Putting in my electromotive FINALLY!

Hey everyone,
Nearly a year ago I bought an Electromotive XDI ignition system from Nick for my 308. Between house construction, work, family and all those obligations we all have, I had no time to put it in until now.

In the past two days I did the hardest part of the install which is putting the sensor and trigger wheel in. The trigger wheel is a toothed wheel that works with a magnetic sensor and goes on the harmonic balancer to tell the XDI "brain" where the engine is so it can fire the plugs at the right time. To put on the trigger wheel, you need to remove the water pump/alternator belt (easy) and the AC belt (a little harder) then slip the trigger wheel over the balancer. Once its on there, you can replace the belts.

The sensor for the trigger wheel involves a little bit of fabrication. It comes from Nick with a nice mount, but it has to be bolted to the rear timing belt cover. You pull the rear timing belt cover and screw the sensor to it. The way I did it was to mark the cover where the sensor should go before removing it from the car. Then I pulled it out and drilled two mounting holes. I tapped the holes and screwed a pair of screws in from the inside and tacked them with "red" loctite (the kind that has the most adhesion). The material on the cam cover is not really thick enough to thread without a nut, and there isn't much space under there for a nut without hitting a belt or pulley. So what I did was basically create studs on the cover with a low profile on the inside. I'm using all metric hardware to match the rest of the metrics on the car, so I had to buy a metric tap/die set.

Next I mounted the sensor on the studs of the cam cover and used nylock nuts with more red loctite.

Then you set the engine up at TDC and align the trigger wheel with the sensor properly (trailing edge of 11th tooth), and lock the trigger wheel down with the set screws (and more loctite).

Now the hard part is done. Next, I need to mount the rest of the components in the engine compartment. I have two DFU units (coil packs) that will go on a bracket where the existing coils are mounted, the XDI "brain" (controller) that takes the signal from the sensor and then controls the coil packs, and a tach "black box".

The black box is a gadget that drives the tach from the XDI brain. Even though the XDI can be set up to drive a tach with the right number of pulses for a 2 distributor system so the tach reads the right number, the problem is actually the tach itself. The 308 tach (at least the carb model) is a high voltage tach that is driven right off one of the coils (the low voltage side, but still its a lot more than 12 volts when the points switch due to the inductive energy of the coil). So the black box is actually a voltage amplifier to take the 12 volt signal provided by the XDI unit up to about 120 volts.

All these devices need to find a home in the engine bay where it's not too hot. I'm currently mounting those units. Next, it all gets wired together. Not that tricky though, everything comes with a nice wiring harness with connectors. I will trim wire lengths to be right and put all the connectors together, then everything should be cool.

The last trick is removing the distributors, plug the cams (got cam plugs from Kermit) and building block-off plates. That will make the engine bay neater and the engine easier to work on.

I'll post pictures soon when I get them off the camera.

Why am I doing this? Well, points stink, of course. But also, this system completely eliminates a number of issues with the 308 ignition including mechanical advance, dual distributors that may not advance at the same rate, points, weak coils (i.e. weak spark) and plug fouling. I don't expect more HP, but I expect the car to run more consistently, burn the mixture better, possibly lower emissions, and have generally better drivability.

Birdman

 

Spider, Thanks for the research! (For the benefit of the rest of the Fchatters wondering what the heck he is talking about, I bought a cool 308 poster on eBay with a race car driver in it and I had no idea who it was, that's how clueless I am). Anyway, if you want to lend a hand, you are welcome anytime. I have been working a few hours at a time when I can sneak out to the garage, like at night after my daughter has gone to bed. I actually ran the heater last night it was so chilly! MAN I love this garage!

Smg-Thanks for the ideas. I was thinking the same thing. I'm also trying to keep all the signal paths as short as I can. It's tricky engine bay for this sort of thing!

Steven-I'm not sure an XDI is really necessary on a QV that already has an electronic ignition, but I could be wrong. I just want to lose the points and mechanical advance. You car already lost those at the factory! Nonetheless, if you want one, I'll be happy to help you put it in. It's not that hard....so far. (Of course, it doesn't actually RUN yet!)

Birdman

 

Here's some pics from today. I apologize for a couple having soft focus. The camera is having a hard time focusing in the dark wheel well!

First two shots show the sensor and trigger wheel on the balancer, through the right rear wheel well.

The other shot shows that in spite of everyone telling me that the cam ends need to be plugged, they DO NOT have a hole in them that would allow oil out. (The inside is grooved to allow the shaft from the distributor to slide in and lock. It is also bone dry and a little rusty in there. No oil has ever been in there. The original grease used to lube the shaft on the distributor is still there--hardened!)

Also, the plugs I bought from Kermit are way too big to even fit in these cams, so I suspect they are for an injected car. (??) Perhaps the injected cars have cams that need to be plugged. Mine don't need to be plugged. FYI for you carb guys. I will just make a nice aluminum plate to cover where the distributor went and be done with it!

Birdman
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Ha! Get it?? I hope my timing is good, that's the whole point of the ignition system....

 

Regarding wires, I bought a complete kit from Nick that came with the wires, so for the moment I'm going under the assumption that he sent me the right kind since he's the king of the XDI. But that is very interesting food for thought and I'll give a look at the manual. It would seem to me that the resistance wires are to deal with the enormous energy from the coils from this thing and to attenuate RF broadcasts. I was under the impression that you did not use both resistor plugs and resistor wire at the same time. But I could be wrong on that one.

Greg, I am mounting the brain to the right of the engine ahead of the Agip oil plate. It fits with 3/4" to spare between the top of the unit and the bonnet. No need to drill holes into the interior and run wires in there. I'm mounting the coil packs on a bracket that Kermit sells made just for that purpose. I thought about making my own, but why re-invent the wheel? Be sure to tell him that you need the one for the new style XDI with the larger coil packs, if that's the one you have because there is an old style and a new style, and the coil packs are a different size. I'll post some pics soon.

As for the sensor bracket, I would like to take credit for that, but it came with Nick's kit. If you didn't get one with your kit, maybe you got the less complete kit version. I called up Nick and said "Sell me the whole kit with everything I need" and it came with everything except the bracket to mount the coil packs. You probably have the mount. Check your kit.

I'll get the info on the threads for the mount. I forget what I used. It was a function of the size screw needed to mount the sensor. Really, it was no big deal. I think this is actually a pretty easy thing to install. The hardest part for the average person will be getting the AC belt off, but if you have done your own timing belts, you will already know how to do that.

All you have to do is loosen all the bolts on the AC compressor including (and this is key) the three at the TOP to allow the compressor to slide down low enough to get the belt off the pullet on the compressor. Once it's off there, you can get the belt off the engine pulley, and then slip the trigger ring on.
More pics to follow.

Birdman

 

Nick pre-set mine to factory spec timing and I probably will leave it well enough alone, but I am curious as well if anyone has diddled with the timing and what that might be able to accomplish.

Henry, thanks for the comments. I can hardly wait to get this finished. If only I could have a whole day to work on it, I would be done. Having a job and a kid severely limits my free time! I'm seanking out to the garage to work on it an hour at a time here and there. At this rate it will be August before I'm done!

Birdman

 

Hi Paul,

EXCELLENT! I was hoping someone would know about the MAP sensor. Do I basically have to drill a port in my intake manifold for that? (Pulling the intake manifold is a pain with all the carbs on there). I was wondering if there is anyplace on a carb car to plumb that in without doing major mods to the engine. Thoughts???

Birdman