Skipp, There’s a lot of great knowledge and experience here on FChat. Every Dino owner has a slightly different experience with their car depending on the condition, who restored/repaired it and if it was modified in any way. I’d love to drive a bunch of Dinos back to back to experience the nuances. My list would include Matthias Bartz’s best example, Jon Gunderson’s best, Rob and Paul Calisi’s, Kevin O’Rourke’s/Mototechnique’s TBI conversion along with a preserved unrestored survivor. Freeman
How about a Dino convention in the USA similar to the ones in Europe. Then you could drive many back to back. I’ll host in Charlotte.
Based on Neal's success with using my CDI retrofit, I have decided that I will do a few more AEC103 retrofits. The price will be a little more than I was charging but I think still quite reasonable for the work involved and a lot less per hour than I make at my real job. I will update my website soon (www.capacitordischargeignition.com). I will only do retrofits into original restored cases, not reproductions as the reproduction cases are sufficiently different from the originals that doing the retrofit is not cost effective given the extra labour involved. Also, I will only do a few in a batch process and only once per year. I should be in a position to do some by mid September of this year. I have to concentrate on the regular production model until then. Thanks Neal and the other Dino owners using this CDI. Fred
I've speed read through this thread again and there are a couple of things mentioned that simply should not happen with a CDI. (I assume the backfiring car of Neelfryer is running an original AEC103?) The first is the reference to fouled spark plugs by my fellow Canadian. A good CDI will fire through spark plugs that are completely sooted or wet, so that should never be a problem, and the soot is less likely to form in the first place. Secondly, the points should never crud up with junk or need cleaning. I've forgotten if I measured the points current with the AEC103 that I tested briefly before it died, but if enough current is put through the points they absolutely will not crud up. Some CDI designs do not put enough current through the points to keep them clean and they will form a greyish paste that needs to be cleaned every few days or few weeks depending on the car. As long as the 'wetting current' is high enough, that insulating grey paste won't form and the points become essentially, self-cleaning. Fred
thanks for your wisdom Fred but if the timing is wrong and or points are not set up or phased correctly then it doesn't what how good your kit is, it wont run properly. I like the look of your unit, its certainly looks a robust piece of kit. I don't have the original MM box unfortunately
You are right. A CD box can't compensate for a poorly set up or worn out distributor. My point was that a good CDI should only make things better, not worse. Plug fouling and crudded points should not even be part of the conversation with a decently designed CDI. Fred
I think Fred has diagnosed my issue - the car starts great right now and idles perfectly - it does continue to backfire though - not nearly as much - but still I get some popping throughout the drive - I think that I will continue to get crud buildup and the start may become more challenging and the backfiring will increase if I don't do an update on my CDI - this I need to do -
I think what I wrote was more of a statement rather than a diagnosis, but it got me thinking. If the points are crudding up that badly, I would make sure that the female faston (spade) connectors inside the connector that mates with the AEC103 haven't corroded or lost their spring tension. That's all it would take to limit points current causing exactly the symptoms described. It might also account for misfires above a certain rpm and the subsequent backfire. I would check all connections first before condemning the AEC103. Fred
