Last year during the 75th Anniversary of the Sturgis Rally I attended The Flying Piston Benefit Breakfast at the Buffalo Chip. It’s held the first Sunday of the rally and it provides scholarships to newly minted grads and for veterans that are interested in starting a career the motorcycle industry. What’s cool about it is you meet builders from around the world and specifically ones from Micheal Lichter’s Motorcycle As Art™ Exhibit.
As the event was wrapping up, I was speaking with Kyle Shorey of Speed Foundry, a former US National Champion of the J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show, about Accel’s COP technology or (coil-on-plug) that tidys up the engine and enhances throttle response.
He explained how the COP technology has become the hot setup on Corvettes for a number of packaging, performance, emissions and maintenance reasons. It eliminates the wires and places the coil directly above the spark plug.
I thought to myself, man I bet that would look cool. After we put a fork in the breakfast, I headed to downtown Sturgis to see the Indian and Harley-Davidson exhibits.
Across the way is the J&P Cycles store. So I ducked in to see the latest and greatest in the accessories market and low and behold I found the ACCEL representative showcasing the stealth coil which is a COP product for Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. Since I’m modifying a 2007 Harley-Davidson Nightster, I had to get one. So I pulled the trigger on a SuperCoil and got a smoke’n deal to boot.
For the installation I rolled into Hank Thibodeau’s Widowmaker Custom Design & Repair shop in Rougemont, NC. He’s out in the country and it takes 1 hour of riding on a two lane ribbon of asphalt to get to his 2 car garage shop. It’s a great ride and he is always working on something interesting when you roll in. The following is his installation and observations on the ACCEL product.
A motorcycle coil is an induction coil which transforms the battery’s low 12 volts to the thousands of volts needed to create an electric spark in the spark plugs to ignite the fuel. The ACCEL SuperCoil eliminates the external coil and plug wires by mounting the coil directly to the spark plug.
When it comes to energy, more is “more better.” The ACCEL SuperCoil provides up to 25 % more energy than the factory ignition and provides a more complete burn of the mixture.
Because of emission considerations, stock bikes tend to have lean spots during acceleration and you can often feel a flat spot when accelerating with a steady throttle. The higher energy from the ACCEL SuperCoil minimizes these dips and can even eliminate them because it can better burn the lean mixture. Riders have reported back that they have experienced quicker starts and improved throttle response.
Relocating the coil directly on top of the plug has another significant benefit; no more lost energy because of the spark plug wires. Spark plug wires break down over time, especially carbon core wires like the stock ones.
Modified engines, especially those with higher compression ratios respond well because the increased cylinder pressure requires more energy to burn the mixture. Again, higher energy helps to burn the less than ideal mixture.
Disassembly: Remove the seat, sparkplugs, fuel tank and disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery. Unplug the stock ignition coil and wires and completely remove them from the bike.
1. Apply a small amount of the supplied blue thread lock to the (8) set screws and loosely install (2) set screws into each of the (4) cast aluminum head stud mounts.
2. Place the cast aluminum head stud mounts on top of the 4 exposed head studs and fasten the set screws securely using the provided 3/32” hex key wrench.
3. Install one ignition coil assembly into the cast aluminum coil cover by matching up the tabs on the coil with the slots in the coil cover. Route the coil wires through the notch on the side of the coil cover. Repeat the process. Do not tighten coil mounting screws completely at this time.
4. Install the front coil and cover assembly directly onto the front spark plug and head stud mounts. NOTE: We chose to route the coil wires below the rocker boxes for an even cleaner look.
5. Apply a small amount of the supplied blue thread lock to the (4) socket head cap screws. Insert the socket head cap screws through the hole in the top of the coil cover, align with threaded hole in the top of the head stud mount and fasten securely using the supplied 5/32” hex key wrench. Repeat and cover assembly. Now tighten your coil mounting screws to your covers once covers are secured.
6. Connect the 4-pin plug on the supplied coil extension harness to the coil connector on the bikes wiring harness. Route the coil extension harness along the backbone of the frame so that the two coil connectors (labeled front cyl/rear cyl) drop down between the cylinders behind the throttle body. Secure the coil extension harness to the backbone of the frame using the supplied cable ties.
7. Connect the coil harness from the front cylinder to the connector on the coil extension harness labeled “Front cyl”. Connect the coil harness from the rear cylinder to the connector on the coil extension harness labeled “Rear cyl”. Installation of the ACCEL Stealth SuperCoils is now complete. Reconnect your negative battery cable, reinstall your tank and seat, and fire up your sled.
NOTE: The finned cast aluminum cover holds the coil in place and acts as a functional heat sink to pull heat away from the cylinder head. All wiring is hidden in the fins of the head for a clean and wireless appearance.
The SuperCoil kit is available in 3 metal treatments including natural, all black or black finish with polished fins.
Hank had this to say about the install…. “The install is simple and straight forward. Bang for the buck, one of the best bolt on power products available.”
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