Morning Herb
The front of engine ignition moisture sensitive is a tough one to beat.
O.K. So you already done the distributor body/shaft shortening try-it already.
You a damn good fab man Herb.
Distrubutor-less electronic can be done a number of ways.
As I said really impossible to do this from a distance. You need to find local hot-rodders with proven experiences to face to face with.
Aviod ANY system that has a retrofit needing front of engine crankshaft sensor system on a Ford old long snout V-8!!
Front all accessory drive V-8 engines like Fords, AMC and others the distance from the foremost engine main bearing to a way out front pulley sensor trigger is so long, that with the least engine wear, or acessories load kicking in like a cold loaded oil pump, normally AC and power steering load kick-in that the crank shaft will flexed and that can the distance drop out the sensor signal.
Ford about 1980 for a short time had an EEC III (Ecectrinically Emmissions Controlled, version number three) system that was external exposed front of crank magnetic sensor dependent. They also had a wierd failures prone internal paths distributor cap and rotor. Horrible system when the least old and worn.
Later small blocks cast timing covers were modified and a segmented trigger wheels added close back to the front main bearing support. Enclosed o-ring waterproofed sensor then too. Lots of cam gear sensors later set up the same way.
Refuse any system uses any type of optical sensor. The least dirt, crud; or under the distributor cap rotor tip to cap terminal metallic spark gap jump spew will coat the sensor eye dimming and blinding it. ON the many slit trigger wheel optical types the fine slots get blocked clogged with ANYTHING, like even rag wiping lint. Having to continually, randomly, no-spark dry air can clean, and clean will have you pining back for points that only needed twice a year fussing. If it says Perlux - it will be an optical type retrofit.
Distrubutorless does not have to be one coil per cylinder. Much simpler, with less hardware and processing requirements is the one coil for every two cylinders with dual terminals late 80’s through 90’s types. Called “waste spark” types. These fire the plug at both of the pistons up TDC’s. The extra spark being at the top of the exhaust stroke too. Why called wasted spark. Surprisingly does not double the spark plug wear. DOES make half the cylinders plugs fire the opposite polarity of normal. Big reason why the change over to platinum tipped spark plugs. Take MORE spark energy for these reversed polarity firing. Electronic ignition you can then build-in the amp-watts energy to burn then, versus points amp-watts limited types.
People have, and you could, adapt over to a later Ford V-8 factory waste spark type.
Pretty big job with lot of complications.
On these ALL of the needed RPM, vacumn LOAD, cranking timing retard/advances are electronically calculated.
You need to add separate electronic Coolant and Intake Air Temperature sensors. A crank sensor. A cam sensor. Throttle Position Sensor. BAROmetric pressure Sensor. Manifold Pressure Sensor.
Then transfer over the 64? leads wire harness, fuses and switched power supplies, including the harness SPOUT and OCTANE adjust plugs back to the many pin PCM plug.
Aftermaket adapter harnness can help out a lot for more bucks.
Ford dstributorless EEC IV and later V systems have the after-market development far better the GM or any other.
Upshot is then with an after-market program/PCM computer plug-in you can have laptop programability and make ignition advance curves to your hearts content. Really fine tune in then for boosted pressure advances.
I think this is all massive over-kill for a fair weather open-hood street rod. Racing yes. Tooling around no.
Plus you lose a lot of the big fat colored spark plug wire affect possible on an open hood machine
You need to still be looking for an all-in-one, drop-in solution needing only 1, 2, 3 wires hooked up for power, and cranking timing set back. Even IF it would be of GM orign. married into your Ford.
I’ve been waiting for some of the marine guys to chime in here. Ford big-blocks were very big in the inboard mariners.
Mallory seems to be the ignition name there.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Oh. The DuraSpark boxes used analog logic with solder on circut boards components with it all ruggerized and sealed with a pour-on soft resin. The best: thermal exapnsion protected the solder-on componets from resin curing tearing loose were those that first had a loose silica “sand” fill. You can look and feel for the sand to ID the better ones; be the II versions.
Diag by tapping. Change of state - BAD. Diag by alternately heat gun and freon cooling - change of state - BAD.
These are really only the very weak in-distrubutor magnetic sensor a signal AMPLIFIERs for the much higher needed coil loading power. They have only very limited cranking spark set back modifying capabilties. Same as the same era, three terminal Chrysler/Dodge firewall ignition amplifier boxes. Toyota, with on the ignition coil mounted (really dumb that!) ignition amplifiers boxes.
TIF meant a change then later to Thick Intergrated Film techknowlogy manufacturing. Digetal logic then. Mounted on/in then actual distributor kike the GM HEI small flat amplifier modules.
Ford TIF’s all of the timing features except cranking spark set back was done off of the the distributor TIF modual and remotely computer calculated from sensors inputs and the actual timing modified trigger signal THEN set back to the TIF amplifier for the needed power boosting to feed the coil.
Nothing really new here. A weak crystal radio detector signal power boosting is how Hi-Fi room sound filling came about - with Amplifying vacumn POWER tubes. How a very weak diamond tiped phonograph “detector” signal can be Amplifying vacuum POWER tubes boosted up to speakers blowing levels.
So the “modern” “21st century, new agers” thinking they have invented a new world, with new rules are wrong. Just poor readers, with a very poor touch/feel for proven histories to build Up from, filled with hormonal over-enthusiasms. S.U.
