I am about to upgrade my ignition since my plugs and wires are bad on my car. I want to go ahead and upgrade the ignition aswell. I was thinkin MSD with a hei distributor but kinda pricy. I saw some kind of converter from TA Performance that is supposed to eliminate points completely. Does that save you from having to buy a new hei distributor? I don't know a ton about ignitions but wanted to have a computer controlled with a hotter coil for sure. Any recommendations on good setups for a 430 would be appreciated. My setup is a 69 cat 430 bored 15 over, 455 stg2 heads, ta cam not sure which one, and edlebrock 750 s/s w elect, choke. Thanks in advance!
personally I am not that in love with the hei set up.....in fact I have one in pieces that has been laying under my bench for 4 years..... a stock buick dist is a good unit as is .... but I would get rid of the points,,,, use a crane conversion or mallory or pertronix,,,,, I like the magnetic ones best because a magnet will not burn out.... clean and blue print the stock unit and convert the points to electronic ign and while you are in there install a mr gasket recurve kit and you will have a unit that will do anything the engine will do.....
Here is the best unit in my experience to jump to pointless ignition and keep your current one wire set up. Compare it to the typical rewire needed for other conversions. http://www.lectriclimited.com/ The concept of a "hotter" coil is a misnomer. The coil winding ratio greater than stock really has nothing to do with improved ignition. It is just for marketing. When you jump to a transistorized CDI based box like a MSD unit a stock coil will yield the same results. In any case if your existing street engine ignition is within spec and you are keeping the max rpms under say 6K do not expect to feel any real increase in performance.
I went with mallory distributor, 6a box, coil, retard module and a power filter for the distributor to protect against voltage spikes. Works great. Used a trailer harness from autozone for the wiring. Basically the same thing mallory sells but way cheaper. Got tired of messing with pertronix modules. The mallory set up is all digital (msd is not) and the distributor uses an optical sensor. The retard module has a dial, and requires no plug in whatcha ma callits to change your advance, you just turn the dial. The box has dials on it for the rev limiter. It was a pricey conversion, but has saved me a ton of fiddlin with my ignition system.
I got a stock HEI at a boneyard for 10 bucks. Stripped it and rebuilt the whole thing for a bout 125 including cap rotor etc.
Unless you know the trick Dave does, you didn't save any money. If you want an edge ahead of the rest that just slap their own togther with the same parts but don't do it to his specs..... You get Dave to do your Dizzy. Remember he is the guy who designed your/our GM ign systems. He knows what tweaks need done. Just like having the Doug Roe qjet book. He designed the qjet and know what tricks need done. Having Dave do your Dizzy is like having Gates or Jobbs set up your computer.
I recently saw an ad for a new ignition that Pertronix is coming out with. They call it the Ignitor III, and it seems to have all of the good stuff. Multi-strike throughout the rpm range, rev limiter, yada, yada, yada. Looks interesting. Check out: Ignitor III Thanks.
