Modern stick coils(coil on plug) on my R

In my never ending quest to fight modding boredom and to lose my 28 year old stock coils, I decided to try some modern stick coils on the old girl. I haven't seen it done on the 1st gens so I didn't have much to go on. I bought a set from a CBR along with a harness...$40. Wired in series, they ohm out almost exactly as the stockers. A buddy has 10k miles on a set on his Connie with the same ignition system as my R with no issues so I figured WTH.

First I made a custom harness using the CBR connectors.


I needed to seal the coil in the spark plug opening so I grabbed a grommet from the PO...


and trimmed off one of the flanges.


Here's how it seals in the hole...nice and tight.


On the inlines, the valve cover helps hold the coil in place, but the R's head is dished out around the plug so I needed to steady the coil. I cut some heater hose and made a sleeve to wedge the coil into the head.
Rock solid now.


Fronts.
You can see another reason why I went with an updated rad fan(works great by the way), stock fans would hit the coils but the slim line one is no problem after a small modification.


Rears.
I temporarily tucked everything away for the test run. I'll make a carbon fiber plate where the old coils use to be to tie down the cables/connections.


It starts and runs great, all the way to redline. I've got about 100 miles on it and all seems normal. Some claim better starting, better response, blah blah blah. I really just wanted to lose the old coils, pay less money for an upgrade and just see if I could do it.

Some may ask why, but I feel it's more fun in life asking why not.

 

Cool. I like it. Why not.

 

Impressive. It's also impressive to see how a coil can be so miniaturised. Were there any issues interfacing the stick coils with the trigger mechanism, whatever that is on a VF1000R? Solid state ignitors?

 

Freaking geniuses :thumbsup:

 

Great stuff! I was wondering if this could be done without to much trouble.
Thanks for showing the way

Garry

 

No issues. Just plugged them into the existing coil feed wires.

 

UPDATE needed. Will it work on another year, say 3rd gen?

Larry

 

Larry, I've seen it done on the 4th gen but not the third. Something tells me it will work on them as well.

Got about 800 miles on them so far and all is well.

 

I've done this on a 5th gen, again using CBR1000RR (2007) CoP's & got ove 2000 miles on them & ran it here in the extreme 32c temps we had her ein the UK a while ago & never missed a beat ! Go for it. Some people said that the resistance was too low on the CBR coils & when stone cold its true, but when measured fitted to a hot engine within a couple of minutes of stopping its the same as the standard coils.

 

Just got mine in the mail. Next week I am going to convert my 86 VFR750F

 

Great, keep s posted. I think we'll find more people getting on board with this mod. Stock rad fans could be a road block, they were for me but a superior Spal fan solved that.

 

Hi Kel, do you know which model CBR they came from? I am thinking of doing this to my old VF1000F.
Tony

 

They were from a CBR600...can't remember the year. They are 5" long. You will have issues with the stock rad fans. I wanted to have a better fan set up anyway so I went with a slim Spal fan. You might be able to get the stockers to work. Maybe kick the rad out a little?

 

great idea have you checked it on a dyno to see if there is any performance benefits? maybe some one should make a kit for this dose not seem hard at all.

 

Nice Kel,

Think I`ll have to try this one. Searching now for your fan change out. That`s one I`ve been wanting to do forever.

 

Don't know that theres any hp gains, just wanted new coils without the pricey Dyna's. Also nice to get rid of the long plug wires which can have their own issues.

Post #323 here. http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/23087-VF1000R-rebuild/page11?highlight=

 

Coils won't gain power, what were you thinking ? If the timing is correct, then regardless of how you make the spark, assuming no other changes, everything will be the same. That said CoP might give a tiny smidge of ignition advance, we are talking milliseconds here !

 

i meant spark increase to potential hp but then they are really the same as stock wires so it wont matter just disregard that last statement. but that is a really good idea and im curious how it behaves with tunning, could you go hotter coils and plugs with higher air and fuel and get any benefit without plowing up the bike!?

 

Is there a part # on top on the tag ? Might be able to look up what they are from if there is.