Sure thing. There were no symptoms leading up to the failure < that in itself could be a good way to determine EZ69 failure. Was driving up a freeway interchange ramp that is fun to hit around 90 on, so I was in probably third with a good amount of boost, but I had not been driving hard before that. It was a warm day maybe 85F, but I wouldn't call the engine compartment particularly hot at that moment since before I had just been cruising a freeway.

From normal mid throttle acceleration, the engine stopped as if the key had been turned off. No sputter of power, nothing - just some backfire. Full to zero spark instantly. Not like fuel flow had stopped - there would be some sputter and power fade. Full power to zero power instantly. All warning lights (or most of them) also came on at the same moment.

Luckily I had enough inertia to get all the way down the ramp which had no breakdown lane and hop over a low meridian to safety with no damage.

Re-reading some of this thread I am tempted to add a louvered heat sink to the back of the mount plate behind the EZ. Probably mount it with thermal paste as well so that the heat more quickly moves out of the EZ's case. Or what about a vent tube mounted to scoop fresh air and blow it on the EZ?

So glad you found an EZ Wicks.

Brandon

Wicks, did you also end up testing the MB version? Did it work?

Yes the MBZ unit runs the engine - but incorrectly. Works well enough to limp home without running engine hard. Idle will be 500 rpms or so high. Bosch Part number 0 227 400 538 MBZ part number 004 545 44 32.

Just noticed this - marketing promoted the EZ-69 ignition in the original brochure:

You are seeing another ground wire which goes somewhere forward of the relay panel. It is mounted to a very conveniently located grounding post for adding a ground line to the EZ-69 case.

Read here (post 25) for more info; http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...-module-2.html

Yes read that - now that I've solved the problem I'm less motivated for the moment, but would be amazing for the future and others if Niel could provide info on what he did in 2021 to get that car running without the EZ unit...

Read my post # 68 - I cut Niel's post rom pelican

Black_Hat, I also recall reading that on Pelican some years ago. And I think that it was you that suggested running an XDI system as an alternative to our 965 setup.

I am a big fan of XDI. On my '72 HotRod I am running an XDI, it beautifully controls the dual plug ignition and works with mechanical Webers. Very nice and elegant set up. But I understand that some folks, including myself prefer leaving the 965 as stock as possible.

[QUOTE]I understand that some folks, including myself prefer leaving the 965 as stock as possible./QUOTE]

Yes, Me too.

But after 2 EZ-69's went bad on me I found A 3RD - Verified it worked and put it in Dry Storage and installed the XDI2.

I started modifying my Turbo before prices went crazy, the car looks stock except for the XDI2 and I can return it to EZ-69 stock in an afternoon

I really tried to find a stock solution or repair -

• I work in high Tech research and development - High speed custom digital hardware.
• I had my hardware guys look at the EZ 69 , they could not even get their prom reader to work on the EZ 69 components ,
• They found to EZ-69 to be a horrible design prone to failure and not really designed to work in an engine compartment
• the clear Gell conformal coating on the PCB helps with corrosion prevention and vibration and sadly it is also an insulator read-BAD
• I had Both my Industrial designer and Hardware designer (they spend a lot of time in Taiwan , Korea , Vietnam , Japan and China at MFG sites) show the dissected EZ-69 to all their contacts and they all shook their head no

Again This "Can" be done but as many have stated the market for a replacement is really small

I will keep looking


Stefan

hi Stefan,

does that also apply when you consider that the EZ series was developed in the second half of the 80s? If you are working in the industry you will know what was state of the art at that time. And Bosch doesn't look like a tinker shop to me, they laid the foundation for modern engine controls with all the essential developments at this time.

I would also disagree with "prone to fail", the number of failed devices compared to those that have been doing their job without any problems for more than 30 years is very, very small. The EZ ignition control units have been used much more frequently at Mercedes than at Porsche, also installed in the engine compartment, and in the scene they are considered as completely inconspicuous.

The XDI solution seems ab bit pricy for what it can do. I'm also seriously wondering where I should put the in-house trigger wheel on a 965 3.6. A pic of your solution would be nice.

Fritz

@fritz k. Yes, I agree with you. So many parts on a Porsche are over built . I feel they could have leaned more towards more military or heavy outdoor use compliance.

I was Born in Germany and studied there , I went to HighSchool in Augsburg and after went to Max Planck

I'm more than aware of German Build quality especially pre 2000's

Hind Sight is always 20/20

I had Clewette install a 62-2 wheel behind my stock Pulley :

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-9...rced-deal.html see post #13

XDI2 in place since 2013 no issues , I have rev limiter control, Knock control, Custom mapped ignition, data logging, several general outputs controlling methanol injection , valet mode.

Stefan

Here in SoCal where the temperature gets much hotter than Germany in the summer, the EZ ignition module failures were not insignificant, e.g. M/B.
Most all my M/B repair shops that I supported in the late '80s & '90s indicated that the EZ module was problematic. The marginal electronic design was
compounded by the use of hybrid circuitry. I kept a spare EZ module in my 124 M/B along with a distributor cap & fuel pump relay.

Isn't this all part of the issue though? That this stuff was essentially warmed-up 80's control systems repurposed for our cars all the way into 1994? With all distributed, discrete, components and control electronics responsible for the ignition, fuelling, boost control etc, unlike the central ecu which everyone else had been using for a long time by that point.

It's not quite as simplistic as a purely mechanical control system, but nowhere near the elegance of an all-in-one, software driven control unit. Best of both, worst of each!

We're paying for it now, with Porsche' decision (which we all probably realise was entirely - and understandably - financially driven at the time) biting us in terms of the ability to service, replace or recondition what are effectively a range of proprietary control systems that were never (quite) used in anything else.

Of course, Augsburg is not in the superior part of Germany known as Schwabia where all the correct design decisions are made by Porsche, MB, Bosch, Mahle/Behr and others!

Good advice! I did the same thing, here is a close-up picture. Very clean sensor install, a row of CDI boxes mounted on the firewall controlling 12 spark plugs, and the "ECM" mounted inside/under passenger seat.