Distributor-stay with points or go electronic?

[Pa's Sat]

If I go electronic does anything else change, like no coil, or should I stay with the old system of points. The old distributor is bad so reeds replacing now. Also had a bad thing happen, when the distubtor was out I dropped a small nut down the hole! Tried fishing with a magnet to no avail. Other suggestions? Looks like I will have all winter to get it going. UGH

 

[rickseeman]

Electronic

 

[davek]

I went this route with my charger, PerTronix 1281 PerTronix Ignitor® Solid-State Ignition Systems | Summit Racing Sounds like you have to pull the intake and hope to find it.

 

[Plyrr471]

Electronic.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Your up Bob

 

[twecomm]

Good luck finding the nut. You don't give much info on your car.. What engine you have ?

 

[radical rob]

Electronic. Guess what? Unless you can see the nut you get to pull the pan and find it

 

[493 Mike]

Unless your car is a stock restoration, I recommend electronic. I am a fan of the HEI conversion.
Mike

 

[Runner 68]

You didn't mention what engine. Here's what I went with on my last low deck B stroker.
PerTronix D7142710 PerTronix Flame-Thrower Plug and Play Billet Distributors with Ignitor III® Module | Summit Racing

 

[Geoff 2]

Best bang for the buck is electronic, using the HEI 4 pin module. Module can be mounted via heat sink onto the dist body. Neat & compact. You can use your original coil but you will have to keep the bal res, which becomes a failure point. If you use an E core coil like the MSD #8207, you can eliminate the bal res. You will have much more powerful ign system, open the plug gaps to 0.060". You will find pics of this conversion on the web.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

Dropping a nut inside the distributor hole. Assuming you are working on a big block. Your best hope is that it is just siting in the lifter valley. Worst case it fell forwards and went into the timing chain cover. Another case it might have dropped all the way into the oil pan. I'd go buy a cheap borescope camera from Amazon they come with attachments like mirrors and magnets. You can steer them right to the nut or bolt and see what you are doing and where you are going.

Borescope

 

[turbine68rt]

Best bang for the buck is electronic, using the HEI 4 pin module. Module can be mounted via heat sink onto the dist body. Neat & compact. You can use your original coil but you will have to keep the bal res, which becomes a failure point. If you use an E core coil like the MSD #8207, you can eliminate the bal res. You will have much more powerful ign system, open the plug gaps to 0.060". You will find pics of this conversion on the web.

Even something as simple as an Accel 8140 will give 42k vs. 40k on the 8207. The SS coil can be used with both points or electronic. Had mine for the last few years and so far flawless. Starts quickly hot or cold. Side note; been running points for nearly 40 years and was never stranded as a result of it. Just a personal preference.

 

[mrhemi]

My solution, although not for everyone is to keep the points, used to trigger an MSD (hidden in my applications). Works great with giving some redundancy if the MSD fails, although I personally have never had one fail.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Best bang for the buck is electronic, using the HEI 4 pin module. Module can be mounted via heat sink onto the dist body. Neat & compact. You can use your original coil but you will have to keep the bal res, which becomes a failure point. If you use an E core coil like the MSD #8207, you can eliminate the bal res. You will have much more powerful ign system, open the plug gaps to 0.060". You will find pics of this conversion on the web.

Use your original coil? What the hell man we all beat this to death in other threads and the verdict was it had to be a 0.5 ohm coil, or it would ruin the module. what has changed your opinion on that?

 

[RJRENTON]

Points......more reliable, lower cost, perform like OEM, NO LOSS OF HORSEPOWER (contrary to popular misconception).......now the electronic ignition boys will come out of the woods quoting all kinds of euphemisms.......
BOB RENTON





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[dfrazz]

MSD RTR and be done - no ballast or control module, clean up some wiring too

 

[Pa's Sat]

Good luck finding the nut. You don't give much info on your car.. What engine you have ?

Sorry for lack of info. It's a 318 poly, and it is almost all restored to original looks. Engine was rebuilt and board out .30. I added AC to so no gain of power.

 

[Geoff 2]

Post #15. An outright LIE. When I bought my GTO in 1995, it had the original points system; engine had 129,000 miles on it. I had many Chrys elec parts left over. I modified the GTO dist to take the Chrys reluctor. Original GTO coil was retained. 5 pin Chrys ECU was used with dual bal res. Ign timing was set at factory 6* BTDC, as it had been with the points.
Idle was noticeably smoother & had slightly increased rpm. Smoother means less misfires, more hp. higher idle means more hp.

 

[Geoff 2]

RJ,
I haven't changed my opinion at all. Read what I said: if retaining the factory coil, bal res MUST be kept. HEI is internally current regulated to 5.5 amps; some electronic device, not a bal res, is INSIDE the module limiting current. You get the BEST from the module by using a low res coil, 0.3-0.6 ohms primary. The power [ watts ] generated in the primary [ & therefore what is transferred to the secondary winding to become a spark ] is affected by the coil pri res. P [watts] = voltage squared divided by the res.

 

[Geoff 2]

HEI....