What will they think of next?

pontiac428 said:
The whole point of electronic ignition is to eliminate the distributor! Fools! Coil per plug with NO wire in between is the only acceptable programmable ignition. Distributors have play in the timing set, the cam gear, the gap and overlap of the rotor, and those wires (oh the humanity!).

This is like a solar-powered flashlight or a screen door for a submarine in the ranking of brilliant ideas. Go direct fire or go home.
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Yeah, I agree. But you have to build out all of the timing and pickup gear to control the electronics controlling that coil on the plug. This allows you to have a drop in solution, that still gets you the benefit of a stronger spark and no wear. Timing adjustments can be made from inside the car with your foot on the gas pedal, instead of with a gap and dwell tool under the hood.

I rebuilt a Mazda rotary to use a megasquirt electronic ignition, and the interface looks much the same.
 
I speak Megasquirt fluently. Both of my cars started life with distributors. Honda is using LS1 coils per plug, Samurai runs EDIS wasted spark off a crank trigger. It's obvious to me that the makers of the drop-in distributor appeals to owners who don't know how to pool their resources and figure out the rest of the system. I bet the market is mostly carbureted vehicles, too, and for the same reason- the inability to follow cocktail-napkin math.
 
I wouldn’t say its lack of intelligence or desire.

I used a petronix module in my 62 tbird. I didn’t do it because I wasn’t capable of designing and building DIS, I did it because I wanted the car to look correct for its period. I just didn’t want to deal with all the issues of running points and I didn’t want it visible out side of the distributor cap that it wasn’t original.

Now, my Mustang? Converted to duraspark. My 1200 Yamaha venture with a VMax conversion? Converted to dis and cop. Same with my CB 650 and my FJ1200. Digital ignition running cop.

My 88 vette runs it’s original HEI, but its commanded by a Moates APU1 system.

Its also not easy to get a 24x reluctor ring on some engine designs and without that, you’re going to have a hard time running a DIS as the computer needs to know where the crank is in it’s cycle. Sounds like you already would know that, but others on this board might not.

Different strokes for different folks. What one guy wants his car to do is different from the next guy. Or, as in my case, reasons for running what type of ignition changes from car to car (or bike) and what I expect out of it.

:)
 
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pontiac428 said:
I speak Megasquirt fluently. Both of my cars started life with distributors. Honda is using LS1 coils per plug, Samurai runs EDIS wasted spark off a crank trigger. It's obvious to me that the makers of the drop-in distributor appeals to owners who don't know how to pool their resources and figure out the rest of the system. I bet the market is mostly carbureted vehicles, too, and for the same reason- the inability to follow cocktail-napkin math.
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I am still running through the timing locked distributor and MSD on my MSII powered 1980 Mercedes. Someday I will put a missing tooth wheel on the crank and convert to EDIS. I doubt it would be worth it for me to redo the whole system with a MSIII for sequential injection and direct spark control.
 
MikeInOr said:
I am still running through the timing locked distributor and MSD on my MSII powered 1980 Mercedes. Someday I will put a missing tooth wheel on the crank and convert to EDIS. I doubt it would be worth it for me to redo the whole system with a MSIII for sequential injection and direct spark control.
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Not much real-world difference between SEFI and batch-fired. Plus, you can wire up to four BIP373 coil drivers on the MSII board, or run two ganged modules for 8 drivers from MSII to get the "benefits" of coil per plug (under 6000 rpm I wouldn't worry about it, but spark duration is longer in single-fire setups). Everything can benefit from a crank trigger, though. That's why every new car has a EPM or CPS now, but the new blocks have bosses to mount them directly to the cam. Must be something to it if every auto manufacturer in the world has chitcanned distributors, both smart (HEI and EDIS) and dumb spark shunting types, which were the last hold-outs in the early, beleaguered days of EFI.
 
pontiac428 said:
Must be something to it if every auto manufacturer in the world has chitcanned distributors, both smart (HEI and EDIS) and dumb spark shunting types, which were the last hold-outs in the early, beleaguered days of EFI.
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Yep, it's about emissions control. Same with SEFI....emissions. Well, there's also some MPG benefits in there as well.

Batch fire runs the same as SEFI, except at idle. SEFI is better for emissions at idle speeds. That you get a better idle quality with SEFI is secondary to the OEM's being able to reduce idle emissions and snug up to the mpg requirements....
 
My view is to keep the street stuff the simplest and reliable. I replaced the Mopar blue box with a HEI module mounted inside the cab with the coil. Inside the engine compartment one sees the 2 wires from the distributor to a dummy coil which is hollowed out to also pass the coil lead.
With real performance engines, one is looking for the most power and control to win at the race track. The fancy stuff comes into play now as it is expensive to race and the parts are expensive to buy! A 1/10th of a HP can mean the difference between a win or first loser.
Pierre

BTW this weekend, we drove the 1300 kilometers to Ottawa and back, to visit dad with the ‘36 Chrysler. Ran like a top and still got just above 25 mpg at highway speed with no overdrive transmission.
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