1980 308 gtsi electronic ignition conversion

Bret I have the same year car and want to do the same.

Nick's Forza Ferrari has an ignition for $1,700 I believe. I didn't get much help here regarding advice for another system so I will be watching this post.

 

The Electromotive XDI unit that Nick sells has 3 ignition settings, initial, 3000 RPMS and 8000 RPMS, to create the overall ignition curve - more than enough to get your car running great. It will probably take you 1 weekend to install (after you read the installation manual a few times).

If you want more options, then go to the Electromotive TEC GT. With the TEC GT, you create the ignition curve based on RPMS and manifold vacuum, then fine tune it using multiple sensor input variables. Tune to your heart's content.

 

Paul,

How many hours labor do you think a mechanic would take/charge to do the install? I think it would be beyond my ability to do it myself.

Overall, what did Nick's system do for your car?

Thanks! Frank

 

Frank I have installed many of Nicks systems, I also make the mounting brackets, or block off plates, and the cam plugs for the same. PM me for more details on pricing and if you need some advice will be happy to provide it.

Wade

 

Frank - I will assume that Wade can better answer your questions. As for myself, it took me about 140 hours to do a complete TEC installation. That included setting up EFI and creating all the config files from scratch. At that time, I worked directly with Electromotive - I did not know about Nick nor Fchat - about 10 years ago.

When I helped a friend set up the XDi kit from Nick, it took us about 16 hours to get the car up and running and I suspect Steve worked on it by himself another 8 hours.

In both cases, the cars ran noticeably better after the installations.

 

I got the block-off plates from Wade when I did the Electromotive conversion on my '78 308. They fit perfectly and looked great!! I also got the mounting bracket for the coils from him, and that made the installation easy and functional. And he's a nice guy too!! In the picture below, you can see the block-offs and the top of the coil mount as well.

I got the Electromotive setup from Nick, and he "pre-programs" the unit for the correct ignition curve and other settings for our 308s. I installed it and did not have to make any adjustments. The car ran great after installation with no adjustment of the timing curve required. Nick also includes 308-specific instructions regarding the installation, making it easy to do.

I found the trickiest part was getting the timing ring properly mounted on the damper and aligning the sensor on the timing belt cover. Also, you must be sure to have a very good ground for the unit and a clean 12V power feed. If the voltage to the unit drops, it won't run. Ask me how I learned that lesson.
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Guys, thank you so much for this thread. I have a good friend who upgraded his ignition last year but still has a need for these cam plates and other 308 related tech. I am goading him to become a member of the F-Chat community but for some reason he has resisted. Might be a function of his advanced years Thanks again, this is a helpful and important thread!

 

Assuming that yours is a USA spec car, you can get a notable performance boost by simply pulling out your OEM 801A Digiplex modules and replacing them with Euro spec 802A's, which are still available new from our European vendors.

100% plug and play, a 15 minute job.

And assuming that your old 801A's are still OK, you can sell them on eBay or wherever and recover most of your cost for the 802A's.

The 802A's provide a notable performance increase. It's not going to make your car a fire-breather, but it is very satisfying boost nevertheless, given the ease of the installation.

Pics here at my website, for the curious: Ferrari 308 GTSi - Pt. 2 -      1980 Ferrari 308 GTSi - An Owner's Pictorial History

Cheers - DM

 

"you can get a notable performance boost "

A couple of years ago I posted about the difference between the euro/US timing curve. Now admittedly, again, this was a 328 as opposed to a 308. I could not feel any increased "urge" when switching to the euro curve. I did this with an off/on switch in the cockpit so I could select either curve instantly while accelerating.

There was a slight change in the sound of the engine and there MIGHT have been a slight difference in acceleration but if it was there it was so slight that I could not claim I really felt anything. But that could be consistent with a gain of that 10HP which will make nearly no difference in actual performance.

However, when rolling at idle speed (idle had to be reset each time at 1k) in first gear on a wet street and then punching it, with the US setting, the car would start moving forward; on the Euro setting it immediately spun the tires. Not particularly scientific but effective. So to me it was clear on the 328 at least, that the main difference is the increased low rpm power resulting from the additional advance.

IOW, if you did a roll-on race at say, 4000RPM between a pair of 328s, one euro setting, one US setting, I'm betting that there would be very little, if any, difference in the results. But if you did a start from a traffic light, the euro setting car would pull ahead and, of course, stay ahead.

But as I said earlier, there may be greater differences in the digiplex though looking at those curves they seem about the same as those published for the microplex euro/US.