coil OHM ?

[esty]

i'm getting ready to buy a Pertronix Electronic Ignition kit and a new coil....there are several listings for different OHM's on the coils and i don't know the differences

one's 1.5 OHM...the other 3.0 OHM...does it matter which i buy or is one preferred over the other

[Guest Anonymous]

It is my understanding that an OHM is a measure of resistance. I can't answer your question so I hope others will chime in and correct my horrible understanding of electricity & ignitions BUT if I were to venture a guess.....

A coil just builds up a *bigger* charge through resistance right? You run a low tension lead through a long wire that is wrapped or COILED. The resistance within the coiled wire does it's magic - holds the charge within the long coiled wire and when you ground out the whole lot of it all at once say when the points open and the rotor hits the wire lead, all of the pent up energy releases from the coil.

I'd say that with a coil you're after higher volt outputs rather than higher resistance. I'd assume that the resistance needs to be the same??? because the low tension going in will not change. I could also be totally wrong and higher resistance could = more volts on output.

If I were you I'd either talk to a tech person where you're buying it from or you could always just buy a Bosch blue or red coil like the rest of us (unless it's a full blown race car) and call it quits.

There's a whole balance that I know enough about to get myself into trouble but it goes like this: You need to balance your spark with the plugs. Hotter spark does not always mean better. The goal is to match a high resistance plug with a high voltage coil so that when you get the spark it will be a big consistant, hot spark. Before you go into coils without matching plugs & wires learn first & stay stock until you fully understand the goal and how to accomplish it.

Just buy some decent plugs, gap them correctly and run a bosch red or blue coil

[Guest Anonymous]

i'm getting ready to buy a Pertronix Electronic Ignition kit and a new coil....there are several listings for different OHM's on the coils and i don't know the differences

one's 1.5 OHM...the other 3.0 OHM...does it matter which i buy or is one preferred over the other

The 3.0 ohm Pert. coil is for 4 cylinder engines so that is the one you need, and you should notice an improvement over the blue bosch or the red.

[Zenon]

i'm getting ready to buy a Pertronix Electronic Ignition kit and a new coil....there are several listings for different OHM's on the coils and i don't know the differences

one's 1.5 OHM...the other 3.0 OHM...does it matter which i buy or is one preferred over the other

Pertronix says you should not have the coil drawing more than 4 amps in a 4 cylinder application. This translates to a minimum recommended coil primary resistance of 3ohms. So, for a 4cyl, get their 3 ohm coil.

regards,

Zenon

Edited to add - sparky beat me to it!

[esty]

thanks for the lesson guest and thanks sparky