85SILVERBULLET1

what ignition set ups are you guys running in your street/strip cars? I am considering getting the msd pb lock/out dist #85501 and matching it with a digital 6 box with an hvc 2 coil and an msd 8.5 wire. I think that this set up will be far superior than the pertronics flame thrower i have now. I do have some questions as my car still does see street time. I am worried about locking out the dist. and losing driveability on the street. I am also going to be running n20 so if you guys have a better set up i want to see it. thanks.

1320_Guy

iTrader: (3)

An hei would probly work fine for you.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

i agree, focus on other areas of the car.

5678TA

i agree also.. an HEI will be more then enough.. why go with a digital box?? and a lockout dist.?? theres just problems waiting to happen..

85SILVERBULLET1

If you guys go and read my other post on the next page (Its going to breath again) you will see why i am going to upgrade my ignition system. The hei system that i have now falls on its face at 6k and i am going to spin my set-up 7000 to 7500. there is just not enough spark and i am really having issues with setting the initial timing to make this thing run right. A couple of the drag race guys on this site are running locked out set ups and that really seems like the way to go with n20 set ups.
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what kind of problems??

1320_Guy

iTrader: (3)

When my old 305 started knocking i got pissed and had it up to 6800 and it was still pulling hard. All i have is a stock hei with an accel coil.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

You can look at this in 2 ways.

1. You can have you stock HEI gone through, upgrade the ign. modual, coil, rotor, cap, etc...and have it rebuilt with new bushings, slides, etc...then spun balanced (we always had ours balanced upto 9000rpm) and it will be more than sufficent for what your trying to do. then it's just a matter of installing an aftermarket timing retard device for when you activate the N2O. The HEI stuff is plenty powerful and if properly working you will NEVER see a gain by just opting out for an aftermarket set-up, this is a proven fact time and again, so dont kid yourself thinking this will be the magic pill so to speak.

2. If your adding N2O, upgrading to aftermarket ign. is a nice way to allow expandability for the future be it a 2/3 step rev limiter, multi stage retard controller, etc...it would be an investment into the future/down the road engine upgrades.

As far as locking the timing out, if you street drive this thing, and the dizzy is in good shape/proper working order, there is no need to lock it out. I've always et mine up so they're full advance by 3200rpm and I've never had a problem with it on the street and on the track, so IMO leave it alone since it will ultimately make your life easier than if it were locked...even with the digital 6 start retard feature.

The key thing is that the dizzy itself is in good working order, they will make life miserable if they are not, I've typed my story on here multiple times about my dizzy dilema, but here it is again, ALL MSD stuff, when I got the 388 out for the first time was running 12.00 EVERY pass, but I thought to myself, there should be more in it....found many faults with the MSD dizzy and I just bought a new unit to replace it....first pass with zero other changes 11.30, swapped some jets and 11.20, little timing adjustiment and was consistant 11.1? the rest of the time....so when I tell you to make sure it's working properly, I really mean-make sure it's working properly.

85SILVERBULLET1

interesting theory. I have a pertronics dist and the thing acts really screwy. if you set the initial timing at 12 deg the car will barely run. That is with the vac plugged up and at 1100 rpm. now if you bump the timing to 22 deg and unplug in the vac it seems to run fine but if you rev it up with a timing light the thing will retard 15-20 deg and then advance to 50 plus deg. this does not seem right to me. the distributer has a total of about 500 miles on it and i cant find any visible worn parts on it. Everybody that i have talked to about the pertronics stuff says that it is junk. Anyway i have also been told that a locked out dist is the way to go with spray. easy tune and consistant.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

are you still running the t5 trans? if so, it should never see below ~4500rpms or whatever. with a cam big enough to turn 7500 i would be dumping it at least 6500rpms. what im getting at is your advance mechanism will already be advanced fully by the time you launch. same as a locked out dizzy.
what do you plan to spray? it doesnt take a ton of spark to light off a 150 shot or whatever. the msd digital 6,7's are nice units though.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

locking it out is an easy way out, is consistant since there is nothing moving under the cap to adjust timing....but in your case, it is simply a quick fix and all your doing is band aiding your problem instead of digging in to see wtf is the matter with that thing. I'm not cutting you down, just trying to emphasis the fact what you have will work just as good as dropping $300+ for an aftermarket set-up if you can find out why it's acting that way....hell, it might not be the distributor at all, could be the cam walking and causing some run out and irratic readings, could be crappey signal through the plug wire (if it's a race wire I know this is a side effect from experience since they're heavily insulated and dont allow too much "signal" to bleed out to run your light) could be the shaft itself is not shimmed properly and jumping up and down in the bore of the dizzy housing, etc...

could be alot of things, but if you street drive it much you wont be happy with locking out the distributor, driveability goes south, leave than for the track only cars and guys that cant figure **** out. We have some decently fast street/strip cars in our group from low 9's to mid 11's, some with juice and the one thing we have in common is we all run weights and springs for centrifical advance and we all do VERY well on the track against track only purpose built cars with locked out timing do some more digging and figure out why this dizzy is doing what it's doing and fix it....in the big picture you will svae yourself a bunch of money and run just as good, plus you will have something under your belt to look for the next time something pops up.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

HEI distributor, Digital 6 box, MSD coil, good wires, would work fine. The Digital 6 hooks directly to the pick-up, so the weak stock HEI (or aftermarket) module is bypassed. The 2-step rev limiter is great for launches. If you really need it, start retard will allow you to run as much total timing as you need without worrying about base timing and kick-back of the starter.

You just don't need the lock-out distributor.

85SILVERBULLET1

great feedback guys. i am going to purchase an ignition box for sure and prob an msd dist. now as for the hei i have now is there a way to blue print the dist and measure to make sure the dist is working properly. what msd dist would you recomend if i decide to scrap the hei. mabe a mechanical advance would be the hot ticket. what kind of driveability stuff do you run into with the locked out dist?

I was thinking that cam walk could be causing the retard condition but i checked all the clearance with the cam and it has a cam button with a good timing cover so i dont think that cam walk is the issue. it has to be in the dist.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

If you will be driving on the street, use a distributor with vacuum and mechanical advance.

If the distributor has excessive shaft play, you can get some timing variability.

automec

i am running the Electromotive XDi2 now. it is a distributorless ignition. i picked up .15 on my 10sec.car. it is fully programable and has launch and nitrous controls built in.

here is the link to the XDi box info.
http://www.getfuelinjected.com/products/xdi.html

i cant seem to find the info on the XDi2?