distributor - coil question

[Chas Henderson #28127]

My 71 sb had a printronix and flamethrower coil set up. I went back to points for TF and now that I think I'm done with that (3x, 3 years) If I replaced the 270 coil with the flamethrower would it affect the function or damage the points system? It is suppost to general alot more volts than the stock 270 coil and I don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks, as always.

Chasman
28127

[John H.]

Re: distributor - coil question

Advertised coil "volts" don't mean much - you probably wouldn't notice any difference.

[Dave Suesz]

Biggest rip in auto parts...

Sometimes I think if I see one more bright colored coil under the hood of some Mustang, Camaro, or Road Runner at a cruise night I think I'm gonna puke. Unless there was something wrong with your old stuff, it'd take a chassis dyno to tell the difference even at WOT/redline. Back when these cars were new, they were raced with the stock-type stuff under much harsher condtions than we would subject our cars today. I can see the Pertonix electronics, makes the dwell adjustmet a memory, but their fancy coil, while a quality product, benefits the driver, not the engine. Like my Grandad used to say, most fishing lures are meant to catch FISHERMEN.

[Jack H.]

Agree with others.....

It's a system design issue and unless ALL the parts of the system are designed to work together the performance advantage that's advertized (heck, might be as much as a whooping 2% combustion efficiency boost AT WOT) is squandered.... Why not simply install a dynamic dwell, M&H Fabricators, Breakerless SE, solid state ignition system in our distributor, use the stock coil and be done with it?

For empirical lab test data on this system vs. a FULLY factory blueprinted, stock, Kettering (points) igniton system go to www.breakerless.com and read up.... Bottom line, it's only a few percent efficiency boost in an apples-to-apples test but could be more if your distributor has wear, Etc....

[Chas Henderson #28127]

What about a 75 dist

If you exchange a stock 71 distributor for a 75 distributor, do you need anything other than a coil? And are the 75s' have the tach drive set up?

Chasman

[John H.]

Re: What about a 75 dist

If you install a '71 distributor in a '75 car, you need a coil and a ballast resistor to feed the coil, and you won't have a tach; 75's had HEI distributors with a full 12-volt power feed and an electronic tach feed circuit.