Does anybody know what this is and why it started smoking???

BarelyaV-8 said
Didn't even have the coil hooked up just put the motor back in checked the ignition to make sure it had power and all of a sudden smoke! So I'm assuming because the coil wasn't in place it over heated?

That'll do it. When you get a replacement buy 2 and always keep one in the glovebox for just in case...