Time is money, as the saying goes, but more importantly, time doesn't stand still. Not for you and certainly not for me. It seems like as the days go by, we all try to pack more into our day than we can humanly handle. Some of this is work related, but even in our personal lives, we find ourselves always running from one errand to the next and having little time to relax. So when it comes to the weekend and those precious two days off (and some of us only have one day off), do you really want to spend it maintaining your rides?
Sure, we all want to bolt on those shiny new gauges or that sweet set of wheels you've been saving up for, but I'm talking about the mundane chores like changing the oil, tune-ups, and that sort of thing. Well, if you agree, then you should consider looking into ditching your points-based ignition and stock coil and wires for a complete ignition upgrade like this one from Pertronix. It'll keep you out of your garage, and give you more time to do the things you really want to do, like driving your classic Ford.
We've all read about the Pertronix Ignitor over the years, and we've been big fans of them for over a decade. Pertronix has been around for a long time, and is a leader in ignition points conversion kits. The company has expanded its product line to include ignition coils, performance plug wires, and even drop-in billet distributors (great for those crate engines we're all buying).
We've had a Pertronix Ignitor II in our '66 Mustang for the last eight years and it has run Singer sewing machine perfect. But there's always room for improvement. We've been running our Ignitor II with a stock set of reproduction plug wires and a reproduction yellow-top coil as well-all in the name of keeping the underhood real estate looking showroom fresh. Well, once we heard about Pertronix's new Ignitor III module, we knew it was time for an upgrade.
The Ignitor III, for lack of a better description, is like an aftermarket ignition box right underneath your distributor cap. The Ignitor III features a multi-strike output through the entire rpm range, more spark energy than points or even other under-cap systems, and most importantly of all, a built-in rev limiter.
Now you can improve your classic Ford's ignition performance while protecting your engine, all while keeping the underhood looking stock (or at least near stock). We opted to partner our Ignitor III with a new Flame Thrower III 45K volt coil and a fresh set of Pertronix's black 7mm stock-look plug wires to round out our upgrade.
We recently upgraded our Tampa...
We recently upgraded our Tampa tech center with a Dynojet chassis dyno. While we don't expect too much upgrading from one Pertronix model to another, we've never dyno'd this Mustang and wanted to have a baseline for future upgrades. Plus, we could do the Ignitor swap right where it sits on the dyno lift.
Here's our real estate under...
Here's our real estate under the hood. When first built, we wanted the Mustang to have a fairly stock look with a few over-the-counter upgrades, like the Hi-Po-style air cleaner, Cobra valve covers, and whatnot. The distributor is a rebuilt Ford unit, correct for the car, with a stealthily installed Pertronix Ignitor II using a repro coil and plug wires.
After unsnapping the distributor...
After unsnapping the distributor cab and carefully setting it aside, the rotor was slipped off the distributor shaft to access the Ignitor II's magnetic wheel, which also just lifts off the distributor shaft.
Disconnecting the Ignitor's...
Disconnecting the Ignitor's power and ground wires at the coil allowed us to pull them back through the distributor body in preparation for the removal of the breaker plate. Note the red shavings in the distributor. Somewhere along the line, the red power wire was pulled tight and started rubbing the magnetic trigger wheel.
Since we need to remove the...
Since we need to remove the whole breaker-plate assembly, the vacuum advance canister must be temporarily removed from the distributor. Carefully remove the E-clip retaining the advance arm to the breaker plate (we use a magnet to keep from losing the tiny clip), and then remove the two screws holding the canister to the distributor. Don't forget to disconnect the vacuum line(s) as well.
With the vacuum advance out...
With the vacuum advance out of the way, the two retaining screws that secure the breaker plate to the distributor body can be removed, and the breaker plate with Pertronix (or points) can be removed as well.
Check the centrifugal weights...
Check the centrifugal weights in the base of the distributor and ensure there are no damaged or missing parts (weights or springs). Then carefully line up the new Pertronix Ignitor III (PN 71281, $143.95) assembly with the attaching holes in the distributor. The small white dial on the face of the Ignitor III is how you can set, or even disable, the built in rev-limiting function. It's set at the factory to 5,500 rpm, which was fine for our mild cruiser of an engine.
The ground strap goes under...
The ground strap goes under the nearby retaining screw. Be sure to use the flush-type screw in the proper mounting hole, shown here, or the advance mechanism will not work properly. Carefully route the two wires coming from the Ignitor III out of the distributor.
Reinstall the advance mechanism...
Reinstall the advance mechanism to the distributor body. Be sure to slip the advance arm over the pin on the Ignitor's baseplate before securing the two retaining screws and reinstalling the vacuum line. At this time the distributor cap and rotor can be reinstalled.
Our reproduction yellow top...
Our reproduction yellow top coil has served us well over the years, but it just isn't going to give the Ignitor III the power it really needs. As such, we're going to upgrade it with a Flame Thrower III canister coil (PN 44001, $43.99). The yellow top is removed, bracket and all, from the front of our engine, as it is easier to swap the coils on the workbench.
When installing the Flame...
When installing the Flame Thrower III with the stock front mount bracket like we have, the diameter of the coil makes the mounting bracket's attachment bolt hole too small for the bolt to pass through. We solved the situation with a thin wrapping of dense foam tape around the coil. Also note the Flame Thrower is taller than the yellow top, so you'll need to position it farther through the bracket to clear the timing cover and water pump.
The two wires coming from...
The two wires coming from the Ignitor III are more than long enough to reach your coil pretty much no matter where it is mounted. They can be cut to a shorter length to keep things neat, which is what we did before crimping the included ring terminals on. The red wire goes to coil positive and the black wire goes to coil negative. Easy enough, right?
Our reproduction plug wires...
Our reproduction plug wires were stiff, dried out, and long-past needing replacement, so adding the Pertronix 7mm black plug wire kit (PN 708
104, $51.40) to our order was a no brainer. The safest way to install plug wires is one at a time. We generally start with cylinder No. 1 and work our way around the distributor. Push the wire terminal completely into the distributor cap's opening and then slide the boot down into place.
Something we learned a long...
Something we learned a long time ago is that spark plug wire boots need to be "burped." The boot has a bit of trapped air inside from the installation and in some cases this trapped air expands with underhood heat, pushing the wire right off the distributor cap. The easy way to prevent this is to simply "burp" the wire boot with a thin, blunt tipped tool. We use a cotter pin removal tool, as seen here. Just insert it carefully and give it a twist to pull the boot away from the cap a little and you'll hear the air escape.
All finished up, the view...
All finished up, the view under the hood is almost the same. Sure there's no lettering on the plug wires and the coil is chrome (you can get one in black if you order the right part number), but for 98 percent of the people looking at our engine bay, they won't be able to tell the difference.
On The Dyno
We strapped our '66 Mustang down to our new Dynojet dyno that resides in our Tampa tech center and let it rip. Our baseline run gave us a peak power figure of 162.41 hp at 4,900 rpm and peak torque came in at 190.13 at 4,200 rpm. Once we installed the gaggle of Pertronix gear and warmed the engine to the same test temperatures as the baseline, we came away with 155.82 hp at 5,000 rpm and 177.52 lb-ft of torque at 4,300 rpm. That's a loss of 6.59 hp and 12.61 lb-ft of torque. We were a little confused why we would lose power and torque over the Ignitor II, which is a similar product, until we spoke to one of Pertronix's engineers.
While we were trying to perform an apple-to-apple test by not touching the timing of the engine, we were in fact reducing the ignition timing due to the way the Ignitor III works. The Ignitor II uses a magnetic wheel adapter over the distributor shaft, whereas the Ignitor III reads firing position directly off of the distributor shaft's lobes. It's the difference in the way it reads the distributor's position that lowered our timing. If we had actually put a timing light on the engine and verified timing and adjusted it to match our baseline test, we were assured that our numbers would have at the least matched the old Ignitor II if not surpassed it.
Another area of concern for the Pertronix folks was the fact that we were powering our Ignitor III through the stock resistance wire. While we did this for the original Ignitor II as well (not wanting to cut into our perfectly good dash wiring to bypass the resistor wire), we were told by Pertronix that because of the power demands, the Ignitor III really needs to see full battery voltage. As such, Pertronix has developed a power relay kit that easily wires up under the hood between the Ignitor power input and your battery to give it full voltage. We've got one coming and hope to report back on what the relay and more timing will do for our upgrade.