I've been doing some reading (dangerous) trying to understand the plethora of different ignition options out there. Quite frankly, I'm not familiar with distributors you don't tune with a laptop, so I'm looking to the masters to get my g**** around this. Looking at what's out there for an FE, I see single point, dual point, Duraspark, and tons of aftermarket dizzys, coils, and control units. All the aftermarket guys claim their parts will do everything short of make your car sprout wings and fly. I'm just building a stout driver, not an all out race car. I don't even want a choppy idle. I know the points work, but do they really lose power and fuel efficiency compared to electronic units? When looking at electronic, is aftermarket just a shiny version of a Duraspark? Where do dual points fit in? I've heard some people say you have to screw with them constantly, others say they go longer between service intervals since the wear is divided between the 2 point sets. As for coils, is aftermarket any better than stock? Just a bunch of hype? Sorry to ask so many questions at once, but I'm obviously a little foggy here. Any words of wisdom are much appreciated.
i ran a single point set all the time, duals are tricky to get set right if you are begining. as for coils go with hottest spark. they do make a dizzy for fe's like a gm- coil on top of cap. never used that but it gives you better spark. so it realy is up to what you think would be good/fitts in the budget.
go with the pertronix and flame thrower coil and 8mm wires.. keep the points in the trunk just incase.
i have a primo vintage Vertex magneto for an FE. Use a mag. very simple, and when your battery fails your car will still run!
my .02 has already been covered. Buy a Pertronix, put the points in the trunk, just in case. Have a Pertronix in both my 312 and 390 for over 12 years, never had the need for the points.
Thanks for the responses guys. Pertronix definitely seems to be the go-to solution. What worries me is quality control. Maybe I'm just imagining this, but when you search the hamb, or other message boards the last few years are littered with threads about pertronix units blowing up. Nothing but good stuff about older ones, but a trend suggesting spotty quality on new ones. The other thing is price. $90 can get you all the parts you need for a Duraspark changeover plus some extra left over to buy beer. Add a few more dollars and you can add a second hand MSD. The electronics are fugly, but it's easy to hide them away with some simple wiring. I don't want to swap parts for the sake of saying I did, but if it's a better setup... I'm also a bit baffled by claims of timing adjustability on aftermarket dizzys. Is that really all that useful on a street motor? The shiney billit/red parts look horrible, but if they really perform the billit can be dulled and the cap painted black I suppose.
I have a million FEs. Stock single points are fine. I have one with a pertronix that works good and I am working on restoring a vintage Mallory Dual Life from the early 60's. Use what you feel works for you. Lots of options. Any dizzy will work well in a FE. I can't think of any problems with any of them.
If electronic is noticeably better than single point or pertronix, Ford themselves made the conversion. The last 2 years of FT motors had Duraspark, so NAPA and the JY have parts. I guess it boils down to preference, points vs. wiring. I was more baffled by all the aftermarket units claiming better performance by using hall effect or optical sensors for better resolution, or HEI style internal coils. Then you have the adjustable curves, the merits of which I'm unclear on (i.e. does it really benefit a street driven car). Seems less is more, just using single points or basic electronic. Who exactly are all those aftermarket parts for? Just racers and hard parkers?
A "Doesn't Spark" distributor can be had for cheap at the junkyard, and the electronic ignition conversion, ala GMC Bubba, ( re: a GM H E I Module conversion), makes a pretty damn bulletproof one , especially for a driver...................And parts, well, ain't hard to find!!!!
i had the first series of pertronix in my old fairlane with a 390.. it was built pretty good (roughly 425hp).. ran flawlessly.. A guy at the local speed shop wanted me to try the new (then) crane XR-7 setup.. total **** i thought.. put the pertronix back in... i didnt want to run a sparkbox,msd,etc so the pertronix was what i used and worked great.. i will use one in my falcon when i build the motor
Looking to use an old points-style distributor for the vintage looks, but want an inexpensive and easy way to add electronic ignition BZZAPPP to your ride? Take a look at the web page linked below that talks about how to connect a GM HEI module to a set of points to drive a more potent coil and get more spark with less wear on the points and a lot less maintenance needed. Be sure to mount the HEI module on a serious heat sink to keep it alive longer (which the guy didn't do on the illustrated application!), and carry a spare just in case. (They are pretty cheap.) Some guys even mount two, side-by-side on a big heat sink. If the one they are using fails, they can just swap the wires over to the other in a few seconds and resume their journey. Replace the dead unit the next time you're at the parts store for something and you'll have a back up again. You can hide the HEI unit and heat sink up under the dash or on a kick panel to protect it from engine heat and preserve that vintage look, or put it in the engine compartment, but make sure it's where it'll have plenty of air circulation and cool air is is better than hot air. Electronic points conversion done and working
My thoughts about an FE system are usually somewhat different than most others? If you would like the best ignition performance for a low cost then go for the duraspark or pertronics type systems. These systems will help with one of the problems with an FE distributor and that is the points! Points are only at optimum performance at one time in their life, when they are new (if they were installed and adjusted correctly)! After that time they wear unevenly, they wear the rubbing block down and they can bounce at higher RPM. Most of the aftermarket distributors may offer various other advantages but at a cost. One advantage is that the caps are likely to be produced under more tightly controlled QC environments. This may give you better indexing of the individual cylinders. I have tested OEM type caps that were 5 or more degrees off on some cylinders but I have not found that to be true for the aftermarket caps I have tested? For a pure street engine most of the tuning adjustments are just fluff and can actually do more harm than good if you are not really up to speed in the use. All FE engines will suffer from some spark ****ter or timing ****ter due to the design of the engine with the oil pump turned by the distributor and if you are using a high volume oil pump it will likely be worse. If you would like to fix all the problems then go for a crank trigger system with coil packs and just use the distributor to turn the oil pump. Scott...
I will preface this by stating I work for PerTronix corporate, not directly in ignition division, but I am involved daily Yes, you get a more performance oriented curve with an aftermarket dist. You can pay someone to re curve your old stocker as well. As for the billet look, the PerTronix Self contained dist comes with a Black Cap or dark red that looks like an old style the majority of our standard plug n play distributor are sold to street car owners If you decide to go with a complete distributor instead of converting and possibly having to rebuild a stocker - I would suggest this one; http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PNX-D133700/
Thanks guys! I think I'm more clear on my options now. The information about spark ****ter is particularly interesting. I had wondered why FE's needed such low compression to run on 87 octane. The ignition timing jumping around, combined with the general inaccuracy of points explains quite a bit. Jap cars from the 70s and 80s can get away with nearly 10:1 with a bit of headwork, but they have MUCH tighter ignition control. A crank trigger with coilpacks would be great, but it would look weird without an EFI changeover right next to it. I was leaning that way until I found the carb/intake setup I really wanted for this car while searching for parts on Ebay. More on that when the big brown truck shows up Thanks again, I'll do some pondering while I get my plans together for the upcoming engine work.
MSD ign is ALWAYS best get one of the medium price ones and you cant go wrong as for coils upgrading the votage from stock will give a better burn in the cyliders producing more power and fuel efficency. to get rid of choppy idle tune the advance setting
Stock Duraspark II conversion, done with Motorcraft parts, and change to a T.F.I. coil. Easy, cheap, and reliable. If the thing manages to throw ****s, just outside of East Jesus Tx, repalcement parrts are available at the local parts store. just my .02
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