I am thinking of going with a Mag for my Hemi,,,but I would like to hear some experiences from you guys,,good or bad. Is the spark very hot,,,to keep from loading the plugs up on the street in slow driving situations? Should I look for one with a adjustable advance mech. on the outside? Or do they all have mechanical advance that can be set? I do want it to have a tach drive,,,I already have that on a Mallory Unilite in my Challenger,,and I like that! This will be for A Desoto 291,,,,I am not worried about the fit right now,,I will make whatever I get fit the block,,(shaft length). Thanks guys,,I know some of you know what I need to hear. Tommy
a mag is a mag is a mag.....They work good on everything. My buddie runs them on everything, Hemi's, SBC's, etc. All of his have fixed advances and run a plug gap of .020. they look coll and there is nothing tough to learn about them. You might want to look in the Hemi board here and see what you can find out...Wealth of info there....
The Vertex mags have an internal advance of 10 degrees, or 20 degrees at the crank. My 341 has a Joe Hunt unit that has been converted to Pertronix ignition. I once put a mag on a 440 Road Runner. Wouldn't start using the key, had to push it to get it started. That's the reason the guy sold it to me I found out later. Yes they look cool. The new ones will take 8 mm wires. For a hot spark at a much lower cost you may consider using a Chevy HEI unit that has the shaft converted by cutting off the lower half of the housing and using the lower part of the Desoto unit. I've done it. No clearance issues unless you go with Hilborns. Not sure about blower clearance. Bill
Why all of the effort when a Mopar unit will drop in ?? and clear the blower !! I don't understand why there is some need to be adapting stuff like this...please enlighten me. .
Keep the ideas coming,,I need the advice. I would rather keep it Mopar if at possible. This will be a street engine,,,but not a tame one. If I go electronic, I will just buy a Unilite or something and be done with it. The idea of a Mag just seems kind of cool to me. My biggest concerns are the amount of fire and the streetability. I plan on a hot engine,,about 425-450 horse,,but I am not afraid to push the envelope. I am wanting to use fuel injection, ( mechanical injection, not electronic). I have all the injection parts now, from a previous application. Just need some parts to make it fit the Desoto. Here are my plans: Use single plane intake bottom from Hotheads,,(look it up if you have not seen it.) Mount my Birdcatcher hat on top,( it bolts straight to the Hotheads intake). And use a belt drive for the pump. But ,,I would love to find and old Shotgun injector hat,,,that would look much cooler and I could save my bird for another day. I know the mechanical injection is not easy to street,,,but it can be done. Like I said,,I am not afraid to push the envelope. Let me know what you guys think,,about all of it. Tommy
I do not see any single plane DeSoto intakes offered by HotHeads. They offer one for the Chrysler engines....is this the one you are refering to?
You are right,,,I read the ad wrong. That one is for the Chrysler engine,,,,I guess I was just wishful thinking,,,LOL. Anyone have any ideas? I hear that Hamilton is coming out with a Desoto intake soon? Thanks. Tommy
Hot heads is marketing a 1x4bbl alum intake for the LOW deck DeSotos. The intake is made by a guy in Florida, I think he may also sell a few on Ebay. I have a couple of DeSotos and 5 Dodge Hemis. If you really want the Vertex look here is my recommendation: Convert a Vertex mag to an electronic distriburtor (or by the "fake" mag from Taylor Wiring [ http://www.taylorvertex.com/Vertex/ ]. I had mine converted before Taylor begain producing their non-mag Vertex. I suggest you don't use mechanical FI, but instead convert a Hilborn to EFI, or again...buy one already set-up with electronics from Hilborn, theirownselves. Hilborn made a new run of Dodge and DeSoto injectors a few years back, and last time I checked they still had some in stock. I had a set of vintaage Hilborns converted to EFI in such way that the modern Bosch injectors are hidden beneath a valley plate see the following thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=356019 If you visit the thread, you can see how traditional this set up looks. This way you can have your cake and eat it too, but unfortunately this path is not cheap...but nothing about the DeSoto motors is cheap. You want cheap you have to go with a generic engine. In my view, a nice tidy 1x4bbl manifold on a DeSoto would look really good, and would be VERY rare. The same goes for the converting an old Mopar distributor to a Petronix system. Any "wedge" or small block Mopar distributor will fit...you just have to make sure the shaft joins the intermediate gear correctly, which is very easy. good luck trakrodstr
The old vertex does not put out much at cranking speed. Send the vertex to Spud Miller and have him soup it up. The good thing about a mag is the faster you spin it the hotter it is. Our vertex in the dragster is almost 6 amps. That will fry your dingleberries. Vertex's are everywhere cheap. I'll put up Spuds website and some pics of our mag. Mechanical injection on the street? It better be alky, cause gas will cause you grief. Bad idea in my opinion. Happy motoring, Lippy http://www.fuelinjectionent.com/webstore/
Mag's rule... dont run a fake one... guys run them daily in motorcycles... just talk to people that run them. lots a wives tails about em read up. im gonna keep a distro in the trunk just in case but dammit... they rule. The one I got used to belong to Gary Cagle- so its rad knowing it has some historical signifigance to me... Vintage Joe Hut Vertex... still have the OG box. Tuck
Hey Tuck, did you get that from Troy? I have a cirello mag out of Leland Kolbs 426 from his dragster, I know what you mean, mags are neat! I can't get enough of em! I just love it when someone says, "this damn mag, wish I had a MSD electronic deal" I say really? Sell me that worthless junk vertex and use the money for a MSD! I give em a hundred bucks and snicker to the car real quick with it. Lippy
Hey lippy, Do the Mags not have enough spark at slow cranking speed? What about the new liteweight starters,,I hear they spin the engines over crazy fast? Should I send it to have it updated anyway? What do they do ,,,up the power? also,,what about injection on gas,,,,a lot of grief about the barrel valve metering fuel at part throttle? Tommy
I was thinking to start a thread in order to find out if there was such a thing as a Hemi magneto. Thanks for posting some cool info.
I had a Cirello mag for my 354 but I sold it 'cuz I wanted an ignition with an advance... the Cirello didn't. That being said I would buy another if it had an advance... reliable but NOT cheap (as a rule)...
The Desoto 291 intake is made by Hamilton intakes for Hot Heads and run about $500.00 on ebay and $595.00 from Hot Heads. They look kinda cool but some guys are complaining that the nastalgic look is ruined by the casting of a name that ends with .com. Also the runners aren't much bigger than stock so I'm not sure there would be too much of a power gain. Go with the Hilborns. Here in Tucson anything 1967 and newer has to pass strict emmission standards. That's why I went TPI on My Hilborns.
6 amps of what? Everyone seems to be talking about the amp rating on their magneto but what does that mean? If you are building a "hot" motor, you don't want a ton of advance in the ignition anyway. Big cams and high flowing ports don't atomize fuel well at low speed which hinders flame propagation in the combustion chamber. Lighting the fire sooner results in the best running characteristics in such a case. Fake magnetos are lame. Why pay more some something that works less good than the real thing? Kerry had a pretty good tech post about making a chevy mag fit a hemi. Pretty easy to do. You might rethink the birdcatcher and maybe go with something a bit smaller like a bugcatcher. Those butterflys are a bit big to get the control you need on an unblown small displacement motor.
four-thirteen, That is my thinking exactly,,,I will not use a fake mag,,,something phony about that to me. I saw the post somewhere from Kerry about making the Chevy mag work,,that is cool,,,I will do that as a last resort,,,you guys on here are really talented,,it amazes me to see what some guys can do . If not a mag I will just use an electronic,,my biggest concern is being able to fire it from a starter motor and push button,,,,I definitely don't want to push start it every time,,,LOL. On the injection,,I don't want to use electronic because I like the old school style better,,,I would rather have an old shotgun or port injectors,,,because I know my Bird has a lot of butterfly area,, I have that in hand already,,,,still I want to save it for a bigger application,,namely my 426 in my Challenger some day. What is the dimension of a Bug butterfly? I definitely will use something more than just a single 4 barrel carb,,I am more of a hot rod guy,,I like it to be out there. I will also use a 4 speed tranny,,Mopar,,,A body,?,,,I like the adaptors that TR Waters makes,,,he is talented as well. Keep the ideas coming. Tommy
Hey Krooser, That is what I have in mind,,a nice A833 o.d. to keep the highway revs a little lower. You hardly ever need 4th gear until on the big end anyway ,right? So ,,I thought I would gear it lower,,,for acceleration speeds,,and then when I need it,,,,hit O. D. Keep the ideas coming. Tommy
They're out there Michelle. I was going to run a mag in that hemi, just hadn't got there yet. How's your stuff coming along?
Yeah,,I currently have the high bid. Maybe I will win. I also see one of TR Waters adaptor kits on there,,,beautiful work! Tommy
Hi Krooser, I was thinking of maybe an 8 3/4 with a 3.91 gear,,but I am not there yet. Will an 8 3/4 be strong enough behind a stick with a good clutch? I use a Dana 60 in my other stuff,,,but it is a heavy rear? Tommy
I have a friend here in western ny that has been curving distributers and setting up mags forever. I can't speak highly enough of his work! He is very precise in his work, reasonable and a wealth of knowledge. He runs "The Mag Shop". PM me for his info! Oh yeah ....he is a HAMBer but I am not sure of his user name.
Alitte o/t i have a Joe Hunt mag on my 45 H-D. It will start on the 3rd kick if the fuel is right and runs great.
Hey Phil. What's shaken bacon? My car is actually looking like a car now. I'm waiting for a certain builder to post up some pics and maybe start a thread. But, otherwise, no complaints. A mag would be cool though. You dig?
The low deck Desoto currently sold by Hot Heads is not the Hamilton Intakes model. That was created by a company in Florida, we are in California. Our intake is completely different: single plane with big runners, and no .com on the casting. Hot Heads called us and will be listing our model in their next catalog. First production run is nearly done at the foundry, so I will have pricing shortly. We expect them to be less expensive than the other manifold. FYI: 3x2 and 2x4 to come ASAP.
The Jalopy Journal
