4.6 being installed now

[RICH MUISE]

One of the members on the markviii forumn makes a harness to complete the conversion, along with the valve covers from a donor car and of course the 8 coils, however I'm not sure that harness would be hard to make, and for sure I don't know enough (or anything actually) about the system to figure it out for sure, but I guessed  what the guy was doing was taking each of the 4 wires that "fed" the coil packs and splitting them to go directly to the two corresponding coils/cylinders instead. Correct me if I'm wrong, but each of the 2 coilpacks has 2 coils, each coil firing 2 cylinders simultaneously, which is why I am assuming a total of 4 signal feed wires to the coil packs. If that is correct, would the newer computers have been changed to emit 8 pulses rather than 4, each signaling 2 coils as I think the older computers did? Maybe I'm oversimplifying, I'm sure the guys are not using the newer computers...pats, elimination of dual runner intake, etc., nor are they reprogramming the original computer. Also, I'm not sure what the ignition control module in '93-'95 Marks actually did. In '96 that module function was incorporated into the computer, but '96's still had the coil packs.
So, trying to simplify what I said above...The coil pack systems had 4 coils, each firing two cylinders simultaneously, so instaed of one pulse to a coil feeding two cylinders, it's just a matter of splitting that pulse wire so it feeds 2 coils, 1 cylinder each.
Your thoughts please...as I said I was just trying to figure out how those guys were doing it.
http://www.markviii.org/htdocs/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=21&topic_id=81720&mesg_id=81720&page=6

[hiball3985]

Sorry Rich but this is off no useful help, what I know about these newer type engines you could put on the head of a pin and have roam left over  , I'm just curious. Two cylinders that fire simultaneously baffles me. I remember reading something when my wife owned a 95 CV that the plugs on one bank were different then on the other and they fired with a reverse polarity or something like that. Glad I never had to work on it because I was at a total loss 

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich the electrical book I have for a 2001 V-8 Explorer (302 small block) that has the coil packs.  It has a pair of coil packs, 4 outputs each, there are 4 seperate leads into the plug for each of the packs.  The computer plug shows 8 outputs for the coils and 8 outputs for the fuel injectors.  The book I had for the 98 MK VIII went with the car, it was a coil on plug engine.  Just don't remember (It left here in March 2010) the configuration for it.  If you hit that web site you had with all the wiring diagrams and such for any car you wanted to pay for it will allow you to sort out the compartibiliy issue. 

Given the C-O-P MKs were OBD II I'm going to make an educated guess that you will need to change the computer.

[RICH MUISE]

If a computer change is necessary, then I won't do the change. I just followed the links starting with the Markviii thread I posted(one page, last post 1 1/2 years ago), and got to a svtperformance website where the thread is active, 49 pages of it, and up to date. I've got a lot of reading to do when I get back home! a few pages I read indicates what he has done was to make a harness that plugs into the original coil pack connectors. That may have changed, since the beginning of the thread goes back to 2010. I'll do some posting on this when I find out more.

[canadian_ranchero]

Rich i looked at the other sites you listed.i understand now how they are making the 4 coil drivers work with 8 coils.sorry for making your head hurt

[RICH MUISE]

Hopefully, after I read the long thread I mentioned, I'll understand it also. I'm glad you checked it out. Been too busy/tired having fun in Phoenix to read thru it.

[canadian_ranchero]

a little background info,when i worked for ford in the 80's and 90's as a mechanic, my speciality was electrical and fuel injection

[RICH MUISE]

Highball had made a comment that my statement about firing two cylinders simultaneously was confusing to him.....probably because I made a statement not knowing squat about what was actually happening. So...how does the 4 total coil setup on the coilpack versions actually work? Are they firing simultaneously, or is there some type of delay mechanism built into the coilpacks? Not being a mechanic, I assumed one piston on each bank was firing at the same time. LOL...I'm sure building a long list of wrong assumptions.

[canadian_ranchero]

engines have what are called running mates,when one cylinder is ready to fire, its running mate is on the exhaust.so what they do is fire the coil in pairs,two plugs at a time,they say firing the plug on exhaust lowers pollution

[hiball3985]

I understand that now. Firing on the exhaust stroke to try and burn off any unburned fuel. I'm so far behind on technology  and no plans to try and catch up.

[RICH MUISE]

Gary..thanks for the explanation. Typing Canadian Ranchero is way too much typing..we're gonna have to start calling you CanRan, or CanadaR.
BTW, got thru page 10 of the link at the Mustang forum and found this, which is probably what Canadian R. was thinking about:
"This swap doesn't change anything in the ignition system other than the physical layout of it. Inside each tower coil there are two smaller coils that fire two pistons each using wastespark. The COP coversion does the exact same thing but uses one coil per-each cylinder, still using wastespark. No difference whatsoever. My limited understanding of the system tells me that we can't actually wire our cars to be non-wastespark without major changes to the ignition system, the real COP system allows each coil to fire independently. Our cars are limited to the pairing of the coils to fire the sister cylinder at the same time. So you're really not doing anything other than changing the physical location of the coils, and making it so that each plug has it's own coil.

This has been done multiple times and has been proven to work on our cars, I don't think anyone has actual empirical evidence to support the differences between stock and the conversion or any ill effects after doing the swap. People have done it for years, people have done it in this thread using this harness, it works. If only for aesthetics, it works.

Sorry for that mess of a thought."
LOL...I don't even want to know wth wastespark is.

[RICH MUISE]

Resolved a few problems with the hydroboost/PS/cooler/reservoir system. I picked up hydroboost and rack banjo fittings from Pure Choice that will help keep the lines tidy., and I ordered a 4 pass cooler with 6an fittings from summit. The cooler was only 34 ish, so not worth adapting the markviii cooler. I also found a guy that will make me a S.S. power steering reservoir with 2 returns. I'm just waiting on a price so I can get it ordered. should be around 100. He said he makes them all the time..knew it was for a hydroboost system. He sent a pic of one he made in the past.
I also picked up a battery tray at SoCal Speed Shop in Phoenix. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough roo on the driver's side wheel well to get it under the fender and enough room to actully get the battery in (Optime on it's side). I'll have to make sure I don't use up any of the access space when I mount the PS reservoir. I'll need 8" or less space to get the battery in and out. Anyway, for 30. bucks, I didn't want to pass on it.

[RICH MUISE]

Got a price on the stainless reservoir. He's going to put the 2 6AN fittings on the side and change the bottom fitting to a .655 tube so I can still use the oem metric rubber hose so I won't have to alter the power steering pump. 125. his ebay name is j.a.c. specialties, btw. I think he's the same guy I got my overflow tank from. very easy to work with.

[RICH MUISE]

I read about 1/2 of the 49 pages on the 4.6 coil pack to cop conversion. Very few of the guys had a problem of the dozens that posted, and I think all but one of those turned out to be either an unrelated problem or doing something wrong that was easily fixed. I'm thinking now what I should do is get my valve covers changed to the cop's while I have my front sheetmetal off, and just replug in the spark plug wires. That way I won't be attempting any electrical mods until after the engine is wired and running. I'm gonna pull a plug wire from my spare engine just to make sure they fit inside the cop valve covers. I would guess the well for the cops are larger, so I can't see how that wouldn't work..at least temporarily.

[RICH MUISE]

A little change in my planning....I realized two things with the cop conversion. I found out I can put the cop valve covers on and still temporarily use the old coil packs/plug wires. That way I can replace the valve covers while they are still easy to get to without doing any mods to the oem wiring until after the engine is wired and running. I also realized this morning, it's not only the sheetmetal that is going to make changing valve covers a pain...it's the hydoboost as well. So, now that I've got everything to install the hydroboost and lines, and spent my monthly budget doing that, I'm going to have to wait until the cop valve covers are installed. I need to decide on powder coating or polishing. I'm thinking the polishing is going to end up with too much detailing time in the future trying to keep them looking good, so I'm leaning towards powdercoat.