Pertronix or....? And why?

[Dsertdog]

Hello folks...yes back with another question and a poll
If you were doing a resto mod like I intend on...what would your ignition choice be.

Pertronix...but I've read where users carry a points distributor just in case. Is this true?

Mopar electronic. Now made by Proform. Replace box with a Mancini one

Single points. Not so easy with the A/C compressor in your face

Magneto, dual points, seriously?

 

[cbarge]

I used both Pertronix and Mopar electronic ignition.
Both have been very reliable with no breakdowns.
Of all the Pertronix kits I have done NONE have failed.
I did keep a spare set of points just in case during long trips out of town.
I like the simplicity of the Pertronix and no hacking of the factory harness.

I am currently using the Summit Racing electronic conversion kit with their orange box.
Since it underwent a full blown resto,I integrated the wiring and factory wrapped it to make it "look stock"
My reason is i do travel long distance with the BoaB and I can get and ECU,cap,rotor anywhere.
Even though I keep a spare ECU,coil and ballast resistor in my tool kit.

Over the years,critics and car show judges accepted the ECU conversion and it is the norm nowadays for those who love driving their cars.
We all know the benefits of upgrading the ignition from points are worth it.

 

[68_fury_ragtop]

I run Pertronix in 2 of my three old Mopars. Up to two years ago, I had always just stayed with the points and always stayed with good quality parts. I was taking my 66 Belvedere to Carlisle and decided to replace the points and condenser for the ride, just be be safe. It turned out I got defective condensers and every 45 minutes of my 450 mile ride, I would burn out the points. After 8 hours of having to limp to the side of the road in 98 degree weather and replace the points, condenser, coil or anything else I could throw at it on the side of the road; I had enough. With the conversion I did, everything is done in the harness and the two wires coming from the distributor are inside a single piece of shrink tubing to still look stock. I did it more for reliability than performance, since I wanted to keep the cars as close to stock as possible. On my 340 Dart, I run an MDS setup and have it mounted to the heater box behind the glove compartment. With that car I went with the MSD mostly for performance since the car sometime sees 8000 RPM at the drag Strip bracket racing. My old 67 coronet that I used to have, I had the Mopar orange Box mounted under the battery tray.
So as far as preference, It really depends on your usage of the car, performance, and how stock or modified to want it to look. Each setup that I used, works well for good for the application I was using it with.

 

[Big_John]

IMHO:
Ten years ago, I would have sung the praises of going with a Chrysler electronic conversion. I run an older Chrysler orange box ignition in my '70 300.

Now... Not so much.

The Chrysler piece had the advantage of having readily available parts, but now I doubt if the local Auto Zonearama is going to stock anything, so that's gone. Then there's the fact that now the kits sold are some offshore piece of crap (read Proform) and price point is more important than quality.

Pertronix has a good track record and was my choice for my Prestolite dual point distributor in my Formula S Barracuda. Stock appearance played a large role in selection too. I use the Igniter II with a Flamethrower coil. No ballast resistor. I happen to have a single point Chrysler distributor that's also equipped with the Pertronix Igniter II for a road trip spare. If I didn't have it, I would probably think about carrying a spare points distributor.

If I was starting from scratch... I'd use a Chrysler electronic distributor with a GM HEI module and a E type coil. Cheap, dependable and a great ignition. No ballast resistor. Spare could be an identical set up for "plug and play" replacement on the road.

Some reading. HEI Electronic Ignition Retrofit How-To - Slant Six Forum

I'd probably use this bracket though. Mopar HEI Conversion

 

[CBODY67]

IMHO:
Ten years ago, I would have sung the praises of going with a Chrysler electronic conversion. I run an older Chrysler orange box ignition in my '70 300.

Now... Not so much.

If I was starting from scratch... I'd use a Chrysler electronic distributor with a GM HEI module and a E type coil. Cheap, dependable and a great ignition. No ballast resistor. Spare could be an identical set up for "plug and play" replacement on the road.

Some reading. HEI Electronic Ignition Retrofit How-To - Slant Six Forum

I'd probably use this bracket though. Mopar HEI Conversion

I believe that Davis Unified Ignition uses a GM HEI as the base of their units.

The normal HEI module is 4-prong, but later ones had more to run the detonation limiters in the '80s 305 V-8 pickups (Electronic Spark Control). It was a separate box that was mounted behind the glove box and the detonation sensor screwed into the rh block drain plug. With a good box, the 6-pin module and detonation limited could be added to any V-8 with the HEI.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[FURYGT]

I think this topic has been beaten to death far too many times. It always boils down to personal experience and opinion.

 

[Knebel]

I had 0 problems with the pertronix and would use it again. however, on a restomod i would use an EFI system that controls timing (which I actually currently use). This is an absolute gamechanger!

 

[Dsertdog]

I think this topic has been beaten to death far too many times. It always boils down to personal experience and opinion.

Y'know, I can relate. For years on 2nd gen Dodge Ram forums, the newbies would invariably ask....what's the largest tire I can fit under a stock ram. >Yawn<. And some guy with at least a 1,000 posts would answer like you, along with various other nastier jack nuts that would scream "search button is your friend!" or something worse, other than just telling the guy what he needed to know. 285/75/16. It will still rub a little but...etc.
I get it...so I used the search engine. I typed in Pertronix...about 8 postings came up. They vaguely mentioned Pertronix. Frankly I've heard the name in passing, would've ignored it except for the added comment about carrying a spare distributor...
I don't want to bore you, but I've been out of the game about 20 years. The last vehicle that used a distributor as a true firing point was a '78 Ramcharger. I traded it in 2001 for a 2000 Ram. The distributor in that is a rotating contact, and the guts are just a cam sensor. Moving or removing it messes up the fuel injection timing.
I'd had no need to get on an classic forum and until now I haven't
So I apologize. I'm trying to get a feel for what's the best value for the buck as I move this project. I kinda felt for that guy who repaired the washer pump on another thread, until he got all snobby about date coded parts. That's another campfire though.
In the future I'll search more and poll less. Have a good night.

 

[FURYGT]

No need to apologize. I voted for the MOPAR style conversion. My preference is to build your own kit with high quality rebuilt distributor or an NOS distributor if you can find one, a MOPAR Performance electronic ignition harness and high quality ECU (by the way I sell good quality ECU's on eBay), a solid state voltage regulator if your car is pre-1970 and a heavy duty ballast resistor.

 

[tbm3fan]

IMHO:
Pertronix has a good track record and was my choice for my Prestolite dual point distributor in my Formula S Barracuda. Stock appearance played a large role in selection too. I use the Igniter II with a Flamethrower coil. No ballast resistor. I happen to have a single point Chrysler distributor that's also equipped with the Pertronix Igniter II for a road trip spare. If I didn't have it, I would probably think about carrying a spare points distributor.

My four Fords

If I was starting from scratch... I'd use a Chrysler electronic distributor with a GM HEI module and a E type coil. Cheap, dependable and a great ignition. No ballast resistor. Spare could be an identical set up for "plug and play" replacement on the road.

Some reading. HEI Electronic Ignition Retrofit How-To - Slant Six Forum

I'd probably use this bracket though. Mopar HEI Conversion

My Dodge as you know and used that article as my guide.

 

[Big_John]

My Dodge as you know and used that article as my guide.

I didn't know that! Are you happy with it?

 

[tbm3fan]

I didn't know that! Are you happy with it?

Extremely would be an understatement...

 

[Big_John]

No need to apologize. I voted for the MOPAR style conversion. My preference is to build your own kit with high quality rebuilt distributor or an NOS distributor if you can find one, a MOPAR Performance electronic ignition harness and high quality ECU (by the way I sell good quality ECU's on eBay), a solid state voltage regulator if your car is pre-1970 and a heavy duty ballast resistor.

This is a good way to do it. Key is using the NOS or high quality distributor. After reading about the issues with the Proform kit distributors, there's no doubt that the Mopar pieces are the better ones.

FWIW, I have an ECU that I bought from FuryGT as my spare for my 300.

 

[3C's & a D?]

I had 0 problems with the pertronix and would use it again. however, on a restomod i would use an EFI system that controls timing (which I actually currently use). This is an absolute gamechanger!

I've been wanting to go that route. Your talking about the MSD EFI/distributor I'm assuming?

 

[jct]

Some ppl have gone with HEI system

 

[MoparJim]

Hello folks...yes back with another question and a poll
If you were doing a resto mod like I intend on...what would your ignition choice be.

Pertronix...but I've read where users carry a points distributor just in case. Is this true?

Mopar electronic. Now made by Proform. Replace box with a Mancini one

Single points. Not so easy with the A/C compressor in your face

Magneto, dual points, seriously?

Here is my answer to your question: If you have a high-dollar car that needs to remain stock, then the answer is points. If you have a car that is not a pampered show queen but that you actually take out and drive, then my vote is emphatically in favor of electronic ignition. From there you can decide if you want to go with Mopar, Pertronix or other after-market solution. Personally, I decided about 11 years ago to upgrade my 68 Sport Fury to the Pertronix ignition. I drove the car from Detroit to California when I bought it in 2004 and it made the trip with no problems. I then continued to drive it all over central CA where I live for the next 4 years, also with no hiccups. However, in late 2008 I decided to drive it to Mopars At The Strip in Las Vegas in early 2009 and, because I was going alone, I decided to replace the points with a Pertronix under-the-cap electronic ignition for the added dependability. It ran flawlessly to Vegas and back and has continued to run flawlessly since, which is now just over 10 years. From my experience, Pertronix has been a great solution. I am sure others have different recommendations that have worked equally well, but this has been my experience.

 

[FURYGT]

One option on the MOPAR electronic ignition system is to use the REV-NATOR module if you have a modified engine as it is a high performance ECU that has a built in rev limiter that you can set to your desired RPM.

 

[Dsertdog]

This car will be a driver, not a trailered show car.
I wouldn't run points because the quality isn't there anymore. Parts are no longer made here in the USA. NOS stuff may suffer from long term storage, especially condensers.
I'm learning about Pertronix, which reminds of the old Unilite system. Unilite was very failure prone when it came out back in the late 1970's.
Back in the day the old Mopar system was on about a dozen or so of the 2 dozen Mopars I've owned from '77 to '2000. I lost one ECU and one ballast resistor. Again, because the QC is suspect on overseas parts, I'm concerned about reliability.

 

[Big_John]

This car will be a driver, not a trailered show car.
I wouldn't run points because the quality isn't there anymore. Parts are no longer made here in the USA. NOS stuff may suffer from long term storage, especially condensers.
I'm learning about Pertronix, which reminds of the old Unilite system. Unilite was very failure prone when it came out back in the late 1970's.
Back in the day the old Mopar system was on about a dozen or so of the 2 dozen Mopars I've owned from '77 to '2000. I lost one ECU and one ballast resistor. Again, because the QC is suspect on overseas parts, I'm concerned about reliability.

Since you have some familiarity with the Mopar system, it's probably a good choice for you. Carry a spare ECU and ballast resistor. @halifaxhops could probably set you up with a good distributor and @FURYGT for the ECU and electronic regulator. I'd stay away from the Proform kits.

 

[BLUPORT]

I have Pertronix in mine, and I know VERY little about ignition systems. I do know that my ignition is the least of my mechanical concerns every time I drive the car.