Best Electronic Ignition for 383

[furyfever]

I’d sure appreciate some suggestions on best electronic ignition kit for my 68 Fury III 383. Best place to buy from too please…I remember years ago putting a Pertronix on my 69 Fury III 318. Don’t remember where I got it. Worked great but I also remember getting a new flamethrower coil with it. I started looking on-line tonight…do not see anything like it yet. I’m getting hard starting when hot after about a 5 min rest, especially on hot days…hoping electronic ignition will help this issue. Thanks, Bob

 

[57fury440]

I use an MSD Streetfire Ignition Box in my 57 Plymouth. It is hooked up to my Mallory dual point distributor which acts like a trigger. You could just convert the system you have now to the Mopar electronic distributor and ECU. The system on the 72 Barracuda I bought new has always worked great.

 

[413]

What gasoline do you use?

Sounds like an ethanol fuel problem.
Which ignition won’t fit.

 

[darth_linux]

I'm using Richard E's "HiRev 7500" kit which includes the box, the wiring harness and a new distributor, all for under $200. It's been fantastic. Took a small amount of work to plumb into my existing wiring (66 Newport), but before the upgrade my timing mark was floating all around when checking the timing, and now it is rock solid.

ricks-mopars | eBay Stores

 

[Toolmanmike]

If the original distributor is still good, just get a Pertronix. THey are very trouble free, inexpensive and just plain work. You don't need a MSD type system unless you have a race car.

 

[Big_John]

Second on the Pertronix, although I suggest the Pertronix Ignitor II with their Flamethrower coil.

The Pertronix web site isn't the best and I can't find their breakdown of the Ignitor I versus II that they used to have. I did find this; Which Ignitor? and it does show some differences. I recommend it based on the protective circuitry it has and that it can run without the ballast resistor. It's also has a variable dwell that is similar to the GM HEI so the coil has more charge time at high RPM. I have this in my '65 Barracuda and I like it.

Best place to buy? Summit, Jegs or even Amazon, not necessarily in that order.

 

[Darter6]

Pertronix I is the simplest and easy to install.Been using them for over 20 years now.
Even used them on this 472 Hemi. Never skipped a beat even at 7,000 rpm.

 

[Snotty]

Summit Racing sells complete kits. Mopar Performance is no longer made, but these should serve you well:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-851004-1/make/dodge/model/monaco/year/1968
1968 DODGE MONACO Proform Parts 66993 Proform Electronic Distributors | Summit Racing
1968 DODGE MONACO Summit Racing SUM-850423 Summit Racing™ Ready-to-Run Billet Distributors | Summit Racing

 

[Toolmanmike]

Pertronix I is the simplest and easy to install.Been using them for over 20 years now.
Even used them on this 472 Hemi. Never skipped a beat even at 7,000 rpm.

View attachment 598226

Damn, nice. Yep, Pertronix, simple and effective.

 

[CBODY67]

After watching how the "electronic ignition" items had progressed from the add-on Judson CD systems of the early 1960s to the factory-optional Delco CD ignition, to the Chrysler electronic system, etc., I learned of the Pertronix system (when there was only ONE Ignitor, which is now termed "Ignitor I", with Ignitor II and III coming later. I heard some comments about how great it was in the AACA Buick forum, then later in the AACA Oldmobile forum, so I finally investigated them. Of course, for the Chrysler V-8s, the main thing I cared about using back then was the Direct Connection/Mopar Pefr conversion kits. OEM-level everything, plug and play at a very good price point!

Then came the MSD 5C control box which plugged directly into the Chrysler harness, but that seemed to be short-lived. That was with the original MSD company, not after it had been sold several times. Jacobs also had some multi-strike ignition kits, which were usually aimed at the motorhome owners with its additional heat tolerance for those applications. Then came the multi-strike from Pertronix.

Then, with the newer Pertronix, I started to see posts about them being "not so good", but that was later determined to be with the newer "II" and "III" items when they were new. Possibly installation issues? Never did find out, but as time progressed, the negative posts decreased and vanished. That was about 20 years ago or so. I would suspect everything is fine now AND the generic kits you see from some suppliers are really a re-boxed Pertronix kit?

Of course, the kits which Ehrenberg sells on the eBay store would be great, too!

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[Big_John]

The issues I have with the new versions of the old Mopar Performance/Direct Connection kits are the offshore sourced distributors. If I were to go with the Mopar style ignition, I would do one of two things. For both I would source a rebuilt distributor from @halifaxhops and would either get a new Mopar style ECU (plus a spare) with the proper coil or I would use a GM HEI unit.... Most likely the HEI as I've heard nothing but good for that combo. With the HEI, I would use a Ford style E-Coil for the best of all worlds.

 

[CBODY67]

One of the things which Davis Unified Ignition (Now D.U.I.) did was to mount an HEI module on the back of a Chrysler distributor. Looked a bit flaky, but worked. Was supposed to be better than the Chrysler set-up. As it was outside of the cap, no issues with overheating from not using the needed heat sink compound inside of the HEI distributor cap.

CBODY67

 

[Sixpactogo]

IMO, It don't get much better than Mopar electronic Ignition. I upgraded my 65 Fury many years ago with a Mopar Performance setup and it has worked flawlessly since. The biggest problem with the orange box is people mount it and don't verify the case ground to be less than .5 ohms. They get hot and open the transistor because of the bad ground and everyone wants to blame the ECU when it was their own doing.

 

[Toolmanmike]

IMO, It don't get much better than Mopar electronic Ignition. I upgraded my 65 Fury many years ago with a Mopar Performance setup and it has worked flawlessly since. The biggest problem with the orange box is people mount it and don't verify the case ground to be less than .5 ohms. They get hot and open the transistor because of the bad ground and everyone wants to blame the ECU when it was their own doing.

But the new kits are poor quality. I haven't heard good about the distributors and the modules usually fail in a short time. @halifaxhops has tested tons of failures.

 

[furyfever]

What gasoline do you use?

Sounds like an ethanol fuel problem.
Which ignition won’t fit.

I use to run the non-ethanol gas in all my old cars. Have been told it’s a waste of money unless it has to sit over the winter…in other words, if ethanol gas doesn’t sit around too long…shouldn’t cause any issues. This 383 is hard starting after running to temp, shut off and sits more than 5 min. Not sure what it is but it’s annoying if I make a lot of stops with the car. I’ve got to wonder if it’s dumping gas after sitting there….don’t know how to fix it. I’ve got 5 old mopars…this is the only one that does it.

Thanks for all the good advice guys. Thought maybe getting rid of the old points would be a step in the right direction. My 318 Polara has electronic ignition…not sure what it is…previous guy installed it…always starts up nicely.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I'm using Richard E's "HiRev 7500" kit which includes the box, the wiring harness and a new distributor, all for under $200. It's been fantastic. Took a small amount of work to plumb into my existing wiring (66 Newport), but before the upgrade my timing mark was floating all around when checking the timing, and now it is rock solid.

ricks-mopars | eBay Stores

Rick-O comes across w some good ****. I used his kit for the /6 in my 83 Dodge D150 Miser. Works GREAT.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I use to run the non-ethanol gas in all my old cars. Have been told it’s a waste of money unless it has to sit over the winter…in other words, if ethanol gas doesn’t sit around too long…shouldn’t cause any issues. This 383 is hard starting after running to temp, shut off and sits more than 5 min. Not sure what it is but it’s annoying if I make a lot of stops with the car. I’ve got to wonder if it’s dumping gas after sitting there….don’t know how to fix it. I’ve got 5 old mopars…this is the only one that does it.

Thanks for all the good advice guys. Thought maybe getting rid of the old points would be a step in the right direction. My 318 Polara has electronic ignition…not sure what it is…previous guy installed it…always starts up nicely.

I prefer breaker point ignitions actually, and very happily run one on our family Newport. I just went to the electronic kit on the pickup because it had a damn Lean Burn on it, w the appropriate valves and exhaust for electronically controlled ignition. If I were you, I'd stick w the Kettering setup. Sell me your car if you want to be rid of the hassle bro. I suspect you have CARBURETOR TROUBLE actually.

 

[halifaxhops]

The new MP "authorised" or Made for" kits are sourced out oversease, they just paid for the name. Thats why the high failure of the orange boxes. Points there are nothing wrong with at all they last 10,000 miles with older parts. Really depends what you want out of the system.

 

[Jakter]

I’d sure appreciate some suggestions on best electronic ignition kit for my 68 Fury III 383. Best place to buy from too please…I remember years ago putting a Pertronix on my 69 Fury III 318. Don’t remember where I got it. Worked great but I also remember getting a new flamethrower coil with it. I started looking on-line tonight…do not see anything like it yet. I’m getting hard starting when hot after about a 5 min rest, especially on hot days…hoping electronic ignition will help this issue. Thanks, Bob

A weak or failing condenser can cause poor running or failure to start when hot.
Same with a coil.

 

[Gerald Morris]

The new MP "authorised" or Made for" kits are sourced out oversease, they just paid for the name. Thats why the high failure of the orange boxes. Points there are nothing wrong with at all they last 10,000 miles with older parts. Really depends what you want out of the system.

Wise Words! If the kit Rick-O sold me fails, I'll likely install a Kettering ignition. I have recently looked at some NOS CD ignition boxes, meant to still be switched with breaker points instead of Hall Effect reluctors and pickups. While interesting, I note that CD ignitions Then and Now must actually pop several short interval sparks when the engine is in low revs to make up for the one spark a good ketting breaker point produces. CD works better for high revs and fast switching yes, but dollar for dollar, good NOS Mopar breaker points with proper inductive impedances do mighty fine! I'm not about to put any solid state gizmo on Gertrude! Maybe a dual point distributor in time, if its called for.