I found this while looking for a coil for my old John Deere skid loaders Wisconsin engine. It was created for MG owners but since there's some Subaru numbers, we could use it too to back cross to find one for our cars. I happened to have one of the Petronix coils that I had on a Hatch so I used it on the loader, big fat spark now!

 

http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/ignition/ig110.htm

Unfortunately, without knowing the specifics of each unit, you can't be sure it won't be too hot for the ignitor module. The Hitachi ignitor's on the EA81's in particular are sensitive to the secondary coil winding's having an other-than-stock resistance. Too low and you can damage them. Some folks have reported ignitor failure with Accell coil's for example.

 

At some point I'm going to look into this further, and see exactly what kind of resistance they can handle.

 

Also - although I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives, I've found that with properly gapped plugs, and decent wires, the stock Hitachi or ND coils are virtually indestructible. I've never had one fail anyway. I payed the $40 for a new Hitachi on my SPFI'd EA81 because I felt the one I had was questionable - didn't end up making any difference. And I've heard of FAR more aftermarket coil failures than stock. And I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the coil failure's you do hear about are failed aftermarket coil's that were put in for one reason or another over the life of the car.

 

At any rate, I have no reccolection of a coil failure reported here or anywhere else that was unquestionably an OEM part. And if I did I would want to know the condition of the plugs and wires as I would still be questioning that the coil failed without help from bad ignition components.

 

GD

more info is good, nice hit frank. that's awesome.

 

Also - although I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives, I've found that with properly gapped plugs, and decent wires, the stock Hitachi or ND coils are virtually indestructible. I've never had one fail anyway. I payed the $40 for a new Hitachi on my SPFI'd EA81 because I felt the one I had was questionable - didn't end up making any difference. And I've heard of FAR more aftermarket coil failures than stock. And I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the coil failure's you do hear about are failed aftermarket coil's that were put in for one reason or another over the life of the car.

 

At any rate, I have no reccolection of a coil failure reported here or anywhere else that was unquestionably an OEM part. And if I did I would want to know the condition of the plugs and wires as I would still be questioning that the coil failed without help from bad ignition components.

 

GD

i second these notions. i think you'll find the folks that have dealth with dozens+ subaru's will agree on this. i think the few cases of coils being swapped out are because they're swapped out as an assembly to include the FET's on the EA82's. i would think something extraneous would need to happen to cause one to fail.

well, does anyone know the specs on the Subaru coils listed on that page? We can go by that I guess.