Spark Boosters

Spark boosters are needed only for high HP engines. There are many ways to increase spark but not all mustangs can use the same method of boosting spark.

Coil Packs

After market coil packs such as MSD’s “Ford Coil Pack, 4 Tower” Part Number PN 8241 and Screamin’ Demon’s Coilpacks Part Number 31724 are useless. Many many many many cars with over 1000 HP have used the stock coilpacks with no problems what-so-ever. The stock Motorcraft coilpacks made Dave King the fastest supercharged 4.6L in the world. There is no reason to use anything other than stock. If you must use an aftermarket coilpack due to prices (MSD costs less than the stock coilpack from Ford), MSD is the only one I would consider.

Plasma Booster

I personally don’t know too much about the Plasma Booster. This is an item designed to work with the “coil on plug” ignition found on 99-04 Mustangs. Here is a snippet taken from http://www.50mustangandsuperfords.com. If anyone would like to write a more in-depth FAQ, please email me.

“in a nutshell, Ignition Solutions' Plasma Booster provides a hotter spark than is capable with a stock 4.6 Mustang ignition. The company claims the Plasma Booster is an ignition component engineered to enhance the Mustang's existing ignition system. It's almost like installing a complete ignition system without all the wiring and placement issues. Reportedly delivering four times the spark energy over the factory ignition during initial spark discharge, the Plasma Booster also doubles the secondary current (spark amperage). The power boost is a result of the Plasma Booster creating a multiple-spark discharge of about 10 sparks within 500 microseconds of the total spark. In short, the Plasma Booster's hotter spark capability burns the fuel faster than the stock ignition. And the faster the engine can burn fuel and emit it, the more horsepower it's capable of making.”

MSD’s DIS-4

This is the Holy Grail for 96-98 coil pack owners (sorry 99-04 Mustangs, this won’t work unless you rig up two in conjunction). This little, ok, big device provides the most elaborate and probably most complex way of increasing spark. It comes with all kinds of features such as a soft rev touch that slowly shuts down a single cylinder when you over-rev your car, a two step module so you can control how your spark acts when staging and when launching, programmable timing control to increase the spark all the way up to 12,500 rpms, ignition interruption to prevent unauthorized car starts for those pesky car burglars and more! You can have many different programmable sparks. For example, one setup can be for race fuel and another can be for stock fuel. Another handy item this has is the ability to disable itself in case it fails. That way you can still get back home in case you break the DIS-4. It should be noted NOT to mount this device inside the engine bay. It will overheat and destroy the box. The downside to this item is, it is extremely complex to use and might be in the way due to its size and mounting location. Also, it seems more and more DIS-4s are failing. Why this is exactly, I have no idea, but maybe either MSD will fix the problem or someone else will make a better product.

Kenne Bell Boost-A-Spark

This simple device can be used on all SN95 vehicles. It works simply by stepping up the input voltage of the stock ignition to as much as 24 volts. It allows the user to use a simple turn knob and select how much spark they would like to increase the stock ignition, either from 25% to 100%. The easiest way to use this is to just leave it at 100%. There are no problems or downsides with this.