Using a distributor to fire coilpacks

**Roman** · 17-08-2009, 05:36 PM

Seems as though it would be pretty easy to make Toyota coil on plug setup work, with a distributor reconfigured to send the signal to fire them.

Coilpacks have 4 pins:

1. Main 12V supply
2. Signal to fire from ECU (I think the ECU earths out this pin when wanting to fire? Or is it 12v or 5v supply?)
3. Confirmation of firing, signal returned to ECU
4. Main Earth

So if you wanted to run them via a distributor, you'd obviously not have a coil supplying voltage to the distributor, but instead have the cable that normally comes from the coil, just earthed to the chassis or engine block. (Assuming that the ECU earths out the pin, otherwise supply with 5v or 12v)

And obviously what was formerly a spark plug lead would just be the wire to earth out the pin on the coilpack.

Then you'd just need to supply the other 2 pins with 12V and earth, and the 4th pin (confirmation of firing) would be redundant, as the ECU obviously isnt expecting any confirmation that a firing of a coilpack has just occured.

Buying a set of coilpacks is same price if not cheaper than spark plug leads these days, with common cars using them.

converting a distributor'd car to a dizzy/coilpack setup could be easy enough... maybe better reliability? Stronger spark perhaps...

Could be a good upgrade for a 4AGE or something?

I might have an experiement with a gen 2 3SGE, have got some 1ZZ coilpacks here.

**brett_celicacoupe** · 17-08-2009, 05:41 PM

1. i cant actually work out what your trying to do

2. i cant see why you would want to do this.

draw a wiring diagram or something!

**MWP** · 17-08-2009, 08:43 PM

Ahhhhhh no.

A few reasons...
The rotor doesnt make contact with the terminals inside the dizzy (have you ever looked in a dizzy??).
You would have no way of controlling ignition advance (rpm or vac).
There would be no dwell control (might not be needed tho depending on the ignitors).

Forget the idea