I'ld like to order a real street/strip ignition system including distributor, coil, ignition box, 8.8 mm wires, and better plugs. Any recommendations?MSD, Mallory, Accel? The set-up I'll be running is a TA 212 cam, 800 spread bore dbbl. pumper, TA intake, and a 2500 stall converter. Im already running hooker headers, and a K&N filter. With all the fuel and air my 350 is going to sucking in I figer I'll need more spark. The set-up I've got now is a stock distributor w/ fresh points, cap, rotor, wires, plugs, mr.g advance curve kit, and an accel S/S coil. Will I be able to keep running my new accel coil or should I get a better one to match the brand of distributor I buy? Thanks, Jeremy.
Plenty of guys have sent their old points style distributors to IgnitionMan Dave to be converted over to electronic ignition!!:TU: Much cheaper than going the MSD billet style route!! Click here for his site.
Forgot to mention...ou: - he also COMPLETELY rebuilds your dist. Everything is disassembled, cleaned, the housing is bead-blasted and then turned in his lathe for a 'machined look'(looks great!!), new bushings are installed and fitted for the newly re-chromed shaft. The housing can also be polished for that 'billet' look (upon request). He only uses top notch parts - NO JUNK!!:TU: Not only that, but you'd be supporting another 'Buick' guy!!:bglasses:
Cool. I think I may call him up. I was also looking at the Mallory distributors in PAW and I was wondering whats the difference between the unilite electronic distributors and the magnetic breakerless distributors? electronic? magnetic breakerless? WHATS IT ALL MEAN? Do I need a vacuum advance on my new distributor or no? Thanks for any help.
Hey Jeremy, So, you've grown up and want a real mans ignition eh? :gt: :spank: Most will suggest the MSD 6AL box, personally, I have the Crane HI-6 box and believe it's better.. With a box, get the mounts for it while your at it.. Regarding coils... Most will say MSD Blaster coils. I say stay away. A good Accell coil is what's recomened here. The distrubutor... IgnitionMan Dave is *the* guy to go to. I have had the pleasure of taking Bill & Scott to him as well as driving down on an occasion or two by myself. When I tell you he does *everything* himself, down to the wiring harness, I mean it as I had the honor of watching him in action my last visit. Call or E-Mail him and get your distributor pulled and sent to him. You won't regret it one bit! Also, since your going to a ignition box, get the trigger conversion, it plugs right in. With regards to Mallory, Pertronix, etc *new* HEI Dists for our cars.. *Don't buy them!* They're ProForm peices of junk from China.. These are my thoughts & opinions... Have Fun & Good Luck!
Unless the eninge will be used ONLY for racing, you need a vacuum advance, plain and simple, end of story. Unilite is a light emitting diode style trigger, needs to be run between 7.0 and 9/5 volts to work right, which means possibly, more than one ballast resistor fitted to the power feed into the Unilite. Magnetic trigger is just that, uses a magnet and coil to make a pulse sent to a processor, then to the coil. Don't know if they need a resistor, but I have replaced almost as many of them as the PerTronix units I have exorcized from distributors. Both the Unilite or the magnetic Mallory systems, and the PerTronix Ignitors, all of them, DO NOT make more spark energy than a new set of points makes on its first firing event. These systems are not HEI or better spark output systems, they are simply a points eliminator system, and do not make loads of voltage to drive any coil, stock or otherwise, higher than stock spark levels. They will, however, keep the spark level consistant, not allow for it to fall off from points face/gap degradation.
IgnitionMan, Well, that's not such a simple end-of-story, in my opinion. I have an MSD 6A with MSD billet distributor, Blaster coil, 8.5 mm wires in my 340-4, which has never had the heads off, and certainly has never been used for racing. Just mostly Sunday cruising. Several thousands of miles and some 900 mile trips with this non-vacuum-advance setup and no problems. Engine runs very strong. Don't understand your advice....
Quite easy to understand, actually. Street engines, stock to moderate strip, will benefit from retaining the vacuum advance, IF IT IS SET UP PROPERLY, AND CONNECTED TO THE RIGHT VACUUM SOURCE. Most aren't. This also depends on the engine component package, but unless the engine is a strip only setup, vacuum advance should help performance, idle quality, econlmy and overall driveablilty. Sure, some early Corvette and Ford FE engines didn't use vacuum advance, but they were very seriouos engines, solid lifters, long duration, high compression, stick transmission setups, not ones with automatic trans, lower comp ratios, shorter duration cams, and even now, those older engines are being made better by adding properly set up vacuum advance distributors. Improperly set up vacuum advance will turn any engine into a nightmare, but that doesn't have to happen any more, there are things to do to fix the issues caused by one not right. It's just that simply.
None of those listed. Better than any listed is an HEI. You have your choice, stock large cap HEI gone through and made right for your engine, or small body HEI done to your points distributor. Either one of these methods IS the way to do it right. If you must have more, then have me build a trigger only dist conversion for your stock points dist and run either an MSD or Crane ignition box.
Ignitionman Dave Ignitionman Dave Do you have a cape? Just kidding. I have a new motor comming together and I wish I knew about you sooner but will use your services on my next motor. I have a rebuilt HEI with a new module MSD rotor & cap. Coil is the 50,000 volt in cap unit and I have picked up a Mallory 6A box. Is this setup ideal? Do you have a quality plug wire that is reasonably priced that you recommend and what gap would you set the plugs at? The car will be driven to test & tune at the strip and out of state car shows and will make about 6,000 miles a summer.
My OPINION, from 27 years of hands-on experience, on the coil-in-cap HEI isn't a good one. It's fine for a garbage truck or shop project, but there are much better ways to HEI. Coils: NO coil in the cap will sustain high voltages once they gett hot, and they get hot and stay hot, from the epoxy in them NOT transferring the heat from the core materials. Also, mounted under a coil cap, they retain heat from that standpoint. Mechanical advance: absolute nightmare to get right, too many stock curves to select the optimum parts from available stock, so "hunt and peck" method is the rule of thumb. Over 410 different stock weight/center combo's mean you will be experimenting for years before the right set comes about. If you do ever come across weights 41 and center 375, this will help a lot. Spring from there. Aftermarket curve kits are a real joke. Mechanical advance weight pins and bushings: wear because nobody ever lubes them, augering them into two parts, rendering the distributor even more unuseable. Vacuum advance: always would need Crane adjustable, stock can be limited, good to do on any vacuum advance, but which spring rate does it have, is it compatible with the engine package? Weak pickup, there are much better. Myth: large cap is to stop spark crossover. NOT! Large cap was done expressly for coil in cap mounting, nothing else. Contrary to popular belief, the diameter of the cap is not an issue. MSD and Mallory run their much smaller diameter caps with considerably more spark voltage then an HEI coil produces, and as long as the rotor is phased correctly, no spark scatter occurs. Pontiac built a "Unitized" distriburtor based on a points body, coil in cap, just previously to the present large cap HEI, was effective, but coil was moulded into cap, had to replace entire coil with cap, wires also moulded into the cap, too high a cost to replace. No spark scatter problems with the Uniitized. The large cap stuff is just that, bulbous, huge, don't fit, other issues, ugly too.
Sorry, forgot to add plug wire stuff. You want a good magnetic suppression, spiral core wire, 8mm if possible, like Taylor, other good makes, etc. I've had exellent results with Borg-Warner Select wires, already cut to fit. Stay away from stuff like PerTronix Taiwan stuff, Slipt-Fire, Jacobs junk as well.
