I drove my Packard to school the other night, and while I'm checking the fluids getting ready to go home a few people gather round to see the monster under the hood. The first thing out of this one guys mouth is "your coil is up side down, it won't work like that!!" What? I've never heard such insanity. Not only is this the way it came from the factory, but I've owned and worked on numerous other engines with a coil mounted up side down or sideways. Even my old VWs, the greatest piece of German engineering ever conceived, has the coil mounted in this orientation. But this isn't the only one who has told me this, another classmate said the same thing. He claims that "old metal canister type coils" can't be mounted any way but vertical because they are filled with oil and the oil leaks out, causing them to overheat. I was under the impression that A: they are completely filled with oil so no air is present (if you hear sloshing, aka air in the coil, the unit is defective) and B: the unit should be air tight and not leak, otherwise it is defective and should be replaced. Is this an old wives (mechanics?) tale thought up to make it easier to neglect faulty parts or what? I've been running this same coil on two different engines in this car for the last 4 or 5 years, and obviously it was ran this way for 60 years before that! Where are these people getting their information? If I'm just totally wrong, thats fine I'll except it, but in all my years of schooling I've never heard this one, with the exceptions of SPECIFIC coils that say right on them to only mount vertically. Anybody care to throw their $0.02 in?
MSD recommends not to mount their 8202 oil filled coil in a horizontal position. Allegedly it will overheat and fail.According to MSD only the 8222 epoxy filled coil should be mounted on the side. They say the oil filled coil mounted on the side don't cool properly. Now that's their coils, of course.
I heard a guy at the track say the reason his car quit running was the coil was clamped too tight. He said he loosened the clamp and it fixed the car....eh, go figure where folks get this stuff. The same guy bent a bunch of valves and claimed the lash adjusters all came loose and caused the adjusters to screw in holding the valve open and hitting the pistons. If by mounting the coil up side down causes the coils to uncover and over heat..maybe they should put a little more cooling oil in the can...Yes I have found that some coils have oil you can hear when you shake them...just not any I use. your results may vary
I have heard to never mount them up side down, but I have no proof that you shouldn't. Ibelieve that it is a wives tail.
Glad I'm not crazy The MSD coils mentioned above are good examples of specific products that explicitly tell you how to mount them. I want to say, off the top of my head, some Accel coils are the same way. I run a good ol Napa (Echlin) IC7 in this particular car, nothing fancy or hi-po.. just a regular coil. I've had one leak before, but only after I forgot the key on when I made a parts run and cooked it needless to say I replaced it, upside-down again. These must be the same people that only use Valvoline, not that inferior Napa brand oil. Or for that matter, only Royal Purple for their herra fast Civic. Some people's children........
Every Model A Ford left the factory with them upside down, all 4 million plus. Bob yep , over 10 yrs now with coil upsidedown & not a problem ........... steve
My 37 Cadillac has it mounted upside down,has a power wire on the top and the dizzy lead on the bottom,that would throw the "experts" for a loop,been like that for over 75 years. Harvey
You beat me to it with the Model A's. Also, on my 71 Chrysler I use to own, the coil was mounted horizontal on the inlet manifold and it never leaked, or had an ignition problem.
Allegedly nothing! I'm part of the reason that disclaimer is on that coil! Laid on it's side like that, the oil doesn't cover the wires completely above the oil line inside. It's only a matter of time before it overheats and dies... In Dateland, AZ. at 11:00 on a 30 degree Sunday night, 100 miles from anywhere... They used to recommend mounting that coil any way before that deal went down, and the 8222 fixed the deal completely.
The VW coils were up side down because they had an internal resistor built in. When you mount it the other way the resistor is supposed to not be in the oil and will overheat. That said, I used a VW Blue coil on my 1934 for years and probably 35K miles mounted upright wilt no problems. Most coils use an outside resistor.
Im sure all the 216/235 coils were mounted pointed down from the good folks at gm. We did flip them to gain access to the wires after first tune up. No problems. I love the "coil oil" reply !! flop
The coils on the two Olds motors I have (1954 and 1955) had the coil mounted sideways on the intake manifold. Didn't seem to be a problem.
Depends on the particular coil. Horizontal is a problem with oil filled, more so than upside down. But epoxy filled aren't an issue in any direction.
99 bazillion early Fords were made with secondary DOWN, some with primary up, some down! Then in '49, Ford put everything UP and made another zillion...Then Chevy made a zillion small blocks with everything UP...on and on and on. Ford made all the Model A's with primary and secondary DOWN, then got flustered by the issues noted above and mounted all the Model B coils SIDEWAYS. Rumor has it this was because so many were being used upside down by Australians. So, be careful. Mount a coffee cup under your coil to collect any leaking electrons, when cup is full dismount coil and pour them in via the secondary wire cup. Done.
^^^^^^LOL As usual, Mr. Lancaster is spot on. Love it!!! Could you use a lower profile sardine can, or does it need to be non-conductive?
There's a recall on that. Take it back to your dealer, refer him to recall bulletin 38-997, and he will fix it and provide for satisfactory durability...the repair kit for this includes a coffee cup that mounts directly to the wingnuts on the junction box. By the way, you were probably plagued by flickering headlights on that heap...that's because without the factory upgrade kit, the electrons leaked directly into your junction box, causing the car to hunt between positive and negative ground!
Where is the Coil labeled 'Top or Bottom'? Just 'cause the cone shaped part is on one end does not mean that is the 'top'
here is the link for the manufacturer of "coil oil" http://www.barnsleybeercompany.co.uk/html/beer.php?id=103 the ems guy
i've run my coil upside for about 5 years now, you can barely see it in the top right corner of the picture, i have not had a single problem. ...although i just jinxed it by saying that.
This comes about because there is always a little bit of air in all oil filled coils, but the amount varies. As a manufacturer, the idea is to have as little air as possible, but in production this does not always happen, Especially when you are making hundreds of thousands a year. Now, for the horizontal position, it Can be fine (millions of Fords came that way) but what is important is that the terminals are horizontal, NOT vertical as this positions the windings inside in a position that keeps them in the oil. When the terminals are mounted vertical on a horizontal mounted coil, the windings on the terminal that are on the top side run the risk of not being totally submerged in oil and in the hottest part of the oil. The easy is answer is not to put the coil horizontal at all, but if mounted this way you will be OK. That is complete and utter nonsense. First the oil is there for cooling, so that is contradictory. Second, and more important Internal resisted Coils do not have separate ballast resistor inside the coil, they are resisted by the way they are wound on the primary side. VW coils, just like any other internal resisted coil can be mounted either direction. Epoxy coils were originally invented for the Off Road and Marine environments where vibration was killing traditional oil filled coils. You are correct in that they don't care what position they are mounted, BUT the trade off is they do run quite a bit Hotter than oil filled coils. As a general rule Epoxy coils do have a longer life as long as they have good air flow.
I disagree. You SHOULD mount them upside down so the electrons can get out faster. Makes for a better spark.
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