CraneCams XR-i Installation Notes - '79 308

This is a common experience, and drove my decision to go to a proven simple Mallory unilite ignition with MSD. As before, it's a great feeling to hop in the car and drive cross country on a family trip (a Mondial thing), not worried if it will start and about my 3 prior Marelli single bank ignition failures and cat overheat.
The combination of the Mallory single unilite distributor ignition and a set of new Webers really affords a great deal of peace of mind, and really adds to the enjoyment of the car for me. I can't imagine a better, fun and more reliable small GT anywhere, including Porsche.
Just my 2 Euros,
rt

 

Ross,

Can I ask, if it's this simple, then why does everyone talk about sending their tachs off to get converted in Palo Alto CA?

Where what is this thing you're talking about. Sorry to ask so many questions, but me and electronics go like....well, water and electronics...my knowledge of house wiring is "Black is death" so don't touch the black wire.

 

Here here a shot of my Mondial 8's motor with the Crane distributor/MSD, didn't have the tach modified we just used a dakota digital tach interface.
This set up is just as powerful as my electromotive and vacum and timing adjustment is just as simple turning a srew driver. By the way my car has a 11:1 comp and runs on pump gas.

Randy
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What he said - Dakota digital Tach interface.

Randy - lovely engine! I'll bet she pulls with the 11:1 CR.
didn'tou get the 70mm throttle body as well?
Really really nice.

 

How did you get the Dakota Digital to work. I got one and after many tech support calls, we could not get it to work. They said I needed to send it back along with my tach and they would program it to work. Mine is currently on EBAY for less than half the price with no reserve.

 

Hey Randy,
Nice to hear that the Mondial is finally running, I like that carbon fiber intake its the first I've seen. I also took your advise and had an MSD 6AL installed on the Boxer sure made a big difference the only down time was the box had to be shipped to MSD to be recalibrated for a 12cly.

Let me know when your in SF
Tony

 

http://www.dakotadigital.com/Detail.cfm/-/Category=01/PartNumber=SGI-8/product.htm


Thanks

 

Yes I got the 70mm throttle body on it and pulls really strong on the bottom end. I dont know if Kermit mentioned to you that I have 83mm pistons in this motor which brings the displacement close to 3.1 litre.
The Mondy is going to the dyno this Saturday will keep you updated.

Randy

 

I told you theres a big difference with the MSD on it, did you ever get that borla exhaust installed?
Randy

 

It drove us nuts for a while getting the Dakota to work too. Lotsa calls to tech. Then on the last call, I think we accidentally got ahold of a real tech, who had a clue. The unit was blipping the tach needle on start but then went dead. The guy said" You have to get it away from the ignition". Coulda jumped thru the phone by tht stage, but he was right, we had it neatly mounted next to the MSD, etc, and it seems the bleedover from that power was the problem. Mounted it away from the box, and it has worked perfectly since. We even had gone so far as to hook up a completely separate battery just to run it, in case it was a wiring SNAFU, but it did the same thing. Sure works great now.
HTH
Kermit
PS: I wear gloves around that ignition, as if it ever bit me, I empty the bladder down BOTH legs!

 

My tach does not move at all when hooked through the Dakota. I know the tach works and we tested the power to the Dakota and at the terminals, but still no tach movement. My ignition is a Unilite and I was testing it within 2 feet of the ignition. Do you think that that could be the problem?
Thanks
Doug

 

Posibly Doug. I'd double check on the wire you are atahing to for the tach I think. It can get kinda confusing at times. I believe in our case the wire colors were brown and black. Mondy being the same as 308
HTH,Kermit

 

Put the dakota in a lead box. Drag racers use them for their data ac. storage b/c of the ignition interference.

Or, if you've got a carbon fiber box that will work too. The CF has strong shielding properties.

Either way, shield the dakota so that no electronics will interfere with the thing.

Kermit, someone mentioned earlier that you had something as well. I don't see it on you web site. Is it not ready yet?

 

Sean,
If you are refering to an ignition system, you have just seen pictures of it on Randy's Mondy.
After the dyno pull, which is going to be getting long awaited #'s on other things you will. The Crane has been in testing for some time now, and Randy has the 2 valve, which was the first model.
Thanks for asking,
Kermit
Please forgive my brevity, as Administration requests as I a not a sponsor, to limit my discussing business. I am respecting that.

 

Actually, I"m another individual interested in this Crane conversion, but I think the question about what is or isn't on Kermit's website would refer to the tach signal splitter. I'm interested in the whole package, distributor and necessary wiring bits to make it work and would JUMP at one if it was priced at, say... $500 for the kit. I really like the looks of that Crane distributor, imagine that, vacuum advance on a 308! Just the thing for the impending gas crisis!

 

ditto that........

 

One question for some of you guys, does the Mallory unilight run a ignition coil without anything like a MSD box? Does it truely replace the points all by itself? If so, does anyone know which part number fits in a Marelli dizzy?

 

My car runs with just the Unilite and a single coil. If you look at my pic earlier in this thread, you will see that a plate was machined to fit the Marelli to cover the Unilite. The Mallory old style Ford cap clips onto the aluminum plate. I will have to check on the part numbers later. I am having a problem getting the Dakota splitter to work on this. Maybe you need to have the box for it to work.

 

Sounds like you need some shielding (the "box") to get yours to work. Have you tried just wireing it up with some LONG wires, putting in outside the engine area on a table or something to see if it will work?

 

I think Sean is on the right track. It seems that the unit is VERY sensitive to outside enterferance, I would not even try to put it near the Alternator after my experiences. When we tried a separate battery that only powed up the Dakota, it seemed to help, which I wold deduce means it likes "clean" power sourcing.

I would be curious if there isn't an external "box" required. When I was first in contact with Crane, half of the Tech's said no, and the other said yes. (brilliant crew, huh?). As part of moving it away from the MSD, we also switched the signal lead from the coil to the one on the MSD. FWIW
I wonder how strong the Unilights tach capability is, with out an external driver.
Kermit

 

Yes, I did this just yesterday where I could tinker with it completely out of the engine bay. Same as before. I have tried both methods they describe to setit up and it still won't work. There is not even a hint of tach movement. However, if I just hook up the tach directly, it works great, just reads double the RPM.

 

maybe you're unit is bad or it got fried somewhere along the line while you've been trying to make it work.

I missed it, but have you sent it back for a replacement?

 

After looking at the conversion on Doug's GT4 at the LaSalle car show and reading this thread, I searched the attic for some parts that I picked up several years back for a Euro style single distributor set-up.

My car failed the emissions test when I purchased it as expected (test not required now). The state would waive the test if I spent $300 in an effort to repair it, how easy is that in a Ferrari? I took the opportunity to disassemble and clean both dizzys and install Crane (Allison) ignitions. Ever since then the ignition has operated perfectly but the cost of replacement caps and rotors is always in the back of my mind.

Those of us that are greybeards remember when Datsun and Ranger 4 cylinder pickup trucks had dual plug dizzys. A few years back I picked up a Datsun distributor and wires at a junkyard ($5) just to play with. I never did, it has been in the attic so I pulled it out yesterday to take a closer look.

The Datsun distributor set-up is the same as the Euro 308 GTB, 2 coils, a 2 level rotor and a 2 level cap, 4 wires per level. Amazingly the cap ID is the same as the Marelli and with the exception of the indexing lug, the cap slides on. It has only 2 retaining screws instead of 3 so life is not perfect.

Again, I was looking for an inexpensive cap/rotor that would retain the "factory" look so it wouldn't be any different, operation wise, from a Euro single distributor. Just some food for thought.
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Kermit
Do you remember your settings on the Dakota.
http://www.dakotadigital.com/manuals/SGI-8C.pdf
Did you have the switch settings 1 and 2 for standard tach or did you use ECM or low volt?
Do you remember if you used output 1 or 2 to the tach?
Also, which way did you calibrate it?
Thanks
Still can't get mine to work.