NASCAR 80's Coil position

[SCRWDRVR]

I am currently building the Salvino's Tim Richmond 27 LeMans. I usually never add plug wires on the cup cars just because of lack of space but decided to give it a shot on this one. I was looking for engine bay pictures but had no luck finding any or finding where the coil was located on that generation of cars GM, Ford or Chrysler. Anyone have a pic showing it or know where they were located back then?

[Steamboat]

I have a picture of Earnhardt's 77 Olds showing the top part of the coil protruding from the firewall.

I have several pictures of mid 80's Fords showing the coil mounted on the engine. Of course the distributor is at the front of the engine so they kept the coil wire short.

Maybe it wasn't mandated by the rule book. 

[SCRWDRVR]

1 hour ago, Steamboat said:

I have a picture of Earnhardt's 77 Olds showing the top part of the coil protruding from the firewall.

I have several pictures of mid 80's Fords showing the coil mounted on the engine. Of course the distributor is at the front of the engine so they kept the coil wire short.

Maybe it wasn't mandated by the rule book. 

Could you post that pic of Earnhardt’s car so I could get a look at it...

[Steamboat]

It's a picture from a picture from a book!

[Force]

I have seen several GM NASCAR Cup cars with the coils inside the car under or on top of the dash.
I don't know when it started but before the enignes they use today they often had two independent ignition systems with two coils and two ignition boxes, coil selector and a switch so if the first one stops working they can switch over to the other one.
I don't know how they do it today with the coil packs on the newer fuel injected engines but I think they still have two ignition boxes and can switch between them.

Here is a picture of that setup in a NASCAR car on top of the dash, it's one example but it could look different and placed different.

[SCRWDRVR]

Thanks guys, interesting on that 77 the coil is still stuck in the firewall to keep it out of the heat....

On the dash hmmm I guess it would still have to go though the fire wall too, definitely opens up the possibilities, I wonder when they went to fuel injection I would think the coil change would have been close to the same time...

[Force]

They went to fuel injection in Cup cars 2012 but the dual coils/ignition system were long before that.
They use coil packs today like most modern cars with individual coils for each cylinder controled by an ECU...eight cylinders-eight coils, so no distributor needed.

[SCRWDRVR]

Ok I guess I’ll just have to see if I figure out when they went from single coils to duel coils...

[bisc63]

That's not actually the top of the coil you see there, it's a bulkhead connector. Just finished helping my buddy put one in his street machine. There's a wire clipped to it inside and out, and yes, it gets the coil out of the heat, and cleans up the under-hood area a bit.

[SCRWDRVR]

Ok, so I guess the wire on the other side runs to the coil then?

[bisc63]

3 hours ago, SCRWDRVR said:

Ok, so I guess the wire on the other side runs to the coil then?

Yep, the connector just provides a secure and electrically isolated passage through the metal firewall.

Edited April 20, 2021 by bisc63

[bisc63]

[SCRWDRVR]

5 hours ago, bisc63 said:

Ok Cool, thanks for the info. I would bet even after they went to duel coils then that the switching was done outside the engine compartment and had something like that. I think I will work on making something to copy that then. Thanks a bunch guys...

[Force]

If you look closely you see the small gauge yellow wire coming from the inside of the car from the ignition /+ and the coiled orange wire going to the distributor points/ignition trigger...so it for sure looks like it's the top of the coil going through the firewall.
A bulkhead connector don't have any other wires than the high tension lead from the coil to the connector and from the connector to the center of the distributor cap, it's just an insulated connector.with one lead through it, nothing else.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Force

[SCRWDRVR]

Good point that makes sense, I guess I could replicate either about the same way since I wouldn't be putting those wires on.

[bisc63]

Good eye!

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 4/21/2021 at 12:50 PM, Force said:

...If you look closely you see the small gauge yellow wire coming from the inside of the car from the ignition /+ and the coiled orange wire going to the distributor points/ignition trigger...so it for sure looks like it's the top of the coil going through the firewall.
A bulkhead connector don't have any other wires than the high tension lead from the coil to the connector and from the connector to the center of the distributor cap, it's just an insulated connector.with one lead through it, nothing else.

Exactly.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy