Question on my 2002 z28s coil packs
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Teching In
Joined: Sep 2025
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From: Janesville, Wisconsin
Question on my 2002 z28s coil packs My coil packs have damn near gone out on my 02 z28 camaro (assuming from the car siting around for ages when I got it), and I'm looking into buying MSD street blasters (55088) because they are on sale right now, but Ive read that because they are a slightly higher voltage output (48,000 compared to 40,000 stock), id have to buy a harness for them to avoid cel codes for the coils demanding more volts then the stock harness can supply, and ideally bigger plug wires to utilize them, I see a lot of people say that MSD is just paying for a name and that I should stick with OE coils, anyone have any experiance with coils that give a stronger voltage than stock such as the msd blasters? Will I have issues running the stock harness, or will I be better off buying OE coils paired with bigger wires? Any input helps, as this is all new to me. Thank you!
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Schiller Park, IL Member: #317
FWIW, my stock spec sheets from back in the late '90s show that the stock coils were rated at 45,000 volts, not 40k. Either way, I don't see any problem with the stock harness being used. And plug wires make very little difference in this application considering how short the run is, and the fact they don't cross over each other. You won't see any gains from upgraded wires OR coils.
Coils don't go bad just from sitting (assuming dry storage). If they did, mine would have failed YEARS ago (20k miles on 27 year old stock coils). In fact, one of the most reliable parts on a stock Gen III V8 are the coil packs. They rarely ever fail based on age or mileage, usually even ones sitting in a junk yard are still OK.
What tests have you done to determine that you have failed coils? IMO, the MSD ones are less reliable and you're always going to be better off with the stock ones here.
Coils don't go bad just from sitting (assuming dry storage). If they did, mine would have failed YEARS ago (20k miles on 27 year old stock coils). In fact, one of the most reliable parts on a stock Gen III V8 are the coil packs. They rarely ever fail based on age or mileage, usually even ones sitting in a junk yard are still OK.
What tests have you done to determine that you have failed coils? IMO, the MSD ones are less reliable and you're always going to be better off with the stock ones here.
My tuner told me not to swap my LS1 coils for the MSD's. The stock coils with the MSD Super Conductor wires have powered my LSX427 for years. Since upgrading to aftermarket valve covers I've been using the Delphi LS3 coils and I haven't had any isssues with those but I did have to remove the wire harness from some truck coils in order to use the LS3 style coils because the connectors were different on the LS1 coils.
