which electronic ignition for my tiger cat???

[kevinarbury]

Hi, am thinking about changing my ignition to an electronic set up, any advice on which would be best for an un modified 2.0 litre pinto?

what is the difference i can expect for this upgrade?

any ideas of cost etc?

cheers ,
Kevin

[stevetvrs]

I bought this kit for my Fury...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Pinto-AccuSpark-Mot...

There are two types, one for Ford and one for Bosch dizzies

Chuck out them points!

[kevinarbury]

cheers mate, how easy is this to fit? do you get instant benefits and difference in performance?

[stevetvrs]

More info on their site here:

http://www.accuspark.co.uk/accuspark.html

Easy to fit, just a bit of wiring.

Was beneficial for me as I had points and a ballast resistor. In my opinion, overly complex and extremely archaic in this day and age! Potential for points to wear, move etc. and condenser to fail.

With the accuspark, you just fit and forget.

[blitzracing]

This is a brilliant dirt cheap little unit that simply uses the points as a trigger to fire an electronic switch. It has much better switching characteristics than points, (no arcing) and the point surfaces dont burn, so you get 20000 miles from a set of points. This is a kit that needs soldering together and it needs a small box to put it in. Not as good as a hall sensor set up, but still a load better than the origional.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/ignition-amplifier-kit-316...

[GinG15]

why bothering anymore with points when you can get the same, or even better results with such an accuspark module?

points are from the 18th century!!!

if you want to go completely distributorless, go for megajolt:

no dizzy, free programmable, and a veeeeeeeery big improvement compared to a dizzy-ignition (performance, smmothness, rev´s , starting):

http://www.trigger-wheels.com/store/contents/en-uk...

[MX7]

GinG15 said:

go for megajolt:

Agree.

[kevinarbury]

cheers for the replies, im guessing by the price difference that the magojolt is the one to go for, would this make an instant noticeable difference to the running of my car? dont think i can stretch to this though as its £299, but will defo think about saving for it. is it a serious fitting job , probably for a garage i guess? the other electronic ignition suggested (acuspark) is only £32 , is this worth fitting?

[Mr2Mike]

kevinarbury said:

cheers for the replies, im guessing by the price difference that the magojolt is the one to go for, would this make an instant noticeable difference to the running of my car? dont think i can stretch to this though as its £299, but will defo think about saving for it. is it a serious fitting job , probably for a garage i guess? the other electronic ignition suggested (acuspark) is only £32 , is this worth fitting?

A Megajolt is a fully mappable ignition system, it can be tailored to the exact requirements of your engine whereas mechanical advance systems are only ever an approximation. Mechanical system also wear and introduce spark scatter (i.e. small random variations in timing between ignition events).

The biggest advantage of the megjolt is if you are running DCOE's, where the vacuum advance is usualy discarded on a clockwork ignition system due to the difficulty in getting a suitable, stable vacuum signal (especialy with really 'lumpy' cams). This has a big impact on part throttle fuel economy. With the Megajolt you can add a throttle position sensor and use this to provide spark advance at low engine loads.

[kevinarbury]

holy christ! i dont understand nearly all of this but it sounds cool!!! ha ha! so...megajolt is the one to save for then? my profile photo is the engine in question, it has a single weber carb, fitted with a custom cnc made...by me, k&n to weber conversion plate. would the megajolt work on this engine, from a glance, its a 2 ltr pinto, un modified, its using points, so if i got the megajolt what else would i need or would i need to do?

thanks mate for the advice,
kev

[kevinarbury]

[Mr2Mike]

If you are still running the vacuum advance with the single carb and the distributor itself is in good condition, then you probably won't see a huge difference in performance and economy with the Megajolt over a simple "points replacement" style system as others have posted earlier, and the latter will be vastly easier to fit. A tuned engine will see more immediate benefit, but since the MJ system is programmable it could be fitted to a standard engine and remapped to suit if any engine modifications are made in the future.

To fit a Megajolt you have to attach a "trigger wheel" to the crank pulley and mount a sensor next to the trigger wheel. This is how the system can accurately determine the position of the crankshaft.

Since you are running a single carb you can choose to use manifold vacuum for load sensing (which is the better, and easier option in your case) or a throttle position sensor (not as good, but more suitable for DCOE carbs and/or lumpy cams). The system is completed by the Megajolt unit itself, a Ford EDIS module and a Ford coil pack. The EDIS is effectively an 'intelligent' ignition amplifier, and was fitted to quite a lot of older Ford cars (Escort, Sierra etc.) and the matching coil pack will be available from the same car.

This should give you an idea of what's involved: http://www.autosportlabs.net/MegaJolt_Lite_Jr.

[kevinarbury]

thanks again for all the advice, i think il probably go for the accuspark for about £30, if anything this will make the running better.

[stevetvrs]

If the only reason you're considering electronic ignition is because your car isn't running well, you may be dissapointed. A well set up points system should run well.

Obviously, there are many other things that could make it run badly; idle mixture/carb, timing, plugs, air leak, poor compression etc...

What are your symptoms?

[kevinarbury]

no no nothing really, runs well, i spoke to a guy who owns a performance tuning garage who i contacted to have my car tuned and he asked if i had an electronic ignition or using points. i googled it and found out that it runs better using an electronic set up and here we are. i think im gonna go for the accuspark ignition as its a good price, easy to install and improves the running which is what i want. my car isnt high performance by alot of cars standards iv seen on here but i love it and just want it to run at its best.

[frag68]

I have a Pinto engined Westfield and had an ignition problem when I was coming back from Le Mans last year. Turns out the distributor shaft was worn and the little bit of movement meant that the gap at the points was changing.

I changed the points for the Bestek system, which was slightly more expensive than the Accuspark, but works on a similar principal, and so far so good. It was really easy to fit and you dont need to remove the distributor etc.

I did think about the Megajolt as I am running 45s, but couldnt justify the expense for general road use. If I was tracking the car or involved in some form of racing then yes, but for driving about enjoying the countyside, then a simple electronic device will suffice.

Fraser