GM LS Truck coils instead of AEM smart coils for AEM EMS 4

[AWD Sebring]

Has anybody attempted to use the GM, LS truck coils in place of using the AEM smart coils with an AEM EMS 4 setup. From what im reading the GM truck coils are also a "smart coils". Not sure how it would work or if it would work. But the price difference is about $40 a coil and I can find a GM truck coil at any old auto parts store it would be that much more convient if a failure does occur. ANY help would be appreciated.

 

[brads]

I believe the coils you are talking about are the D585, sometimes referred to as Yukon coils. I would NOT use them. They look fine, but have a weird failure mode where they will fire as soon as you hit 8A or so, without the ECM telling them to fire. So if you get your dwell settings programmed wrong, it could cause the coils to fire advanced, on their own.

The D514A looks like it might be a better option, it is used on the LS3, LS7, some LS2.

I have no experience with either on a DSM, I've just been researching/testing coils again and came across this odd behavior. And I did verify it occurs.

 

[HighPSI TSi Guy]

Interesting to see you come up with that Brad. I found the same thing when I tried them, thought I'd gone crazy.

 

[brads]

You aren't crazy. Whoever decided that was OK for a coil to do, is crazy.

I read about it on a few other forums first, including the megasquirt one. I just verified that it was occuring on the few D585 I was testing from different manufacturers.

And the quick way to ID the D585 from the other LS coils, the D585 is the one with the heatsink coming out of the top of it. It is a neat looking package, too bad it is just that risky. For OEM people, who KNOW they will never see anywhere near 8A of dwell current, it might actually work well. But there are too many risks with an aftermarket ECU of it having a weird dwell on first start, or very low RPM, etc. One long dwell time,could cause a really advanced spark, and all sorts of trouble.

 

[AWD Sebring]

Hey thanks for the reply guys. I found some guys with SR20's using them with the AEM ems 4, of course it was right after I posted this. and they were saying something similar. I was bieng told that the truck coils were the better ones out of the two. Also I believe some of the supra guys are using them too. So would the LS2 or the LS7 coils be a viable option or should I just bite the bullet and buy the AEM ones.