We have wondered about the “Okada Plasma Coils” for some time now. It was always speculated they were snake oil. The claims below we copied and pasted directly from Okada advertising for these coils are pretty bold.
“The IP Coils are the ignition coil with a high power amplifier built in to it. The IP Coils produce 4 times more spark energy than stock coils and also generate an ultra-fast multi spark discharge of 10 sparks up to highest RPM. The spark amperage is increased 100%, allowing the spark to reachmany more molecules and therefore accelerate the ignition and combustion process.”
Right away we laughed at the “multi spark discharge of 10 sparks to highest RPM” this claim is 100% impossible. The DME controls multi spark you already have it and it doesn’t work in higher RPM. The only way to add multi spark to any coil is to modify the control system sending the signal and they have added nothing in the system capable of doing this. So far they have started out with knowingly misrepresenting their product. But the 4 times spark energy would be a great thing to test as it is possible to have more output from a coil (not sure how they would cram the extra windings into such a small package but it deserves testing before calling it false as well).
So what voodoo is going on inside these coils that make them capable of 4 times more spark energy! They aren’t changing the dwell time because there is no flash of the DME so for starts they must be ¼ the resistance. Factory is 0.50ohm so these should come in by ohms law around 0.125ohm across primary coil. But before we get to actual testing, as we always do we will evaluate a product first to see what physical difference there is.
Right away we noticed that both coils have all of the Bosch factory branding on the sides, the factory Bosch laser marking as well. The only physical appearance is an area on the Okada coil is where what appears to be cutting an piece of plastic that is an empty void, putting a piece of bent anodized aluminum with a sticker on it there and filling the now even larger void with epoxy. This made us curious did they use this void for something?
When we took the clip off both coils we did find that Okada did make a part on this coil, they made their own clip (the factory one does not clear the added aluminum and epoxy). You can even see their logo marked into the clip itself.
We always weigh things as well to see how they compare it can tell you a great deal. The Okada coil pretty much weighed the same as the factory Bosch coil only 0.1oz more this is about what we would expect the aluminum and the extra glue to weigh. But we still can’t help but wonder if possibly they stuck something in that void to achieve their claims.
As you see they are both identical at 0.50ohm so what magic are they using in these things that break simple electrical laws that no one has ever dis-proven? (our wires alone were .3 ohm so this must be subtracted from the coil measurement to not have the resistance of the wires factored in)
They weight the same basically, they measure the same across primary circuit, they have all of the same factory Bosch markings from molds and batch numbers. Everything is identical except the little piece of red anodized aluminum and the extra epoxy. The only “Engineered” part is the plastic clip on the top which won’t create 4x the spark energy. Maybe the guys over at Okada figured out a little something magical that weighs almost nothing they could solder to the terminals on the back side. Only thing you can do is test them and find out does the voodoo work because electronically so far there is no difference. (The secondary winding on these can’t be measured without destroying the coil so we couldn’t test this on the Okada)
So we connected the factory Bosch coil first (old used one pulled from junk drawer) ran the coil recorded some numbers as you can see below . Then we unplugged the old Bosch coil and fired up the fancy new Okada “Plasma coil” to see what the $800 (on sale) set of 6 coils really got you. As you can see comparing the Okada on the Right to the Bosch on the left we had a great surprise (not really) they tested almost 100% identical for current input and saturation point. So in short it is not possible to create more power out of thin air, if two coils pull the same current they both have the same power.
But what if they changed the secondary windings in these coils this is possible…. As mentioned above we couldn’t test it without cutting in half and since these were loaners we weren’t able to do that. We could measure actual output but it’s more fun to play sometimes and we weren’t wondering anymore if they really could be anything but Bosch coils with some glue, a piece of anodized aluminum, and a cheap sticker. So let’s toss one of each coil up on the free air test box and watch sparks jump. Here we suddenly took a step back and said whoa the Okada do outperform the Bosch what is going on here! We really did think it was magic even swapped sides of the test box to see if ground path was slightly different giving the Okada a leg up. To our surprise it still out performed the Bosch coil. So we shut things down scratched our heads and decided the gods bless their coils and they truly are superior. Then while talking and looking at the coils we noticed dates laser engraved on both coils by Bosch. Our test Bosch coil was from 2007 and was most likely in the junk drawer for a reason. So one of our guys went to their car and grabbed some spares that were kept in their trunk to our surprise these were 2013. Still not on par with the Okada that had less than 100 miles on them but hey beggars can’t be choosers. Sorry we didn’t snap any pics of the free air test but ran this coil back through the paces and literally EVERY number was an exact match for the Okada and on free air test both performed 100% identical
Sorry for not being as fun to watch as Myth Busters really wish they did a test on these magic Plasma Coils that are blessed by the gods. But regardless this myth is busted, it is all fancy words and marketing on something the general public either doesn’t know how to test or doesn’t have the equipment to test. So many people have bought $799+ coils as an “upgrade” and received the same coils they already had just new ones that weren’t tired like the first one we put on our test bench.
“The IP Coils are the ignition coil with a high power amplifier built in to it. The IP Coils produce 4 times more spark energy than stock coils and also generate an ultra-fast multi spark discharge of 10 sparks up to highest RPM. The spark amperage is increased 100%, allowing the spark to reachmany more molecules and therefore accelerate the ignition and combustion process.”
Right away we laughed at the “multi spark discharge of 10 sparks to highest RPM” this claim is 100% impossible. The DME controls multi spark you already have it and it doesn’t work in higher RPM. The only way to add multi spark to any coil is to modify the control system sending the signal and they have added nothing in the system capable of doing this. So far they have started out with knowingly misrepresenting their product. But the 4 times spark energy would be a great thing to test as it is possible to have more output from a coil (not sure how they would cram the extra windings into such a small package but it deserves testing before calling it false as well).
So what voodoo is going on inside these coils that make them capable of 4 times more spark energy! They aren’t changing the dwell time because there is no flash of the DME so for starts they must be ¼ the resistance. Factory is 0.50ohm so these should come in by ohms law around 0.125ohm across primary coil. But before we get to actual testing, as we always do we will evaluate a product first to see what physical difference there is.
Right away we noticed that both coils have all of the Bosch factory branding on the sides, the factory Bosch laser marking as well. The only physical appearance is an area on the Okada coil is where what appears to be cutting an piece of plastic that is an empty void, putting a piece of bent anodized aluminum with a sticker on it there and filling the now even larger void with epoxy. This made us curious did they use this void for something?
When we took the clip off both coils we did find that Okada did make a part on this coil, they made their own clip (the factory one does not clear the added aluminum and epoxy). You can even see their logo marked into the clip itself.
TIME FOR BENCH TESTING
So we connected the factory Bosch coil first (old used one pulled from junk drawer) ran the coil recorded some numbers as you can see below . Then we unplugged the old Bosch coil and fired up the fancy new Okada “Plasma coil” to see what the $800 (on sale) set of 6 coils really got you. As you can see comparing the Okada on the Right to the Bosch on the left we had a great surprise (not really) they tested almost 100% identical for current input and saturation point. So in short it is not possible to create more power out of thin air, if two coils pull the same current they both have the same power.
Sorry for not being as fun to watch as Myth Busters really wish they did a test on these magic Plasma Coils that are blessed by the gods. But regardless this myth is busted, it is all fancy words and marketing on something the general public either doesn’t know how to test or doesn’t have the equipment to test. So many people have bought $799+ coils as an “upgrade” and received the same coils they already had just new ones that weren’t tired like the first one we put on our test bench.
