Why hasn't a company come up with a coil pack and wires that would replace the cop's on the 5.4l . They are a pain in the butt to work on. A coil pack and wires ( if possible ) would prevent a lot of headaches. Any comments?

 

There is a big difference in how the system is designed between the two.

On a Cop motor the computer has 8 seperate coil switches the software fires according to the fire order.
The harness is made for 8 seperate coil feeds.
.
On a Pak motor, the computer addresses the Pak coil windings with a different arrangement.
This system is called a waisted spark.
On one coil windng, there are two cylinders fed spark. One wired to each end of the winding.
The computer fires each coil pak per the fire order such that the spark on the mate cylinder sparks during the exhaust cycle and does nothing but be 'waisted'.
This design was discontinued in favor of the COP for better performance for three reasons. One the coil can have higher output which its needs when the EGR is open, Two, the core saturation time of COP is much faster at higher RPM, Three, there is no spark plug lead as you normally know it to have issues with..
Another possible issue is the detection of missfires and coil faults. How that would go is anybodies guess.
The higher HP motors in the other lines use the same coils and need better spark in such cars as the high performance Mustangs.
Doing a retro fit is too involved on COP motor just for an owners convienance and would likely be more inital expense than replacing a COP unit when you need to.
Spark plug access hassles is still the same in either case.
What I try to bring to you is it's much more complicated than you may have thought and the old system is not up to running the motors as cleanly under todays EPA rules.
While some owners and aftermarket applications would buy such a retrofit, the cost and sales volume would not be there to justify it with out high retail costs.
Hope this helps in the consideration between the two systems.
Good luck.

 

I bought a spare set (8) of COPS on e-bay for $100. and just change one out when it fails. Most can be changed in about 5-10 minutes.

 

I guess I'm just frustrated with the design. I'm aware of the advantages of the cop setup. I just get p.o'd when I have to change that number 4 cop. lol
Of course I go out this morning , ready to work on the truck and it's not skipping. I drove in the rain last week and didn't drive again for 4 days. The
truck skipped pretty badly for about 20 miles. I shut the truck off and when I
started it up to come home it ran perfectly. I was thinking moisture had evaporated. It's done that before. I got in the truck 3 days later and had a worse skip. No rain. I pulled a few of the cop connectors while engine was running this morning. I couldn't find a problem. The truck runs perfect again.
??????????????? 99 f250ld with 5.4 and about 215k. Thanks for the help

 

Look carefully for signs of moisture in the plug well and evidence on the boots of arcing.
Be sure to use the specified grease on the boot tip and use a good coating around the top where they set on the heads.
Look at the hood to cowl seal for issues and the heater hoses in that area for leaking.
Once moisture gets in it's hard for it to get back out.
It has to vaporize from the heat and find it's way out going upward.
I admitt the situation could have been designed better for seal but they seem not to be concerned enough since the design started in the early 90s on the Lincolns and has not changed much..
If I had to make some mods to this for my use, I would first design a tube cover running down both sides to do two things. One to cool the coils and two, a water seal or shield.
These coils live a harsh life setting on a head, over a well, cooling system heat and exhaust heat especially after shutdown when it goes the highest for more than 5 minutes before everything begins to cool down.
The fan stops, the water pump stops and shortly the the thermostat closes and holds the heat in the block and heads without circulation.
These things are what make hoses and rubber parts go hard.
Rubber like materials have chemicals in the mix to make them soft and plyable. When these chemicals migrate out, the part gets hard and stiff.
Heat and Ozone gas play a major part in these failures.
I have a thermostat controlled electric fan cooling the trans cooler that runs after the motor shuts down providing the engine bay and upper trans cooler line is at least 195 degrees. This keeps the bay from ever getting to far above that temperature at anytime.
The only time the fan runs is above about 95 degree ambients outside in summer or if the trans fluid goes over the thermostat setting.
I think it might show at least in that no rubber parts or hoses have failed to date with 183,000 miles on a near perfect 02 4.6 motor.
Thanks for the post. It generates talk about other thoughts.
Good luck.

 

not meaning to hijack this thread but i have been looking at these COPs on ebay for my dads 4.6l but which ones are you getting for $100 for 8 Steve?

thanks

 

Very often a huge part of why the original COPs fail is because the spark gap exceeds specs. This causes the insulation in the coil to break down and it shorts out internally.

 

Going to coil packs would be reverse engineering. Like going back in time. Virtually all new cars have COP's. Less chance for a misfire without all of those pesky plug wires running everywhere.