308 ignition system

Yes. It works far better. With the help of some other fchatters, Pertronix just put together a new product which mounts two Pertronix ignitors in one distributor phased correctly so each fires 45 degrees apart from the other. The part number is MR183. This is probably the easiest unit on the market now. My system is a setup of two crane XR700 optical pickups mounted in one distributor firing every 45 degrees via a shutter wheel mounted on the rubbing block. Those two units fire two high energy ignition boxes which bring some serious bang to the spark plugs. This works very well but setup is difficult. One thing is for sure, a better ignition system makes a noticeable difference with the dirty mixture carburetors throw into the combustion chamber.

 

I think Russ put one of these single distributors in his Mondial. And he's been driving that baby for a few years now.

 

Hi Dave,

Shortly after i got the car, i got real tired messing with points, shopped around and settled on the Norwood conversion.

They take two distributors, disassemble both use the best parts to assemble one unit with a modified advance curve, a chrysler magnetic pick up, a modified ford rotor and, after turning down the od of the body, install a $16 chevy 8 cyl cap.

I've instaled an MSD-6AL box and Blaster coil and it will give you an 1.5-2 inch blast of lightning to light the fires. And it will do all of this for about 20k miles with 0 maintenance. Cap, rotor and mag pick up can be had at any napa for less than $100 - anywhere in the us of a.

Cost of the conversion, including speedometer recalibration but not msd or coil is about $1000.

I'm happy with it.
chris

 

James does offer a good conversion with that package, but for me it strays a bit too far from my paradigm of, "it must look original".

 

I also went with the Norwood conversion, as I felt it looked closer to a single dizzy Euro setup.
But a you can see, my car is far from a Concours winner.
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I've just çompleted my install of Nick Forza's XDI system on my '76. Nick delivered some fine piece of work and it is without any doubt very complete and accompanied with a good manual.
For those who wonder and did'nt read the carefully written article of Birdman, I can only say that it's a wunderfull system for me. A major difference and with a lot of potential.
So I say go for it because above 6000 points S.... anyway.

regards Marcel
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The late Euro carb cars had the electronic pickups inside which work well. They are sort of the holy grail of distributors. However, they still fire the inductive coils directly which does not supply a lot of bang. Wiring the pickups so the trigger a couple high energy boxes is the way to go. The boxes can be hidden easily enough.

 

I LOVE YOUR CAR. It gets better every time we hear from you!

 

Thank you John,
next thing is to finetune it on the dyno for that extra bit of bite.
Regards,
Marcel

 

the factory single electronic distributor is by far the best system. I have serviced cars with all types of systems. Yes the factory cap and rotor are expensive but they last for ever. And last but not least, it looks the best, these other systems look terrible.

 

Norwood adaptor plate with Unilite single electronic distributor, MSD.
Bulletproof.
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Have a look at the Black Stallion Motors web site www.blackstallionmotors.com.au for a single dizzy system that allows PC programmable advance curves. You can have two different curves loaded that you can switch between on the go. You can also set an electronic rev limit.

I put one in 2 years ago and it's been great. You can either buy them direct from BSM in Oz or via Superformance in the UK.

Cheers

George

 

dont do it older is better a properly set up point system will give years of trouble free service! If you want a newer system but a newer ferrari .....


Rob
ludite
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show off.

 

My friend got bad experience with "Black stalion" now for three years after and sill it does not work...

Every time car starts; you run starter and ignition kicks in way too early and actually kills starter!!! If No matter position of distributor.
-Firts I try to set advance with lamp, but car does not run at all with static advance of 8 decree AND in fact it does not run at any anyadvance.
-By listening near correct static advance I got car running (short of...) but after I took battery cable of (fire protection) car just lost it's idle and if idle goes under 1000rpm engine just dies.
-After second time cable was out it just got from bad to worse.

-Car has new battery
-Carburators where rebuild and correctly adjusted.
-Number one cylinder top dead center is correctly at fly wheel.
-Valves are checked and adjusted.
-Cylinder compression is good
-Everything electrics is cheked and re checked.
-I get spark all the way to plug
-Ignition box courves are correct. I actually try to set ignition courve to zero all the way and set static advance to zero with lamp and STILL ignition kills starter at startup AND car just pop's and does not run.

Last week we lost idle spark and only way to get car going is to start and hit pedal to floor to get ignition above 1000rpm
He got second box but still no go...

I would keep original points ignition, car is now 35-years old and I'll bet you can't make it go any faster with fancy stuff.

 

Mikael,

I am not an expert here but it seems you have some sort of problem. I can only comment on the the car starts and kills starter. It sounds like the starter may be problem as the starter solenoid should retract the starter gear after the starter starts the engine?

Has anyone disassembled and looked the the distributors and points?

 

Black Stallion ignitions systems have been installed by many here on this site with no problems. You must (as stated in the instructions) have a good +12v and earth. The only reliable place to get a good 12V feed from (whilst starting the engine) is from the starter motor. I also had some problems when I installed mine but it was because I was too lazy to get a 12V feed from the started. Once I ran that wire all was good.

Great system just needs to be installed correctly.

Mine too will not run well with 8 deg static advance at idle. I run 8 degree static and add 4 degree with the black stallion module. Idles and starts fine.

 

Has anyone here done the Pertronix MR183 installation? Can you give us any feedback on how it works?
I have a '79 USA Carbed 308GTS and it is still running with both dizzys. (It also has 123K miles on it so I am not ready to mess with a good working system.)
However, I do have some Pertronix on some other cars and know they are good products.

If you convert to a single dizzy, what happens to the second one? Do you remove it and install a blanking plate or what?

Thanks
Charlie

 

Sorry, wrongly discribed; Ignition ignites against starter.

I have no idea how system was installed, I have not done it.

I am now in long line of mechanics to try make sence and get this car going. That was good point "brook308" I'll see that one, thanks.

 

This is what I have found:

I opend up Black stalion distributor and parted it out:

Firstly: Distributor axel does not fit bearings in distributor, bearings do not rotate only axel does... (well, that is not issue, it is more like note)

second: Hall sensor pickup plate: it does not seem to be syncronized with ignition rotor, here is question:

Should rotating plate be blocking Hall sensor as rotor points to little mark for TDC? Or is there distributor advance inside distributor itself?

 

Here is picture from Black Stallion distributor:

Hall sensor plate has been changed, car owner ordered "Dino 308GT4" and they send from "down under" Dino V6 setup...
That's why he got new V8 parts and some mechanic installed it...

Now I got turn to try make this setup to work after three years.


I have try to make contact to manufacturer, but no response.

Can anyone take similar picture so I can set hall plate correctly, please! (I have not made those markings.)