the ls1 coil.. will find 3.5 ms a little lacking, but will work ok in a trailing situation

Brandon Robinson

iTrader: (3)

Are the direct fire coil channels Claudio posted relevant to the E6X. Also how would one configure a E6X to use waste spark or full sequential ignition. Please forgive me if I am asking questions that there are threads that have answers but I get a lot of mixed or un-descriptive info.

Nevermind ... E6X is waste spark only

Do you guys know of anything that will cause digital out #2 / Ignition #3 not to send a signal to the coil. The digital out #2 is not greyed out in the PWM page as well...

bumpstart

terminology on the older 3 driver ecus like K and X is different and very misleading
you have direct fire ( 3 channel ,,1 wasted leading and two direct trailing signals like FD setup )
distributor ( 2 ignition channels with a third channel as toggle command for FC coil )
twin dizzy ..methinks it may be more reserved for bikes.. not sure but on rotor suspects this is twin fire mode.. ie one channel for front rotor,, another for rear.. so leading /trailing plugs fire at same time

be aware changing the config will change the designation of the output trigger wiring
and that sometimes there may be a double check bug happening where that wire may still be assigned a job in the aux pull down menus
4 channel ecus --

direct fire -- fully sequential four coil operation

wastespark -- wasted leading signal and two separate trailing signals ,, resulting 1 extra spare aux out
distributer -- as above,, but t2 signal becomes a toggle command ,, for FC coil packs


for the 3 driver ecus like K and X--

assuming you have four individual coils with igniters-

FD type mode ( for e6k ,, double check for e6x )
,, you need to wire both leading coils ( or twin coil ) to IG1,, trailing 1 to IG2 ( dig1 ) ...trailing 2 to to IG3 ( dig2 )

set ecu to advanced mode ,,,, set ignition output to direct fire
( misleading for those with later fully sequential ecus )
then go to the in/out setup screen and be sure that aux 1 ( or any of the aux screens ) is no longer set to toggle

NB
on later ecus.. this 3 channel mode is termed wastespark
..on these 4 channel ignition ecus the term direct fire is reserved only for fully sequential. four channel ignition operation

Brandon Robinson

iTrader: (3)

Makes sense, I have read all the threads related to this and how you described the operation is how I have my setup configured. I am running four coils with the leading coils sharing Ign1. The bug I am experiencing is Ign3 is not setting up as a ignition output. I tested it with a meter and did not get any signal while the engine was running. The Ecu will also let me select dig2/ign3 as a digital output where dig1/ign2 is greyed out. I have checked timing numerous times and the front rotor is running perfectly. Timing locked at -5 gives perfect alignment of rotor 1 leading and trailing marks but I get no signal to rotor 2 trailing coil. Idle is the smoothest I have but with a idle mixture of 12.4 - 12.9 the engine still runs like rotor 2 is not burning all of the fuel. New plug wires and I have pulled the plugs and cleaned them .

Brandon Robinson

iTrader: (3)

I found that the dig2/ign3 pin had backed out on the ecu connector. Guess I should have walked through basic diagnostics before posting. The clarification of the E6X ignition system was good information though, thanks again for the prompt reply.