When I went to trade school in 2010 for automotive repair our instructors told us this was going to happen. At the time, I thought they were just grumpy old men who didn't like that cars were becoming more and more electronic. How wrong I was
Oh the irony of using a green wire
I read an article in like 2011 where a group of engine builders rebuilt to factory spec and dyno tested the big 3's performance motors, each one of them produced over 700hp, not the ~350 they claimed haha. I wish I could find the article now, it was a great read.
I'd just like to add to this and recommend interstate batteries. They are a little bit more than house brand, but are much higher quality. For example: Every duralast brand battery I've bought started leaking after ~ 3 years. The last interstate I bought lasted for ~ 8 years/90k miles and was like $40 more than the cheapest battery
The brand name haha
Nice, that's awesome! I'd like to be able to do that stuff myself, but getting past the initial learning curve seems really steep
But yeah, the turbo bricks forum will probably be your best bet, there is also swede speed, but they focus more on FWD volvos. As usual, the site based search function is garbage, so just use google
The volvo applications could definitely give you some good inspiration! We're pretty creative, especially when it comes to improving the (arguably okay-ish) ignition systems, especially on the older cars. Something that would be a little closer to your engine would be the B18 engine in the Volvo Amazon, P1800 and 140 cars, since they are also OHV
The GM coils are pretty small, so you may be able to mount them somewhere else. Looking at pictures of the engine on Google, it looks like there is some space midway down the block near the bell housing that would have enough space to mount them 3x3.
I know you wanted to be able to use off the shelf parts, but making your own spark plug leads is pretty easy, and cheap, which makes mounting them remotely a lot easier
Good luck!
Let's get things started! 1990 Golf, CE1. It's mainly OEM+ right now, but I have a 1.8t (AWW) with an 02j that will go in it eventually. We've had it for 6 years and it's been a great car!
I've never done one myself, but I've seen a lot of people use GM style Coil Near Plug. Mount the coils on the rocker cover, then use short plug wires. Most of what I've seen is from the Volvo community
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