Electronic ignition

[jimbo1812]

Has anyone keep the Lucas 14CUX ECU and installed an electronic ignition, if you have could you let me know what was used.

I had an issue the other day when my rota arm / Distributor cap failed, not having the spare with me at the time, had the get the car put on a low loader and taken home.

I’m now looking at the option of going to an electronic ignition instead and removing the Distributor but would like to keep the Lucas ECU.

[Chuffmeister]

The Megajolt system is available from Trigger-Wheels http://trigger-wheels.com/store/

However, as preached by many on here, you may as well do the whole lot and the fuelling at the same time and plump for a newer ECU. Extra EFI have some plug & play ECU's http://www.extraefi.co.uk/RV8_Kits.html#pnp

;or; if you wish to install your own, Shaun at MS2 will make you a bespoke loom for the Chim http://www.ms2tuning.com.

If you head over to the Griff forum, there is a thread that has been looking at mapping 14cux etc, which is worth a read. They're almost there. Blitzracing is a bit of a guru on this and I'm sure he'll be along at some point with a few pointers!

This is one of the things I wanted to do this winter as well as a body-off, but I'm currently without a garage and searching for somewhere to work…

Edited by Chuffmeister on Thursday 5th December 14:17

[Chuffmeister]

Goaty Bill said:

I think you meant Trigger-wheels.com

I did indeed Goaty, but edited before you posted. It's the auto spell checker on the Mac; awful thing!

[Goaty Bill]

Chuffmeister said:

I did indeed Goaty, but edited before you posted. It's the auto spell checker on the Mac; awful thing!

And I saw that and deleted it before you replied

[Chuffmeister]

Goaty Bill said:

And I saw that and deleted it before you replied

[Goaty Bill]

Now what do we do to restore order to the forums?

[Chuffmeister]

Goaty Bill said:

Now what do we do to restore order to the forums?

[K4TRV]

Goaty Bill said:

Now what do we do to restore order to the forums?

Don't ask questions like that..........have a look at Classifieds?? (if you have XP and IE8 you'll have a problem!!)

We are all doomed

[Chilliman]

jimbo1812 said:

Has anyone keep the Lucas 14CUX ECU and installed an electronic ignition, if you have could you let me know what was used.

I had an issue the other day when my rota arm / Distributor cap failed, not having the spare with me at the time, had the get the car put on a low loader and taken home.

I’m now looking at the option of going to an electronic ignition instead and removing the Distributor but would like to keep the Lucas ECU.

I installed a 123 system on one of my MG's and it worked brilliantly.... Have a look here:

http://www.123ignition.nl/

I think, although I might be wrong, that one of the Dutch guys (900-TR?) has installed it on his Chim...

[Goaty Bill]

How odd that the master of mayhem should be the one restoring order to this thread.
(Apologies to the OP)

[blitzracing]

A freind of mine fitted the trigger wheels megajolt to his Ginetta. It was chosen over a dizzy as a trigger wheel on the crank is far more accurate timing wise than gears and distributor, and using wasted spark with 4 coil packs gives a better spark at high RPM, and you don't need the distributor at all any more. The truth of the matter was he had trouble with some poor quality items like the HT leads supplied , and the crank sensor. that had to be replaced and it took quite a long time to install neatly as its pretty bulky, and once it was working there was absolutely no BHP or MPG gain over the original set up! I really thought MPG would have improved but he is meticulous with his record keeping and showed no improvement. It also caused some really odd idle issues with the 14CUX that I never found out why- he just had the 14CUX reprogrammed to lift the idle a bit to mask the issue

The 123 is attractive in so much you can program it, but you still have a single coil, and rotor arm, as distributor gears (that wear) , and wow the price- its just silly. For £300 less you can just add the Aldon Amethyst to the stock dizzy and program away to your hearts content.

Ive started a page about it- but it could do with an update now the Megajolt has been running for a while:

http://www.g33.co.uk/ignition_system.htm

[Chilliman]

Goaty Bill said:

How odd that the master of mayhem should be the one restoring order to this thread.
(Apologies to the OP)

Capital M's please... that's Master of Mayhem to you goat boy

[Sardonicus]

blitzracing said:

A freind of mine fitted the trigger wheels megajolt to his Ginetta. It was chosen over a dizzy as a trigger wheel on the crank is far more accurate timing wise than gears and distributor, and using wasted spark with 4 coil packs gives a better spark at high RPM, and you don't need the distributor at all any more. The truth of the matter was he had trouble with some poor quality items like the HT leads supplied , and the crank sensor. that had to be replaced and it took quite a long time to install neatly as its pretty bulky, and once it was working there was absolutely no BHP or MPG gain over the original set up! I really thought MPG would have improved but he is meticulous with his record keeping and showed no improvement. It also caused some really odd idle issues with the 14CUX that I never found out why- he just had the 14CUX reprogrammed to lift the idle a bit to mask the issue

The 123 is attractive in so much you can program it, but you still have a single coil, and rotor arm, as distributor gears (that wear) , and wow the price- its just silly. For £300 less you can just add the Aldon Amethyst to the stock dizzy and program away to your hearts content.

Ive started a page about it- but it could do with an update now the Megajolt has been running for a while:

http://www.g33.co.uk/ignition_system.htm

I reckon he used a generic map that just followed the standard RV8 Lucas dizzy advance curve Mark seen a few Megasquirt ignition maps like this too

[blitzracing]

Heres the map in question- look familiar?

[Sardonicus]

blitzracing said:

Heres the map in question- look familiar?

Thats what I mean right there after around 2 k RPM on light load/cruise right up to around 3.5+ K you could run another 10 degrees at least

Edited by Sardonicus on Thursday 5th December 20:11

[blitzracing]

Ill let the man know

[900T-R]

Chilliman said:

I installed a 123 system on one of my MG's and it worked brilliantly.... Have a look here:

http://www.123ignition.nl/

I think, although I might be wrong, that one of the Dutch guys (900-TR?) has installed it on his Chim...

Indeed... Went from 274 hp @ 5,500 rpm to 300 @ 6,000 so it's fair to say that in my case, the 140,000 mile old Lucas dist was holding the engine back...

[900T-R]

blitzracing said:

The 123 is attractive in so much you can program it, but you still have a single coil, and rotor arm, as distributor gears (that wear) , and wow the price- its just silly. For £300 less you can just add the Aldon Amethyst to the stock dizzy and program away to your hearts content.

1) Spark balancing - unique to the 123ignition set up

2) Bolt on, fit and forget solution, clean and standard look (fully reversible too), no extra wiring and ECU's to worry about

3) Component quality - no comparison to any of the UK-made alternatives, boxes of chips from brands that no one in the automotive world has ever heard of or worked with don't even need to apply


There's always a cheaper solution out there that involves more DIY, a messier install and/or lower component quality - but at a mere £395 for something that you bolt on, works right out of the box and cost me 20 quid worth of rolling road time instead of the 2-3 hours that any other upgrade before needed, and with labour rates at 75 quid an hour or so I think for most of us the economics work out well for the 123ignition unit...

It was simply the most painless and cost-effective upgrade I ever did on any car.

[Bluebottle]

I have piggy backed my 14CUX with an Omex150 (could Omex200 can't remember which now) for the spark control. Very pleased with the result

[davep]

900T-R said:

1) Spark balancing - unique to the 123ignition set up

2) Bolt on, fit and forget solution, clean and standard look (fully reversible too), no extra wiring and ECU's to worry about

3) Component quality - no comparison to any of the UK-made alternatives, boxes of chips from brands that no one in the automotive world has ever heard of or worked with don't even need to apply


There's always a cheaper solution out there that involves more DIY, a messier install and/or lower component quality - but at a mere £395 for something that you bolt on, works right out of the box and cost me 20 quid worth of rolling road time instead of the 2-3 hours that any other upgrade before needed, and with labour rates at 75 quid an hour or so I think for most of us the economics work out well for the 123ignition unit...

It was simply the most painless and cost-effective upgrade I ever did on any car.

900T-R sounds good, but how did you resolve the misfire you reported post 123 installation and has there been any problems since?