Thread: Anyone run a Nology coil booster?

My car has had one as long as I've owned it. Its been in there through the Bolt-on DE, VE and now with the turbo set-up.

In the past my attitude has been to leave it alone. My impression is that it might finally be useful at my current hp level. I'm just curious about any experiences people have.

So nobody runs or uses these? I've never seen any good hard evidence of what (if anything) it does.

I think back in the day on se-r.net it was written by Mike Kojima that it was "useful", just leave it alone would be the best bet.

Heres the quote:

"I have a Nology coil booster on my SE-R. It seemed kind of hokey but I installed it. It has allowed my car to run smoothly even with the plug's electrodes completely burned off. When the coil booster was unplugged the car would barely run so I guess it works well. The Nology coil booster is the only easy way to hop up a 200SX’s ignition as the coil is an integral part of the distributor."

http://www.se-r.net/car_info/engine_performance_tuning.html#Spark%20plugs%20and%20Ignition%20systems

You by any change didnt get this car from him did you???

Thanks. I have read that before but se-r.net wasn't working for awhile (for me at least). I still wonder what exactly it is or isn't doing.

The coil booster raises the voltage through a step up coil. I am not sure the ratio, but the factory coil outputs around 40,000 volts from a 12 volt primary. If you raise the voltage going to the primary to say 24 volts, then you will effectively raise the output from the secondary. More volts means the spark has less chance of getting blown out. Under normal atmospheric pressures it takes about 30,000 volts to jump a spark 1 cm. As pressure increases however, it requires more voltage.

I have thought about making my own amplifier, but I lack the initiative to do it.

That's cool. I get what it does but I don't know any way to measure its efficacy. I was in the process of re-hanging and hiding my wiring harness. My ECU is with Calum and I was fixing a few things as it was getting ugly after much abuse.
Anyway I had the opportunity to ditch it as its clunky and never seems to find a real home (plus I don't know that it does all that much). Anyway I wired it into the new harness and used it to help hide the MAF wire.