M1 ignition amps?

[zerodegreec]

New M130 build. Porsche 996 NA 3.4L engine.

Should I use coil amplifier's with a M1? Wire length is quite short from the M1 to the engine, maybe 5' total length.

Custom harness Mil-Spec wiring throughout.

[David Ferguson]

You will need to use external ignitors unless the coils have ignitors built in.

[zerodegreec]

how can you tell if your coil has the ignitor built in? I have asked BERU, and they did not understand the question. I don't obviously know what to search for in order to determine if the coils on the engine are self igniting.

1999 Porsche 996 C4 Naturally aspirated 3.4L

[David Ferguson]

How many pins are on the coils? Coils with igniters will have at least 3 pins. Do you have the wiring diagram from the stock ECU? Perhaps you can figure it out from that.

[zerodegreec]

You bet, three pins, 12v, gnd and trigger to ECU.

[Stephen Dean]

Hi,

The notes that I have for the Porsche 996 coils is that they require an external igniter. I have attached the dwell curves that I have for two coils that we know have been used in the 996 models. Can you check your part numbers and see if they match.

Beru 0 040 100 021.pdf

(173.25 KiB) Downloaded 968 times

Beru 0 040 100 031.pdf

(227.02 KiB) Downloaded 865 times

[David Ferguson]

I happen to have a coil from a Porsche GT-3 Cup car (997.2), and it has the Porsche part number 997.602.102.00 and the Beru 0 040 100 0021.

Thanks for the info Stephen!

[zerodegreec]

We have the following coils in the car.
OEM Part #: 996 602 104 00
Beru Part #: 0 040 100 036

[zerodegreec]

as a side bar Stephen, how can a person know if a particular coil needs an ignitor? And if the OEM ECU can drive these coils, how is it with the cost of an M1, that it cannot drive it without a ignitor? Seems counter intuitive to have more equipment to do what the OEM was doing.

[JamieA]

Unlike OEM ECU manufactures, we do not have the luxury of knowing what coils are going to be used with our ECU when we design and produce the ECU.

This means that we need to make design choices that allow us to cover as many possible coil combinations with one piece of hardware.

At the time of the M1 design, it was decided that we are best able to produce an ECU that can control coils with inbuilt ignitors directly, or without ignitors using an external module if we produce that hardware as it stands today.