The coil-per-plug ignition layout as used on the LS family of V8 engines has big advantages over a traditional distributor, or even a “wasted spark” coil pack – greater saturation time between ignition events for each individual coil means a hotter spark, and dividing the work means less of a chance of a coil failure leaving you totally stranded. But that’s not to say that there is no room for improvement. Quite to the contrary, as the ignition specialists at Performance Distributors [1] have developed their “Sultans of Spark” high performance coils, which offer increased voltage at the plug.
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[3]A typical factory LS coil will step up the voltage to around 21kV (twenty-one thousand volts, for those of you who could use an electrical theory refresher) while the SOS coils deliver 28kV – a 33% increase. Higher voltage means that the spark can jump a larger gap, and Performance Distributors recommends opening up your spark plugs to .065-inches between the electrode and ground strap to take advantage of the higher voltage.
Best of all, the SOS coils are exactly the same size and shape as the stock coils they replace, so doing the swap is literally a task that can be done over a long lunch break. They’re totally plug-and-play to connect directly to the factory ignition harness, and will work with stock or aftermarket plug wires.
For anyone with a high-compression naturally aspirated engine, or a boosted LS that tends to “blow out” the spark under load, PD’s Sultans of Spark coils offer improved ignition performance the easy way.