New electronic ignition 65 Coronet

[jimbosride]

The engine is in and ready to be started. It has been on a Dyno so there should be no issues. When restoring the car I bought a new engine wiring harness that I thought I needed. I went with the one to convert it to electronic ignition. I now found out the Mallory Unilite distributor that I have does not need a ECU to operate. I pick up the Mallory unit for real cheap with hardly any use so I'm not out a whole lot of money. I replaced the ballast resistor with a 10 gauge wire to look stock and hope this is correct in that electronic ignition does not need the resistor?

At this time the move would be to go to a performance Mopar electronic distributor that will just plug into the new harness. The harness came from Evans wiring harnesses. What Mopar performance distributor are you guys running? I hate to say it but Mopar Ignitions are my weak spot.

 

[Canadian1968]

The current Mopar performance distributors are made by Proform now. You can buy just the distributor from either summit, Mancini racing, ect.

 

[66Satellite47]

jimbo, you do need to match the ballast resistor to the ECU and coil you have. Bypassing may work? The Mopar Perf/DC distributors were a quality product back in the day. Which ECU do you have?

 

[jimbosride]

The orange box..... I am using a Pertronix 40511 flame-thrower 400,000 volt 3.0 ohm coil .... So what ballast resistor do I need?

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

This should help.

 

[jimbosride]

Yes that does help .... Thanks

 

[Canadian1968]

My understanding is that the MOPAR ECU ( orange, chrome ) still needed the resistor.

BUT that coil that you are using already has a 3ohm resistance built into it, it will then have more resistance added to it threw the ballast. That coil is designed for a system that does not use a ballast.

I personally would go with a different coil if you are going to use the mopar orange ECU. I personally use the MSD street Fire coil and very happy with it.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-5524

 

[66Satellite47]

Since you have the Petronix ECU, call them and ask what to use with the coil you have. My bet is that the Mopar guides may only apply to their ECU & coil combinations. I had an original Mopar Blue box ECU which had a special coil and ballast resistor combo, then a MSD 404 which had it's special coil and no ballast. The parts need to be matched.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Petronix does not make ecu just a all in one unit. They recommend their flamethrower coils.

 

[66Satellite47]

Petronix does not make ecu just a all in one unit. They recommend their flamethrower coils.

Good, you would know not me. I just know what the old Mopar stuff wanted.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Tons of options out there really depends on what you want to achieve.

 

[66Satellite47]

True, the actual application is the key. Again I know nothing about the Petronix or many of the other aftermarket products out there.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I like the petronix, cheap way to go electronic and retain the curve in the distributor which is the key. After market distributors usually don't list the curve and are pretty fast in, great for the strip but not great for a driver, but some can be recurved.