Just two weeks ago I was on the phone with the MSD tech line researching a problem with a buddies car I built for him. During that conversation I asked the tech if MSD Blaster Coils fail or degrade often. He said they rarely fail, and when they go its either good or bad and no in between.
This past weekend I took my own car out for a quick test before doing a group dinner run. I had not run the car in 3 weeks. I just started it up, and only had it running for about 5 minutes in the garage before takeoff. When I was ready for takeoff it seemed to be running just a little more rough than usual. At first, I thought it was just a bit cold but it was a 90 degree day. I drove about 1/2 mile, down a hill and back up another hill and the engine just flamed out, INSTANTLY. When trying to restart, there was no firing, just dead. Checked the coil, and no spark - done.
Troubleshooting, I did a bunch of other checks and could not find anything... so I put an ohm meter to the -/+ coil to check continuity, nothing. Running out of ideas, we ran over to a local parts store and got another Blaster coil. I checked the new/old coils. The new MSD coil had continuity, minimal resistance. Wohooo. Put the new coil back in, and wham - started right up. Not only did it start up quickly, it ran noticeably cleaner, my constant idle speed went up about 200rpms too. This is the first time I've had a coil go bad. I do suspect heat did it in as I like to keep my coil near the motor for looks on an FE, but more aware of what can happen now if mounted close.
Don't believe the Techs at MSD, the coils do go bad and be prepared to keep a spare in your trunk along with a pickup coil for the distributor, I've seen two of those go bad as well if the cap is not vented properly. So lets see, now its probable to keep an extra coil and pickup in the trunk... ugh, NOT!
Anyone else have an MSD Blaster coil go bad in less than 15,000 miles of use - e.g. engineered to fail after a certain amount of use, just like light bulbs? Starting to wonder...after reading similar threads.
