Since the Visteon coils seem to be hard to find these days - at least the last times I have looked, I put a set of AC Delco coils in the F150 because it had a mixture of Motorcraft, Visteon, Global, and China coils and it has been having an intermittent misfire. I think the coils are probably OK as I found water in #9 with a rusty boot.

Anyway, I am impressed so far. I noticed an instant difference in idle smoothness and maybe more power - though I have been driving the Viper a lot so everything feels slow and smooth. I don't ever remember not being able to feel the truck idle. It's glass smooth. They were only $137.75 for 10 on ebay. We'll see if they hold up over time and if the Ford rejects parts made by a GM supplier.

 

I did not know AC Delco made coils for our trucks. I hope they continue to work over the long haul as I will need to replace mine at some point and another good option would be nice.

 

EDIT: The statements below are inaccurate. See POST 13 for clarification.

The reviews are in! GARBAGE. Could have left me stranded. It's bad enough when you have a misfire from a coil not sparking, but #6 completely shorted, melted its guts out, and blew the fuse for the power supply to the coils!

I was troubleshooting an intermittent misfire - as usual - and I had the truck in reverse in the driveway and giving it enough gas to load enough for the misfire in hopes that it would set the code. About 30 seconds in, the truck instantly died and I saw smoke come from under the hood. It smelled like burnt wiring. Close enough...

Now I need to buy 10 more coils because I don't trust these!





A/C Delco Coils suck

 

Try a set of Araparts coils. Yes, they are cheap Chinese coils but have a lifetime warranty and the vendor has a forum account for support.

 

A shorted coil often begins as a misfire in OD and light throttle and does not set a code or CEL..
As /or if it gets worse to a low resistance short, it can do permanent damage to the coil driver solid state switch in the PCM.
If the current gets high enough, the driver can go open circuit or even burn the circuit board trace.
This problem then requires the PCM to be replaced, programmed, Pats involved etc.
The use of low quality coils just based on price considerations only can lead to this kind of failure.
This why we recommend only OEM coils be used for the least chance of this kind of fault ballooning into a major cost before all damage is accounted for.
In addition, if this situation is pushed far enough, you can lose the cats from burning raw fuel in them causing meltdown.
Total up the cost and hassle of all this and you have a major expense, and the pleasure of the low cost coils quickly fades.

Good luck.

 

I thought I'd be safe with a brand name like A/C Delco. I didn't just buy the cheapest thing I could find.

 

Thanks for letting us know about your experience!!!

 

There are two points to be made here.
1. Many buy on price alone for whatever reasons they have.
2. No other coil has the record of OEM, when considering the design has been used continuously since the early 90s on all FOMCO production line models of cars, SUV and trucks that use this coil.
OEM coils can also fail over time but not nearly the same frequency as aftermarket units.
.
In addition, a name is not enough to go on any longer.
Those who are now running aftermarket coils have at least a certain amount of luck as we all have at times.
ACCELL was 'once' a well regarded brand in the high performance field.
My first failure experience with that Brand was a high performance rated single coil failure on the 5L Mustang back in the mid 90s and again about 8 years ago on a 4.6 where all 8 went faulty a couple at a time and did a lot of damage beyond just coil failure until I realized what was happening.
Warranty never covered the losses as it was only 30 days making warrantee for all intent and purpose, worthless..
There is a bit more to this story if anyone cares to hear about it.
I apologize if you took offense from my lack of clarity.
Good luck.

 

Not offended at all!

I'd like to hear more about your story on the 4.6. Kill the cats?

 

On my 2003 4.6 (red truck - now sold)

My globals took a dump, they wouldnt stand behind their warranty. They wanted me to provide them with shop records of who installed them. I informed them that I installed them and Im an ASE Mater, and they wanted a copy of my certificate before they would warranty them? WTF?

Bought the scratch set of MC coils from the taxi guy on ebay. Had 4 fail over the course of a year.

Ended up buying OEM at my wholesale cost from the dealership to get it running right again.



Fiddy (my silver 2003) still has all 8 OEM Factory coils on her (only 103k miles)

 

I had my first factory coil go about 70K miles. The second went at 100K. I put in new NGK irridium plugs and 8 Ebay coils that cost about $100. Supposedly they were made in the factory that made the OEM parts, but obviously had no Ford sticker. They are still going strong 40K miles/4 years later.

 

zero problems with the 8 coils with boots for $38 deal on ebay. All the china coils are the same, just buy off the cheapest seller if you want no name/relabeled coil. same as the house brand at the parts store.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/131529902539

 

I would like to withdraw my statement about the coils. The #6 failure was not the fault of the coil, but a short to ground caused by a packrat. See https://www.f150online.com/forums/19...exploding.html for more info.

 

Let me expand on coil manufacturing just a bit so some understanding of the issues that can develop in any coil.
Provided is photo of a cut of the bobbin and wire winding that is normally used.
The wire is normally Enamel coated for insulation for many turns in the space provided on the form.
Tension of the winding as wound during the process is important.
If the winding is too tight, expansion from the heat the coil lives under can cause the Enamel coating to rub through causing shorted turns.
When this happens the magnetic field developed during current flow is greatly affected or reduced. The result is lowered high voltage output and possible misfires especially during OD when EGR is called to operate. This causes the mixture to go Lean from exhaust 'dilution' from the designed in effort to cool combustion temperatures and reduce NOX emissions as specified by the US EPA..
The shorted turns can cause coil overheating, low coil voltage, loss of PCM drivers resulting in misfires and 35x codes for total failures that result.
Otherwise intermittent misfires as the coil faults then clears from temperature changes.
Given the tremendous range of heat cycling a coil goes through repeatedly, the winding moves causing shorts and wire fatigue lead breakage at the points of connection to the plug area in the outside form.
The quality and care of manufacturing determines to a large extent the life of coil.
Coils are considered a maintenance item as well and not meant for unlimited life.
.
IMO, if the coils were to be provided a housing and duct work and forced cooling, their life might be greatly extended.
I use a fan controlled transmission cooler that senses the temp at the radiator input from the transmission.
This also senses the temp in the engine bay during shutdown.
During hot ambient temps at 90 and above, the small fan comes on during low road speed towing and after engine shutdown to limit the engine bay peak temperatures because the fan has power full time to uses when called for.
Since adding this feature my coil loss has been non existent for more than 100,000 miles. Can't prove the connection as an absolute but with min. other issues under in the engine bay from heat it sure looks like the small fan has had an effect over the long term.
During high temps the small fan will run an average of 5 to 7 minutes after engine shutdown with it's thermostat set at about 190 degrees.
I am now heading for 232,000 miles on an 02 4.6L with no sign of engine issues yet.
Good luck.

 

also an aggressive maintenance schedule and replacing worn out spark plugs early will extend coil life as well