I know it's been done but, would it be worth the hassle? what could be done to make it more street friendly? Paul
Nothing wrong with running em on the street. Just hard to get the radio suppression down. Have to gap your plugs closer for idle.
They do look cool,but why bother? You have to run a battery anyway,so there is not weight savings. They don't have provisions for a vaccuum advance,so drivability is compromised. They are expensive.
I don't think I could hear a radio over the motor anyway. I've heard starting can be a problem, and seems like most I've seen have a locked advance. Which make and model would work best on the street? Paul
They make distributors now that are just regular electronic ignition units 'disguised' as a vintage looking mag. They ain't real cheap...but they look kinda convincing, and are available for Chevy V8s, natch! (If you can handle the "fakeness factor"!! )
[ QUOTE ] They do look cool,but why bother? [/ QUOTE ] hmmm. good question, I think the response might be; if it doesn't look cool, why bother? the distributor I'm using now has no vacuum advance, and the battery is needed for ballast. Paul
They sure do look cool. They can be made to run OK on the street. But you would be better of with a regular distributor. It's on you though, if that's what you want go for it.
They do use HP to operate. I run one because I have one. If not I would have gone MSD. The Fly would have looked wrong though. Starting is not really an issue. You do have less spark at idle but all small aircraft run em. They are reliable but designed for a higher constant rpm. Expect to pay around 500 bux for an overhauled unit. You HAVE to run solid ore wires so Taylors are out. A lot of em run a 7mm cap, although they do offer 8mm now but the caps will run ya around 60 bux.
Magnetos rock and are very streetable, yes there may be tuning issues but they are so very tradional. Check these guys out Joe Hunt they have the skinny on running a mag on the street. Big bucks yes but that isn't the question here.
Vertex mags can be run on the street, but electronic distributors run so much better. I have heard of some problems with the Joe Hunt and Vertex electronic "magneto" distributors. I am currently in the middle of having Dave's Small-body HEI's convert my Vertex to an electronic internally. It will then be controlled by an MSD box and coil mounted inside the firewall under the dash. I know a guy that has this setup now in his Willys, and he likes it far better in every aspect over the unmodified Vertex magneto.
what hassle? scintilla magnetos never wear out and i run a distributor with no advance in it on the street every day in the summer with no problems. i can't think of anything more lame than a fake magneto, save for maybe a fake injector setup... we wasted $170 on an MSD for the race car. didn't run any better than the old single point, but did add a few pounds of weight to the race car. a killer ignition system will make absolutely no improvement what so ever on a properly tuned motor. the reason for running a magneto? it's a complete self contained system that will last a really long time with no maintaince. four-thirteen
I run a vertex mag in the coupe. Since the first of April when I got it on the road, I have put a little over 12,000 miles on it. The only problem I had was the point gap closing up going down the road about 10 miles from Bonneville, that's just because of not enough grease on the cam lobes for the points. I love the mag, it looks bad ass, is functional, and gets a lot of comments. If you take any long trips, I suggest taking an extra set of points just in case.
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