I bought a programmable ignition kit to add to my high energy ignition kit from Jaycar the other day but I'm wondering the value I will get out of it?
I mean it says it controls advance - if the mechanical vacuum advance works fine why do away with it??
anyone installed one?

yeah, if you can map load and rpm to advance you can do some funky ####...

ie, you can give it more advance after peak torque to bring up the top end power a bit, or give it more advance at light throttle to make it a bit snappier.....

The single best thing to do is to loose the dizzy totally, there's a ton of scatter in those things...

this may be a really stupid question but what would you replace the dizzy with?

sorry if this is lame but i'm learning

You can replace the dizzy with a crank angle sensor. this tells the ignition module what the crank angle is and works out the appropriate spark duration and timing from there, no more rotor button.

....um was that right, i dont really muck around with that stuff. Another thing, people are always saying it would be nice to put the E15 turbo head on an a-series block if it wasnt for the dizzy position. Why dont they replace it with a cranky. they van be made to be compact, a friend of mine was going to do it, havent spoken to him since tho.

ok I'll let you know how much tweek I get when it goes in.
I just picked my ute up from the workshop (Tim Slako's at west racing development in Osborne Park) and it is a different unit! Purrs like a kitten - had the weber 32/36 tuned and dyno'd - very happy with it.
I mentioned the ignition kits I was puting into it and a guy there pointed out a $198 au unit available through the coventries catalogue that is a pointless distributor (pardon the pun) which looks like the go. I have seen a few threads on this site about this so look those up if you are interested. I will leave the points on for now tho - need to save $$ for a brake upgrade going on hopefully within the next month....

the de-pointed dizzy i assume is an optical unit. I was quoted about $450 aus for an optical unit to rplace mine. that wasnt installed either!!

I was keen to rplace the dizy with something, but at that cost i couldnt justify it. for $200 its a viabe option.

This guy in osbource park that did the tuning, would you reccomend him??

Yep, I would recomend him and after the job he did for the carby I'm going back there, a very organised and respectable workshop from my impression. I also had the oil replaced in my gearbox and it's all but cured the grinding I was getting when changing to 3rd.
You should see some of the big block cars that were there - really imaculate Ford GT (dont know the model or year as I'm not a ford enthusiast)
Check coventries for this unit that replaces the dizzie - it's in the catalogue for $198 AU.

Did you see the coventry catalog at Tim Slako's workshop or do they have a web site? Barry

Tsillay,
I have read this post with great interest.I must get into gear and put some electronic ignition in the SSS.The accepted norm as I understand it is a Honda Civic EN1 Distributor.
What I'm trying to ascertain though is on a high compression engine that has no apparent problems with points, good quality leads and new dist. cap, condensor, coil just what sort of a difference could one reasonably expect?
You mention distributors having a ton a scatter- can you elaborate a bit futher here please?
Further to that what was the hot set up on the Shellsport cars and the later evolutions of these ?
Also the previous owner of Kelford Cams down here is pushing a very fancy plug lead called Nology Hotwires. Supposedly they work similar to a capacitor discharge ignition and after having them demoed they certainly wack out a MONSTEROUS spark. Unfortunatley they come at a monsterous price - around NZ $300 for a set for a 4 cylinder. Anybody had any experience with these or seen them used on the likes of a V8 Supercar or something serious?
Cheers
Dave

Hey yup. To be honest, I ran my little A12 circuit car for years with a dizzy, although it did have a decent electronic pickup in it. I used solid copper leads (no computer in those days) and I made sure the dizzy bushes were all bang on... I also never ran more than 32 degrees advance in the little thing....
The scatter is caused by the mechanical slop between the crank (the main point of reference) and the position of the dizzy (one timing chain and a 90 degree bevel gear further down the chain...)
I only became interested in this when tring to squeeze the last little bits out of the FJ. With the injection setup on it, I wanted to advance the timing after peak torque, but I discovered that I had around 3 degrees of scatter in the spark timing at 8000rpm... I've gone to a crank trigger wheel rather than use the dizzy based pickup, and it's cured the scatter...

Honestly mate, unless you're in danger of blowing the spark out coz you're squeezing 40psi of boost in there, I cant see leads making an ounce of measurable difference. (as long as you arent using rubbish of course!!)