Aftermarket ignition

[RWorland]

I'm looking at putting an aftermarket electronic ignition on my cruiser, and was wondering if any of you guys had and good/bad results with any of the major brands.

Initially I was looking at a Pirahna system, but had a chat with the local Auto Elec, and he said that every one he has fitted has come back with problems, and to steer well clear of them!!

Other ones I was looking at were Crane's Electronic Ignition, a modified Bosch off a Falcon, or the Jaycar kit one (has anyone had any experience with the Jaycar kit??)

Also does anyone know if you can program any of these for different advances when running petrol/gas?? I think the Jaycar version says it can, but is their kit any good??

Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers,

Rick

[pcman]

daniel (the_smoo) has the jaycar ignition in his 40 with a 308 in it he browses here quite often so will prolly give you a reply himself but he replied to my post on erratic tacho movement and said that it makes his 308 idle much better

[the_smoo]

as casey said, i put one in the 308 a while ago.. mainly because gas likes a good strong spark...

i noticed smoother idling and generally smoother running..

I have the jaycar kit which costs around the 5itty mark.. Its not that hard to put together, and takes about an hour and a half from go to wo...(you have to be a little handy with the soldering iron tho..)

its just a matter of connecting the output from the points to the kit, and then the kit to the terminals on the ignition coil..

your points dont wear out as fast, and you dont have to adjust them nearly as often as you otherwise would..

They also sell an interface kit which looks a little more involved. It allows you to program 2 sets of ignitin curves into the unit so as you can run dual fuel... You do have to make modifications to your distributor however..

I havent installed this kit, so i cant tell you if its any good.. they are around the 60 buck mark.. If you go into jaycar, they sell an "automotive projects" magazine, which shows both these projects and their benefits and stuff..

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.a ... BCATID=347

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.a ... BCATID=347

daniel

[pcman]

hey daniel does the kit have its own retard/advance or do you still use the mechanical advance in the dizzy if you could scan the info section of the manual and email it to me that would be sweet or if ya dont have a scanner i could drop by and take a look cause im really interested in this kit

[RWorland]

Cheers Boys,

I'll head on over to Jaycar and see if I can find the mag you mentioned.

I'll let ya know if find anything out about the programable ingnition kit as well.

Cheers,

Rick

[the_smoo]

casey, the standard Ignition kit does not require any modifications to your distributor..(only if you install the programmable kit)

when you intall the Programmable ignition kit, this takes over all the advance and retard of spark.. you literally bolt the weights inside the distributor in place as they are no longer used..

there are some other mods to the vacuum advance unit and the like..

you then put in the advance curves for both of your fuels.. problem is, you really need to know them, otherwise its trial and error..

ive got the magazine at home somewhere.. dont have a scanner, but i could bring it in to work and copy the stuff you want

[murcod]

I ran the electronic ignition kit for a few years in a Charade- ran really well. It's purely designed to reduce the load on the points and make them last longer due to less current flowing through them (plus you get a healthier spark of course!)

You still retain the same old mechanical advance set up.

There was a thread a while back on programmable ignition systems, including the Jaycar kit. You need to do some serious mods to your rotor for it to work (ie extend the rotor electrical contact ) Plus you can only plot three ignition points for the entire rev range IIRC

There are better systems around if you've got the money eg. Deltamax. It's fully programmable at something like 750RPM intervals, can have two timing curves programmed, can use a temp input to reduce the advance on hot days, can use a MAP input to operate vacuum advance, can be tuned "live" on a dyno, can use different types of distributor pick ups, setup differing parameters for different coil types etc etc. Cost was around $300 when I checked into it a while back.

Do a search and you'll probably find the old thread with links to info on the kits etc.

[Rainbow Warrior]

I had the Piraanah kit, it was ok, Crane kit is a lot better, 6500rpm in a stock TB42, look under Nissan or auto electrics for my installation detail info :-)

[bad_religion_au]

so would installing the jaycar kit for instance (or any other mentioned ones here) go towards waterproofing the ignition, cause my 40 hates water, puddles make me break out the WD40

[murcod]

so would installing the jaycar kit for instance (or any other mentioned ones here) go towards waterproofing the ignition, cause my 40 hates water, puddles make me break out the WD40

I wouldn't think so. It sounds like the high voltage side of things is the problem (ie water in lead connections or distributor cap causing things to short out).

How good are the boots on the ends of your leads? Can you mount the coil higher- it could be getting wet?

[bad_religion_au]

coil is mounted at bonnet level, boots on the leads are decent, heaps of suction when i try to take them off.

dizzy cap is new (don't ask about that one... left it sitting where the bonnet shuts, wind caught the bonnet) rotor button is new, siliconed the rim of the dizzy cap, still no dice

sounds like a splutter, misses terribly after a decent puddle (on road even)

[bj42turbo]

Got to love those Jaycar kits, good value recently got one of there turbo timer kits, and a while back got one of those Low battery cut off units. Both work well, but like Daniel said got to be handy with a soldering iron.


Cheers Dazz

[murcod]

coil is mounted at bonnet level, boots on the leads are decent, heaps of suction when i try to take them off.

dizzy cap is new (don't ask about that one... left it sitting where the bonnet shuts, wind caught the bonnet) rotor button is new, siliconed the rim of the dizzy cap, still no dice

sounds like a splutter, misses terribly after a decent puddle (on road even)

How old are the leads?

[+dj_hansen+]

What is the main problem.. water getting into the dizzy.. or water getting to ignition coil?

Get a rubber glove, cut the finger tips really small - pull all your spark plug leads through these holes in the fingers and fit it over the dizzy - fit a rubber band over it to keep it tight and go nuts with the silicon. Maybe use one of those fat red acid proof gloves for a bit of stability against heat in the engine bay.

Mount ignition coil in plastic waterproof box and silicon around were leads enter and exit.

I read this is one of the nissan threads but couldnt find it during a search sorry.